What are your feelings about money?

Most people love to spend it (“That would look so great on me!”), but when it comes to making money – especially managing money – it can suddenly go from being a pleasure to a source of great anxiety.

My purpose is make everything simple and easy.

The reality is, you can learn how to use money just as you can learn how to ride a bicycle. Someone shows you how, you learn by doing, and before long it becomes second nature. There may be times when you’ll fall, but once you regain your balance, you can and will move forward with confidence. My company tagline sums this up: “Money Habits That Make You Wealthy”. They key word here is “habit”, something that you are so used to that you do it every day with ease.

I’m here to teach you those habits.

I start with the basics.

As always, this is the best place to start. I used to teach financial literacy to children aged 5 to 18 under a licensed program for MoneyTree, a leading financial education company. I made every lesson like a game, and these kids took to it with a great sense of fun. Because it certainly can be.

Soon the kids were outperforming their parents!

In a short space of time, it was clear that they were better at planning how to allocate their allowances and more diligent about saving money. In general, they were just more comfortable dealing with money.

I realised that for this to be truly life-changing, the entire family needed to learn about financial literacy. So I started inviting parents over for short parenting sessions, and that led me to finally create a separate, new program for adults. (In fact, I conducted my first workshop for adults in May of 2014 – and they loved it!).

That's how MoneyPenny was born.

I chose the name MoneyPenny because that’s what the kids called me. It was a natural choice.

With MoneyPenny, you won’t need a big vocabulary of financial jargon or an in-depth knowledge of complicated concepts.
The fundamentals that I teach at the start will still apply as we go on and you gain greater expertise.

I’ll help you build your knowledge in a logical, step-by-step manner.  You will have a solid foundation and the ideas you learn subsequently will always relate to the foundation so that the whole picture makes sense. Eventually, carrying this picture with you and practising the skills in it will become second nature – just like riding that bike.

My career before MoneyPenny also revolved around finances.

Before MoneyPenny, my career also revolved around finances. I’ve always had a true love and interest in things financial. I decided to take an Accounting & Finance degree and did well enough so that I graduated at age 20. Soon after I landed a job with an IT company.

Later, I went to work as an Auditor for PricewaterhouseCoopers
(yes, the same company that certifies the Academy Award winners!)
as well as prestigious firms in Dubai and Qatar, serving as an Auditor and Finance Specialist. I also earned a Master’s degree in Information Technology along the way.

The financial crisis of 2008 changed my perception.

While others were still enveloped by various economic bubbles, I actually saw the 2008 financial crisis coming. When it finally did hit, it really brought home to me how fragile the global economy is.

I saw how, more than ever, you need to know how to prepare yourself and manoeuvre through the economic upheavals that will inevitably come.

So many people I knew were very badly hit when it could have been avoided.  It was then that I resolved to help as many people as I could to understand how money works, what you can do with it and how to “spread the wealth” of knowledge to others.

I believe money has a heart.

Many people view money as cold, hard cash – an unfeeling item of exchange.

But I like to talk about money in emotional terms, as a tool for achieving the greater good. When I was teaching financial literacy to children, I organised a couple of fundraising efforts. The kids took to this like fish to water. I was both startled and moved by their enthusiasm when raising funds for underprivileged children. They showed so much innovation when it came to producing arts and craft and other items to sell.

A more holistic approach to finances.

My courses go beyond simple save-and-spend methods to also cover world views, customs, habits and behaviour. These deal with concepts like delayed gratification, inflation, compound interest, scarcity, taxes-the list goes on. And because students are encouraged to be entrepreneurial, creativity is also highly valued.

Serving as an all-round resource for you.

My goal is to make this a platform for people who need solutions and resources –
or even just a sounding board in personal finances – to come together.

I hope you’ll regard the site as a fundamental repository of financial resources, strategies and tools, and methods to empower you to take control of your finances.

Overall, I want this to be a place where anyone can come to learn the ins and outs of money – financial literacy;  debt management, even the contours of human relationships and money.