Becoming Financially Independent | Sandy Yong | TEDxRyersonU

when i was 12 years old i was sitting in the living room with my mother she turned to me and said sandy promise me that you will do well in school get a good job so that you can support yourself financially i don't want you to rely on a man to get by in life she had just walked in from a conversation with my father from the kitchen moments earlier i overheard her begging my father for money you could sense my father feeling conflicted having her plead over and over again he finally gave in and handed her the money with the hopes of having a better life here in canada my parents immigrated from china in the 1970s we grew up in a modest household in toronto my father was a sole provider working as a chef at various chinese restaurants we didn't go on any family vacations we didn't even have a car we had just enough for simple necessities now my mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia a form of mental illness with multiple attempts she could not hold a proper job because she had experienced depression and delusions while at work her colleagues found her behavior to be disruptive my parents made the tough decision and decided it was best that my mother would become a homemaker taking care of me and my older sister my mother as a result became financially dependent on my father and unlike other illnesses mental health or mental illness doesn't have physical signs our neighbors and relatives didn't understand her strange behavior as a result our family became ostracized for decades and we became silent about it now why did my mother say those words to me well yes she was a typical asian parent who wanted me to become successful in my chosen career path but on a deeper level she didn't want me to be trapped in a relationship where someone would have control over me from that day onwards i looked at money differently listen in as i share three important money lessons with you today the first lesson i learned was that i was responsible for my own financial success why because my parents in the school system weren't equipped in providing me with the tools and resources i needed to become successful did you know that according to lifeworks that over half of canadians have no emergency savings that's half the people here in this room and on zoom furthermore a survey by td shows that a third of canadian parents aren't confident that they're setting a healthy financial example for their children as much as parents want to be good role models for their children many are struggling to figure things out themselves even in our school system it's not mandatory to teach students about personal finance raise your hand if you've ever taken a personal finance course in school not very many unfortunately we are still a long way from implementing a proper curriculum that will make a positive impact on our future generation on top of that according to statistics canada for every dollar of disposable income the average canadian household owes a dollar seventy seven we've become a society of being house rich cash poor all the while trying to keep up with the joneses adding rising interest rates and inflation to the mix and you've got the perfect storm of many families from coast to coast who are trying to make ends meet in my household my father was the only one who handled the finances i didn't get exposure on how he paid the bills but what he did give me was a weekly allowance of twenty dollars yes back then 20 could buy you lunch for the entire week and no we didn't have an app for that to pay for things with the top of our cell phone but this helped me learn how to manage my money and decide how i wanted to spend it or save it but it wasn't until i turned 16 and started working at a coffee shop earning seven dollars an hour that i began to learn the true value of money if i wanted to buy a brand new pair of jeans i had to earn it myself at times i had to choose between going out to see a movie with my friends or buying a cool t-shirt as much as my parents wanted the best for me they couldn't afford to buy me all these things in hindsight it was a good lesson for me to learn that i had to work x amount of hours in order to pay for certain things however what i didn't realize was i was spending all the money i earned i wasn't thinking about the future i was just living in the moment although i was making many money mistakes it was my first step towards becoming financially independent that's why we need to look at that person in the mirror that reflection you see is the answer to who can help you be in control of your money if you don't want to end up being in debt or live paycheck to paycheck then today is the day that you start your financial blueprint that will set you up for success yes you are in the right place at the right time to learn about money management this way you can learn and make informed decisions about paying off your tuition buying a house or a car one day and having enough money to retire the good news is that there are plenty of free resources right at your fingertips from books to blogs and even podcasts you have the path the choice to either work for money or have money work for you which path will you choose the second lesson i learned was that i needed to build solid money habits it all started when i graduated in 2009 right in the middle of the global financial crisis it was tough to find employment when layoffs were happening left right and center fortunately i used my networking skills and landed my first full-time job planning conferences i earn a modest salary and you bet i worked my tail off for every paycheck but a few years in i ended up working overtime and got burnt out in my mind i just thought if i had earned more money i'd be better off but my dad once said to me sandy it's not how much you earn but how much you save those wise words made a lot of sense i mean why do we see celebrities who earn millions of dollars end up bankrupt look at michael jackson kim basinger and even mike tyson think about it if you earn a hundred thousand dollars a year and spent it all then you're broke but if you earn 50 000 a year managed to save 10 000 of it then you're better off than the guy who earns more this is when i started building solid money habits i wrote down my goals of when i wanted to save for a house how my dream wedding and save for retirement for the past 12 years i've saved 40 percent of my income and invested it and financial experts will say to you save 10 of every paycheck but to be honest i don't think that's enough these days you see the more money you save early on in your career the more time you have to invest it this will have a compounding effect which will help you reach your financial goals faster let's look at these two individuals spencer the spender and sam the saver they both graduated from the ted rogers school of management earning fifty thousand dollars a year now spencer the spender loves to buy starbucks coffee every morning before work he sports the latest designer clothes from nordstrom and he loves to go on fancy five-star vacations after work you can catch him having dinner and drinks with his friends spencer loves to live in the moment and not think about the future since it's so far away right and if you saw his instagram post you feel the fomo and think that he's living the life but in reality spencer maxes out his credit card and spends every paycheck a decade later spencer is still paying off his student loans renting a place and his bank account doesn't have much to show for all his hard work on the other hand sam the saver makes her nespresso coffee at home she wears trendy clothes from arizia but only buys them when they go on sale she also loves to do comparison shopping to find the best travel deals and she'll treat herself to a nice restaurant during summerlicious sam saves 20 percent of her paycheck to save towards a down payment on a condo and an electric car which she plans to go on road trips with her friends sam also has a side hustle selling artwork on etsy and invests that extra money in the stock market a decade later sam has become a homeowner paying off her mortgage and she's grown her investments as you can see these two people have the same income and same skill sets yet one manages to spend all their money and has nothing left while the other still lives comfortably and works towards their savings goals this is why having solid money habits from the beginning of your career is so important this brings me to my last lesson which is if you can believe in your goals you can achieve them now have you ever watched a home renovation show don't they have incredible transformations so why do we have a blueprint for a home renovation but we don't have a blueprint for a financial future it's not like we don't care about our financial well-being it's just that our minds aren't programmed to think so far off in the intangible future john beckley once said most people don't plan to fail they fail to plan so let me ask you do you know what your dream lifestyle looks like maybe you want to travel the world work abroad and live a nomadic lifestyle or maybe you want to live in the suburbs start a family one day and go on vacations whatever it may be you get to design your dream lifestyle this may take the form of a vision board which displays when you want to achieve your life goals in your delegate bag you will find a vision board template that you can fill out later over the years i've created numerous vision boards i started out earning seven dollars an hour working part-time during school then i graduated and had my first full-time job which was my only source of income but because i had a vision board i taught myself how to invest in the stock market how to invest in real estate and how to start my own business today i stand before you as a financially independent woman who has created seven income streams and has built a net worth of seven figures in my thirties i am happily married to my husband i'm a mother to my infant son and two adorable rabbits i even fulfilled my dream of traveling to disney world and yet i know the best is yet to come it all came down to mapping out my financial blueprint and deciding what i wanted in my life i believed in myself when others didn't i didn't always know how i would achieve my goals but because i had a clear vision and i was determined i'd figure out a way to make it happen reflecting back on that moment sitting in the living room with my mother she was the one who encouraged me to achieve financial independence now that i've accomplished this i'm making it my mission to help young women build their wealth so that they can support themselves and their families i'm also dedicating my time to fundraise money for camp h the center for addiction and mental health it is to help those families who have been touched by mental illness is my way to show gratitude towards my late mother i want her to be remembered as a strong warrior who fought through her everyday struggles in silence now i believe that building wealth is important but giving back to our community is even more rewarding if you can find a cause that you truly care about you can make a positive impact by volunteering your time or donating money this way we can make the world a better place together now as a mother myself i plan to teach my son valuable financial skills so that he can grow up and feel confident about money and i feel like it's taboo to talk about it around the dinner table i want him to have a female role model that he can look up to and see that she can achieve anything that she puts her mind to at the end of the day you need to know your own self-worth do you truly believe that you have unlimited earning potential do you truly believe that you can accomplish every any goal that you put onto that vision board because if you have any self-doubts then you're standing in your own way of achieving financial success you never know what your true potential will be until you step outside your comfort zone you may be surprised at what you can achieve looking back on that young 12 year old girl i've grown up so much since then i've made many money mistakes along the way but i learned from them and i moved forward i didn't let my past dictate my future i took control of my money matters to become financially independent remember creating your dream lifestyle is like building a house figure out your goals and map them out determine what you need how long it will take you and how much you need to save then create a solid foundation adding layer by layer and as i say rome wasn't built in a day and neither will be achieving your life's milestones but once you've built that house it will last you a lifetime remember these three takeaways to achieve financial independence first take charge of your financial success by reading books blogs and listening to podcasts second create sound money habits by saving and living below your means third create your financial blueprint by making a vision board and work towards your goals by taking these three steps you can become financially independent you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 15,677

Keywords: Decision making, Education, English, Finance, Leadership, Mental health, TEDxTalks, Vision, Work, [TEDxEID:46963]

Id: jBAKxZJmU2g

Length: 18min 30sec (1110 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 26 2022