FirstGem.

My mentor invited me for a program organized as part of the FirstGem initiative. At this time I had never heard of FirstGem. I was scheduled to be away on a business trip  so my immediate response to her was I'll be unavailable. 

However for some reason my visa did not come out on time so I couldn't make the trip. I had already planned some other activities on same day of the program when I remembered the invitation. Out of courtesy and respect, I messaged her and said I'll be able to attend and I'll buy my train ticket to come down from Southampton to London where the event was to take place.

The next morning I hurried to the train station. The event was scheduled to start at 10am and I needed to catch the 7.55am train to have any chance of making it on time. When I got to the machine to print my tickets, I realized I had bought a single ticket instead of the open return I thought I had selected. I couldn't afford to buy another single to return home so I decided to buy a coach ticket.

While trying to select my return ticket, I thought what I had seen on the flyer for the program was that it was to end at 1pm; so I bought a ticket for 3.30pm. I figured that gave me ample time for networking. Immediately after buying my ticket, I picked up my phone to confirm again and saw that I was wrong about the time; it was scheduled to end at 3pm. This meant that I had to leave even before the program ended, had no time for networking and had to run to catch my coach as I didn't leave on time giving me blisters on my feet for my efforts. I was able to catch the coach, due in part to getting on an earlier train after running, but mostly because the coach was delayed.

This story is in a nutshell the summary of my financial existence to date. 

I miss opportunities because I do not start early enough; and because I do not start early enough, I am not well prepared; and because I am not well prepared I do not have enough knowledge about the subject matter; and because I do not have enough knowledge about the subject matter, I do not if or when and how much resources to invest.

The main thing I took away from the FirstGem session today: financial savviness is built on the foundation of deliberate action, discipline, consistency and accountability. (I dare say it's not only financial savviness, same applies to my constant struggle to lose weight and stay fit, but that's a story for another day).

Ironically a lot of the things that were said today I have heard from my mother. If I had put into practice half of the things she has told me over the years, I would probably feel very differently and be in a different financial place.

My dad has a saying 'When someone wakes up is his/her morning'. Today 1st September 2018 is my financial savviness birth day. 1st step for me is to understand my net worth and the state of my financial health. I have chosen to start from here because 'one cannot improve what one cannot measure'. After this assessment I will come up with a plan spanned over short, medium term and long term goals.

I always knew I was not on top of things financially, but my thinking was that in my family, my spouse would make up for this shortcoming. Today I learnt that I have been myopic and there are others I can reach out to and lean on to support me in this area of improvement.

FirstGem has provided this platform to teach and empower women (and men) to be financially aware and smart and I am happy I turned up that day. 

This is just the beginning and if you are anything like me - clueless about numbers and avoiding them at all costs - feel free to message me. I'm happy to share the resources I got from the session and we can go on this journey together.