F for Financial Freedom

How do you measure success? Is it through money, is it by reaching a certain number of followers? Success is a very complex term. In today's episode, we have Faisal Sajwani, a career entrepreneur and life coach who has written renowned articles on success, discussing, and how to achieve your lofty success goals.

Key takeaway

• Your metric of success may vary from what most people do; however, the key is a consistency in your craft that will make you success regardless of the metric used.
• Put positive energy into the world, and it will come back to you
• Don't let a financial point be the driver or end goal for your success. Consider things like leaving an impact on the world. Money should be the side effect

Let's face it; personal finance is boring. It's not the most exciting topic in the world, but what if I told you we could make it more entertaining. Visa is one of the leaders in creating gamified financial learning content, and we have the country manager of Visa in Bahrain Malak to walk us through how Visa is making learning about  money more interesting

Here's what to bear in mind: 

• So many resources are available free of charge to allow us to become more financial literate
• Learning about money doesn't have to be boring. There are so many fun and educational ways to learn about money outside of reading encyclopedias.
• Financial conversations should evolve as we get older

Investing is complicated; however, we want to break it down nicely and simply. We talk with Morgan Newman today about how you can get started with your investment journey. She also highlights how investing can help you build your retirement plan and line you up for financial freedom.

Here's what you want to bear in mind:

• Advisors help you manage your finances when you don’t have the time to. We can use Robo advisors and apps to make these decisions for us and make our lives easier.
• If it looks too good to be true, it probably is; investing is very risky, DO YOUR RESEARCH!
• Have 3-6 months of spending tucked away for a rainy day
• Some assets are illiquid, so be careful when choosing to invest
• Start planning for your retirement early, dedicate a specific amount from your monthly salary, 1% at a time.

What makes a good investment? How long should you be looking to invest? What investments are available to me? So many questions and we have all the answers. We discuss this with Morgan Newman, the Director of Investments at Oppenheimer and Co on this.

Here's what to bear in mind:

• There are so many different investment opportunities outside of stocks and bonds; you can invest in pokemon cards and other collectibles.
• Investing can be challenging; maybe look into a mutual fund.
• Diversify, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
• Everyone has different risk profiles, don’t just ride the wave, know what you’re comfortable with, and invest your money there.
• Investing should be long-term.

Fintech is a large area of work and involves a lot of parts, including accelerators and incubators. Jonathan Paulson, from Startupbootcamp Fintech, tells us about how his program operates and how you can innovate through this quarantine period.

Here's what you want to take note of: 

• There is always room for innovation. Despite the circumstances being negative, there is still a way to innovate and develop something.
• Don't be afraid to reach out and look for connections that can help you get your startup running.

Startups face many problems, and most people don't know how to navigate these problems. Jonathan walks us through some of these problems and the best ways to set up your startup to guarantee success.

Here's what you want to bear in mind.

• Just DO IT. You can't have 100% perfection. Start with 75% down and worry about the other 25% later.
• Make sure your idea solves a problem and has the potential to scale into other countries.
• Don't steal ideas because you saw them work on Dragons Den; they won't always translate into success in your region.

Investing has a lot of big words that might scare you off but be honest, it’s all really simple ideas. The Investing Latina walks us through how we can get started as investors and turn our passion projects into money-making machines

Here's what you want to double-tap on:

• Talk with your partner about money.
• Read up on investing and get started. You can start without knowing everything.
• Start a side hustle in an area that you’re passionate about.

Financial literacy is one of these things that everyone hears about but no one actually truly knows what it is or how to achieve it. Jully-Alma Taveras the Investing Latina helps us breakdown this concept and talks to us about how best we can achieve financial literacy.

Here's what you want to bear in mind:

• Have conversations about money with your family
• Look at your own lifestyle and see what financial plans fit your lifestyle
• Split budget into categories by using a minimalist survival number to help differentiate a need from a want

Saving money is hard and we can all struggle to deal with it however the benefits we can reap in the future are well worth it if we put in the time today. These are some of the thoughts Nathan shares with us as we continue our conversation on staying out of debt and making ourselves more financially literate.

What should you care about?

• Understand your finances and look where you can afford to save money.
• Know that daily savings add up in the long run.
• Start learning about money NOW. Your future self will thank you!

Debt is big deal across the world. It affects everyone regardless of age or job. Nathan McFarlane today walks us through what debt is and how we can understand the problem

Here's what you want to keep in mind the next time you think of credit: 

• Read the terms and conditions before you get involved in borrowing money.
• Debt affects 26-30-year olds however there are loads of resources and tools available to get out of it.
• Delayed gratification can help you identify the difference between a need and a want.

Don't chase what's trending, look at what's on the frontier. Shereen shares her thoughts on what's on the frontier of fintech and guides us on some of the factors she believes define a successful start-up and ultimately a successful entrepreneur.

Here's what you want to take note of:

• Make sure your product solves a problem
• Don't look at what's trending; look at what's on the frontier. Look into areas like B2B
• Focus on building a strong team in the initial phases of your start-up. Culture is a crucial dynamic to build.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to launch a start-up company? In today's episode, we speak with Shereen from the DIFC FintechHive as she talks about the unique accelerator program and shares the process of financing your start-up.

Here's a low-down of the biggest take-homes from this episode:

• You don't always need to borrow money from a VC. You can use founder credit.
• Paid advertising may not always be the way to go. Look to go viral.
• Make sure you and your investors are on the same page about the direction of the company

We often struggle to differentiate what we need and what and this is what causes us to overspend. In today's episode, Kristen helps us learn the differences and continues to help us on the road to achieving better financial health.

Here's a low-down of what you need to know:

• Distinguish between needs and wants
• Learn about money as soon as you can. It’s never too soon.

Those who don't learn from history are destined to repeat it. Kristen talks to us about the mistakes of the previous generations. Older doesn’t always mean wiser, Kristen shows us how we can be more financially healthy than those that came before us.

Here's a low down of mistakes you do not want to repeat:

• Don’t be afraid to talk about money
• Saving is the most important thing one can do. You never know when the next big financial crisis or unseen incident can happen.
• Don’t try to imitate other people’s monetary lifestyles.

Veronica digs deep with her insights on financial freedom, getting loans and management, and how you can exercise better control with comes impulse purchases.

A round-up of what you don't want to miss: 

• Learn from the mistakes you make and use the resources available to fix them
• Don’t take the first loan rate you get. Look at your options
• Don’t attempt to live the lifestyles you see on social media.

Freelance work is on the rise. Veronica, a freelance blogger, shares with us her journey to becoming a freelance writer, the personal finance rookie mistakes she made in university, and how she would have fixed them given her current knowledge.

Here's what you want to take home from this episode: 

• Start looking to achieve financial freedom as early as you can
• Consider free lance work as an extra source of revenue.
• Financial freedom is a step by step process, start with setting financial goals your passionate about and setup budgets to achieve them.

Our relationship with money relies on having a positive money mindset. Sandra shares her thoughts on how we can adapt our money mindset to one tuned into making savings and budgeting effectively. Here's what you don't want to miss: 

•  Have separate bank accounts for your savings goals.
•  Budgeting, while boring, really helps. So, use some of the tools and apps available to help
•  Financial freedom allows for better mental health.

Financial freedom can be an abstract concept to most of us. Sandra, a finance blogger, shares her ideas on Financial freedom and what led her into becoming a financial blogger. She also provides insights on how we can avoid getting into debt and how best to avoid it

Here's some of the major learnings to double tap on:

• Always spend less than you earn.
• Set up your finances in a way that allows you to have control over your time. Chase opportunities that create more time not money.

Women face many issues regarding personal finances, wage gaps, investing gaps, and financial inclusion. Janine Rogan is a financial educator and speaker who joins us to discuss women’s personal finances.

Here's what you don't want to miss: 

• Have conversations within the workplace and friend groups about money and finance.
• Seek online resources to educate yourself on personal finance and make you more informed when making financial decisions
• Start investing as early as possible.
• Men should be more inclusive with female friends in financial conversations and financial decisions and break gender boundaries. This will allow men and women to grow alongside your friends and achieve financial freedom.

 Omer tells us what led him down the path of education. He discusses the importance of learning how to learn over the more common methods being told what to learn. Omer also tells us about his early hustle of being an international student and how budgeting helped him.

Here's what not to miss:

• Teach, teach and teach. Teaching is the best way to learn
• Network. Meet and talk to people that are more experienced than you as it will expand your perspective.
• Live on a minimalist mindset.
  

Bushra and Divya tell us how they manage their costs of being an influencer, from photography to recording studios. They share their methods on how best to save money in early days of being an influencer.

Managing money is difficult, time-consuming, and stressful. From countless arguments with your parents, ranting to colleagues and friends to inner battles on 'to buy or not to buy', building a plan for financial freedom is not easy. Whom should you ask for help and how can you actually start getting advice? Get real about talking money with two influencers who have gone through several awkward conversations around 'the M word' themselves.

Ever wondered what makes islamic banking different from regular banking? What factors are causing the increased adoption of islamic banking solutions globally?

Here's what you don't want to miss from the episode:

• islamic finance is not only for people of the Islamic faith. Islamic finance is for everyone
• islamic investment leans more towards companies that are involved in environmental and social governance

The second part of our conversation with Yash Bhansali, founder of a microfinance Dubai-based enterprise looks deeper into the do's and don'ts of navigating the financial markets and what it takes to general game-changing returns on investment.

Here's what you don't want to miss:

• Understanding the financial markets
• Trading like the pros
• Knowing how to commit in the long run.

Following our conversation with Sandi, tune into the behind-the-scenes of Sandi's early struggles. Here's what you don't want to miss:

• A.S.K: Attitude. Skills. Knowledge. The three ingredients needed for success in any pursuit of life. 
• N.O: New Opportunity. Gather your rejections and turn them into opportunities. 
• Pay yourself first: Categorise savings, Emergency Funds and learn how to allocating those away from your reach.
• Time is Money. 

In conversation with Sandi Saxena, a mentor, a catalyst for change, an arbitrator, orator, and much more. We're jumping right into a raw story of moving from riches to rags and riches again.

Here's what you don't want to miss: 

• Get outside of the box and don’t let other people influence your decisions. 
• If an opportunity is presented, never let it go, no matter how big or small it may be.

The revolution to redefine money has begun, are you in?