Meeting Minh Nhat right after his personal financial management class (PFM) for Luong Van Can Fund’s students, we got together for a brief talk about his journey of becoming a specialist in PFM and his plans for the community.
Years ago, I pondered on the uncertainties of life, would it be fine when I had my own family or in the case of adversity. After answering to myself, I found it unsafe and started to think about increasing my financial security.
When I tried researching in Vietnam, I realized that people were just talking about making money and getting rich. It was not my research purpose , as making money was not related to managing it for financial peace. That motivated me to learn more about this field.
With the mindset “If nobody is going to do it, I will”, I started off the project.
Your desire was to make personal financial management “more humanized”. What does “humanized” mean?
In fact, “humanization” is a word that Huynh Vinh Son (Soi An Chay – a famous Creative Director in the creative community of Vietnam) shared after attending a training on personal financial management. I posted this intriguing concept on my fanpage and used it to talk about my work. I have always emphasized in training sessions that personal financial management was just “personal”, not “financial matter”.
Thus, “humanization” means that it is necessary to concentrate on solving psychological aspects more as well as concerning more about human factors than money or tools. Nevertheless, we still need financial tools. These two factors are mutually complementary to effectively solve financial problems.
“Since pursuing this path, what have you gained and lost ?”
What I find most meaningful is the opportunity to change and improve myself tremendously. When I practice and improve myself more regularly, things are shared more gently and more understandably. Because I want to help others, I have the chance to constantly correct myself.
As for the loss, it’s not a loss. Rather, I put down what is irrelevant to my goals. Most of my losses are the relationships or events that I could have participated in but now no longer do such as meeting friends, going to parties, and so on. And I’m fine with it.
“Your family has just welcomed a new member, and you have become a dad. How has this affected what you’ve studied and trained about Personal Financial Management?’”
(Laughing) Absolutely. I had more experiences to share with everyone
Getting married and having children have created new connections. This has helped me figure out how these connections affect my spending habits and lifestyle. These was then used in my classroom as a material.
Sharing in classes stems from my daily life. People will be able to imagine more clearly if they are given both general principles and specific examples.
“From March 2021, Piggy Bank will completely change into a non-profit project. So what is the reason for this change?”
In fact, this model has always had two segments (for profit and non-profit) since its establishment. The profit earned will be the fund for the non-profit activities. However, over the time, people did not clearly identify the brand Heo Dat but often referred to me as an individual.
At first, the resources were limited so I kept it like that. However, up to now, I feel that the project is pretty stable and I want people to talk more about the project so I split up to bring the image of Piggy bank as a non-profit project or the project can still run when I stop.
With such an orientation, I believe that Piggy Bank will have more opportunities to do activities, reach more types of people and deeper programs for each specific audience. This is also the environment for you to become a financial trainer to practice and help others.
“I have known that this year your family is going to move to Gia Lai. Can you reveal a little bit about your plans there?”
The first desire when I settle in Gia Lai is to build “a Learning Retreat Center” – where everyone can learn and relax. In addition, I want to organize “the Money Summer School” in Pleiku for students so that they can conduct some projects for others.
After that, I might start a personal finance management training program for couples. Even when I don’t have a center, I still search for and contact people to initiate a program. Everyone can leave their city to Pleiku to study and take a rest.
“Leaving the hectic life in Ho Chi Minh City to return to a peaceful place – Gia Lai but continuing to carry out community activities to help people, how can you find time to take care of yourself?”
“Thanks to helping others, I have better self-insight. Thanks to sticking to the personal finance management training activities, I constantly practice solving personal problems to maintain financial peace. My wife and I had discussed a lot about what we both really wanted in life. Thanks to the clearly defined goal we chose to return to Gia Lai (even though my wife was born and raised in Saigon). That prevented us from taking risks in unsuitable financial decisions such as taking a loan to buy a house in Saigon. This is also the material for me to make a financial program for couples. It can be said that helping others is helping ourselves and vice versa, the two are inseparable parts.”
“If you could say one thing to students in general and Fund’s students in particular about personal finance management, what would you say?”
“First: Finance management is easy and it is not advisable to make it more complicated.
The second is what I have always emphasized in my training courses: “Clear expenses – Multiple income sources – Financial Assurance””
“Thank you very much, Mr. Nhat. Best wishes to you and your family.”
Content: Luong Van Cang Foundation
Graphic: Tan Phu
