tharman shanmugaratnam : taking charge of your financial wellbeing opening address by mr tharman shanmugaratnam, chairman of the monetary authority of singapore, at the moneysense 10th anniversary roadshow, singapore, 19 october 2013. * * * good afternoon members of the financial education steering committee, and everyone who has come to toa payoh hub for one reason or another. please enjoy the shows and exhibitions which we have planned, that are all aimed at helping singaporeans to manage their money better. 2. we all know that managing money is important, regardless of your income level. you may be low, middle or high income, but managing your money is very important for your quality of life. research supports this, but we all know from our own family members, friends, and colleagues at work – that it is not just how much money we make but how we manage, spend or share our money that determines how satisfied we are. financial literacy survey 3. moneysense commissioned a financial literacy survey earlier this year, which shows that singaporeans are generally quite careful with their finances. 1 80 % of singaporeans save some money each month and 86 % of people do not like taking on debt. many people take on loans because of housing, but they don ’ t like to borrow more than they can comfortably service with their income. 4. but there are some people who over - spend and over - borrow, which we find in every society, and singapore as well. data from credit counselling singapore ( ccs ) also shows that the people who over - spend and over - borrow are not just low - income people. in fact, most of them are not low - income. the average income of those who come to ccs with serious debt problems is around $ 2, 800 per month, not far below the median income level ; and quite a few are higher income. hence everyone can over - borrow because of overspending. according to the ccs, the most common problem is actually over - spending. 5. mas has also found from the survey that more than half of those surveyed had insufficient insurance to protect their dependents if something were to happen to them. one in three of those surveyed did not know that they were covered by medishield. hence the level of awareness is not very high. 6. quite a few people are passive towards managing their money. that means not planning ahead or finding out information that would help them to

speeches channels – schools, community events, workplace talks, newspapers, tv, radio, and now increasingly the internet – to reach out in every way we can to as many singaporeans as possible. 12. we set up a new institute last year called the institute for financial literacy ( ifl ) which was set up jointly by moneysense and the singapore polytechnic. this institute has helped to bring financial education to working adults, who don ’ t have much time, but they can attend lunchtime talks and workshops free of charge at their workplace. to date, ifl had reached out to 12, 000 people. translating knowledge into action 13. what will be our focus for the next 10 years? first, we have to recognise that financial education is not just about knowledge, but also about inculcating the right values from young, and encouraging everyone to be pro - active rather than passive about their finances. at every income level and for every family, it really pays to prepare for the future. 14. many think that they don ’ t have enough time, or just say they are not interested, or that there ’ s too much to plan for because it ’ s too uncertain. but it ’ s precisely because life has uncertainties that we need to make plans for the future. we need contingency plans. 15. so we will focus, for the next ten years, on three areas. first, we must start earlier, with teenagers. forming the right attitudes towards spending and saving early in life goes a long way. 16. starting from next year, the ministry of education will introduce food and consumer education ( fce ) for all secondary one and two students. this is a way of teaching them life skills that they ’ ll find very helpful. a key objective is to inculcate basic financial literacy in our students, at a time when they are starting to think of ways of using money. moneysense is working closely with the moe and nie to equip teachers with the relevant skills and knowledge, so they can help the children with money management skills. this is the first objective, start early when they are teenagers. 17. second, we must deliver targeted financial education messages at key points in a person ’ s life, for instance, when couples intend to get married, to plan for wedding expenses, which can be very large if we are not careful ; and later, when they are buying a flat, how to make sure they can buy an affordable flat