At the talk “How to Live a Financially Abundant Life?”, organised by Centre for Corporate and Community Development (CCCD) Kampar, on 27 June 2023, at UTAR Kampar Campus, participants were enlightened by speaker and Financial Planning Association of Malaysia (FPAM) Perak Chapter Chairperson James Ling Peng Min.

Ling highlighted the importance of financial planning to live a life that enables one to be contented, peaceful, and debt-free. He further explained that because money is involved in every stage of life, and therefore, it is important that participants understand the ways to use and manage their finances wisely.

He also shared the statistics of bankruptcy in Malaysia and the factors that led to people declaring bankruptcy. These factors included, personal loan, car loan, house loan, business loan, and credit cards; with the highest record of bankruptcy caused by the failure to pay off personal loans. Thus, he advised participants to always be careful and make wise decisions when approached by banks concerning personal loans, due to its very high interest rates. Participants also learnt of the impacts of bankruptcy.

The speaker then taught participants a general guideline on managing their finances, while also explaining the ways to divide their salary accordingly to ensure that they have savings. He emphasised that one must be able to differentiate needs and wants, so as to not spend unnecessarily.

Participants were also advised to start saving money at an earlier age, which he elaborated on the reasons by explaining the benefits of compounding effect, and the cost of procrastination. He said to participants that the earlier one save, the more one will gain over the years. Towards the end of the talk, Ling showed an example of a budgeting sheet, which participants can use to manage their daily and monthly expenses and savings. The talk then ended with an interactive Q&A session.