Translator: Carlos Gómez Reviewer: Manlin
Fang
Hello everyone!
Today I come to tell you the story of Monica.
Monica was my mother.
A courageous, hard-working, very cheerful, very friendly warrior and widow.
At 42 years old, with four children behind her.
And at that moment she had to do something that a lot of people do.
Basically working day and night, from sunrise to sunset.
Especially, at that time,
at least one non-professional person
where the breadwinner should be the man.
Then it was up to her to see what she had to do to maintain that lifestyle,
to maintain a good education.
Keep what she thought was best for her family.
And so she did.
Truly, she was a formidable woman.
A warrior there in the mornings.
School van.
At that time they didn't ask you for so many documents,
so she did it with her own car.
Afterwards, noon, cafeteria; afternoon, flower shop.
She would always rummaged to get the bread to the table.
But obviously that brings up some familiar themes.
Working from dawn to dusk means you see less of your family.
That your children sometimes even get mad at you because you don't exist.
But there was nothing to do at that time.
She simply had to keep working.
And time sometimes brings news that is unfortunate,
which hopefully will happen to no one.
In this case, I remember perfectly well,
a very fateful moment for the family, when the house doorbell rings at night, at four
in the morning and I wake up with my brother.
Mysteriously we were awake way before.
Like something warned us. We went out. There’s an officer who says:
“Your brother Felipe had an accident”. And we looked at each other and said,
“He’d had accidents before, what could have happen?”
The accident was fatal and obviously no family expects that,
no mother expects that.
And it was really hard for us in general and for her too.
But what's going on here?
There wasn't much time to think.
Funeral, obviously.
And one would expect a mother to be able to take her time,
months, hopefully to digest this news.
But it turns out that work had to be done.
It was time to be making money.
There was not a single saving along the way to be able to say:
“I stop to live this mourning”.
She simply had to keep arriving late
because she had to keep bringing bread to the table.
And then I just started to realize, not at that time,
today, recovering my memory
and even writing the scripts to remind myself of this story
that I understand much better what was being experienced,
because at the time it was hard,
how are you not with your family?
But today, I understand that without savings it’s not very possible,
because that’s really something we’re going to be talking about this day.
Saving gives you a certain freedom, that ability to take care of your pocket
and have for difficult times or for moments of joy.
Holidays together.
All of that is often given by a good financial education.
But life goes on,
she did the trick, got rid of the dirt, earned enough money
to have her remaining three children graduated, university professionals
with careers, that for her was succes.
I did my job, I'm very happy and the day came when,
carrying certain diseases in her body, I don’t blame her.
Probably, the triggers of these diseases must have been
overwork, not having time to take care of herself,
always producing and not time resting.
Parkinson's, diabetes are some of those diseases.
And she came to retire thinking that maybe she had some rest
and the pension was 300 USD.
Imagine that that didn’t even pay for the medications she had.
And that's not just a Chilean reality.
I don't want to. And beware, I don't want this talk to be to make you feel bad.
Now comes the fun part.
But in Chile, pensions on average are less than 250 USD for women.
Even worse, in Mexico that one will say it is a larger country, less than 400 USD.
The topic of our retirement is very powerful
and seeing how we are taking care of that,
because expecting something external is very complex.
And what happens?
The thing that happens here, at this moment, is a very rich conversation,
but one that I am ashamed to say.
Monica, Mona, as many people told her, was already sick.
Year 2020.
She lived at the expense of her children, and there’s nothing wrong with it.
You will say give back completely, but you never know, you never know,
if your children may have other problems, another death.
You don't feel good being kept and she didn't feel it.
She always told us.
In fact, she received our money
and her desire was to spend it on buying gifts back.
I swear I was angry that a gift came to me, still I said,
“But it's for you.”
But hey, there was that need of constant dedication
that was something that marked us a lot in the family.
And her youngest son, I, comes knocking on the door of the house and says,
“Mom, I have a problem.”
“Why if you’re a badass? You’re on TV, you’re successful.”
“I want to get married and I wanted to know if you had a ring lying around.”
“How come?”
“No, it's just that I'm broke.
I mean, I don't have one. In fact, I have debts.
I don't know how you did it.”
And there a very nice door opened, a door that had never been opened,
which was to start talking about money with my family
or with my mother, at that time.
And it was very powerful because this is not spoken anywhere,
it is not spoken in schools, it is not spoken in universities, it is
not spoken in the family, at the table.
We never talk about money or at least how to save it, how to generate it.
We don't talk about growing money, we talk about spending it
because that's what we talk about all the time.
“Hey, we're going to see the next movie.”
“Hey, how fun, we're going to have some snacks on the weekend.”
There is always time to spend that yes, yes, is indeed a topic.
How much is the neighbor’s car worth? All of this is interesting,
but not about saving.
And I would tell you that those were the conversations,
because then my mother,
Mona, Monica, told me: “I always had options, I didn't realize it.
Now I do it. I look at opportunities.
Do you remember, Francisco, the Nintendo 64
that I bought for you when it first came out?”
And me: “Yes, yes, it was super fun”.
“Did you really need it at the time?”
No. I was really happy with the Super Nintendo because I had them all
Nintendo, Super, Nintendo, Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo 64.
I came to the GameCube because her wallet was no longer enough,
but, really, believe me, that’s just one example of many
that my quality of life would not have dropped to such a low standard
if I had stopped having the Nintendo 64.
But her retirement with significant security would have been much better.
And this is where I want to get into the educational part.
This is where I want to get into the investment world.
That conversation and may she rest in peace, my mother endured until 2022.
They were the nicest conversations I could have had,
probably about money, because I started talking about this topic.
I began to fall in love with financial education in 2020.
After that conversation, after that lack of budget for the ring.
After several very stressful personal situations,
starting to talk about money opened all these educational doors for me.
And now I’m going to introduce to you four pillars
that I believe are fundamental
to our financial well-being.
Financial well-being is an invitation to be healthy with our struggles.
Believe me, it is very rich for me to be able to say today
I have practically paid for the university of my son who is two years old.
It’s very nice to say that,
to be reassured that it’s not going to be a financial stress in your minute
or to think that I'm saving for my retirement with a small monthly amount,
but thanks to compound interest and discipline I'll
probably retire
with approximately seven times what my mother retired at least,
for starting early, for dedicating myself a little to myself.
And the first pillar, always for me,
that happened to me because of that I talk about it first.
It's the budget.
It's doing our own scan, really realizing where I'm standing.
Let's see, because in my case
it was a master class on lack of education.
Do this and say: this is already my income, I have an income.
Normally most of us have a salary, but sometimes we have more
and then the expenses come and you always count the big expenses,
the money I spend to my mom in this case, the rent.
Wow, the bills.
And suddenly coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee.
Oh! What's going on here?
Why is 10% of my salary going away on that item
that is quite changeable at least.
And there's free coffee in the office.
But good.
Budget.
Financial scanner.
Let's see how we are.
And there the nice thing is that paths are opening up for us,
because obviously there are different cases.
There are some cases where you will say: “I have the possibility of saving.
There's that possibility in my budget.”
Other cases that you will say: “I am on the edge, I live to the minimum.
What you’re talking about is crazy. Coffee? I don’t drink coffee,
what a expense.”
Well, and here comes the second pillar
very important that you should never forget,
the one that Monica did best, because she didn't have a budget.
Make money.
Make money because you can’t live on savings.
There are times when savings are not enough.
Making money is extremely important,
produce value, being more valuable.
Sometimes you say: how do I earn more, how do I create more value to generate income?
And I’m going to give you several examples.
I’m really going to give you one, for my example you might say
“Francisco, who’s going to be an influencer?”
Yes, but I can tell you about my babysitter.
My nanny for Hugo. No, not mine. I don’t need a babysitter.
It has a value of 6 USD per hour, which for some is quite enough, for some few.
Imagine that you arrive with that speech.
“They already told me that I have to be valuable.”
“Francisco now I charge you 15 USD.”
“Goodbye”. Another one.
So one has to understand that sometimes
value is created by generating skills.
And that's when you can see, for example, why a general practitioner
earns a different salary than an ophthalmologist, for example.
Specialization, it takes time, years and you probably
have to work longer during those years.
Even if you want to be richer, so to speak, or more valuable per hour,
time will probably make your value per hour more valuable.
But my nanny had another tactic and she says:
“Francisco, your son is going to have a birthday”.
Yes, I got a fee by WhatsApp.
Face painting, birthday’s dance shows and start a series of lists.
26 USD per hour, 30 USD per hour.
And I: “Oh, I just need entertainment.”
Same time, almost six times, almost five times more income,
more value, with an example that I think anyone could understand.
And here, so far so good.
We generate value.
But what happens if everything you generate, as happened to Mona,
you spend it?
It can be like a perfect excuse because I love my children, I want to make it up
Since I'm late I have to arrive with the Nintendo, with the album art,
with the chocolates.
Of course, I'm overweight.
But hey, it was exciting to receive chocolates in the evening.
But second point.
The third super important pillar.
If I start making money, I have to take care of myself.
And the third pillar is about savings.
Real savings, guys, is freedom.
It is essential.
Saving allows you to have time for others.
To have time for yourself.
And saving is nothing more than loving yourself, paying yourself first.
That’s what you need to understand about savings.
And if we’re talking that we’re already making money, which is the first pillar,
we probably can.
Once we make money say: “Let’s see, I’m making so much,
I can save a little”. And how to make it easier?
Because sometimes you still say:
“I’m doing all this effort, I deserve it.”
Let's set objectives, it becomes much easier and tangible objectives.
For example, next year's vacation
and I want it to be a nice vacation for my family.
2,400 USD for any number that is divisible by 12.
200 USD per month. Perfect.
50 USD per week.
If they bring it to more and more kids, it gets easier.
$7 a day, more or less.
There, probably when you’re in line at the mermaid’s coffee.
If you’re thinking like “Hey, this is my vacation”.
It's easier to save when you have specific goals.
My son's college is the same thing.
Paying 900 USD per month at a time when family stress may not allow it is
not the same as paying 100 USD per month at 18 years of age today.
It's a lot simpler.
We move on to the last pillar because believe me that although I love to save
and although I wish everyone here could save a lot.
With 10, 20, 30% it is already difficult to achieve, it will not be enough.
Saving is never enough.
Saving requires a very important tool called investment.
And that's the fourth and final pillar: making our money grow.
And it really is possible.
From one dollar you can start investing.
Obviously a dollar won't bring you wealth, but it's the habit, it's getting started.
In different places, one can go to regulated institutions.
The banks in your city probably already have some investment instrument
that at least protects you from inflation.
In other words, at least you're not losing your capital, you're saving
and gradually generating a little more
and compound interest, mind you, it's wonderful.
If you say and look for an investment instrument that gives you an average
of 10% per year.
With compound interest, what happens? that you, you earned in that year
from 100 to 110, instead of withdrawing your ten, simply reinvest it.
It's nothing more than that compound interest.
And the magic is that it takes approximately seven years to double,
because interest over interest is growing,
just as banks charge you.
And one says, “Why did I pay for my house three times?”
Well, why didn't I save my house three times?
It is possible.
That’s what it finally gives us and what I want to invite all of you.
Financial well-being, peace of mind.
Remember the steps or the pillars very well.
Budget.
Let's understand ourselves where we stand.
Generation. Never lose sight of the fact that you have to be valuable,
let’s make money,
let’s not be disgusted by it.
Third, let's save, let's set a goal, no matter if it's 2%, 3%.
But let's get started.
And fourth, let our money grow so that it will keep us later.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)
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