Raising Entrepreneurs

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Fed up with the financial woes that he got mired into because of his unchecked credit-card expenditure, Mr Ryan Soh decided to get rid of his six credit cards. Now, he uses only debit cards.

‘That was about four years ago. I incurred a credit-card debt of $40,000 over a four-year period. I was careless with my expenditure and did not really look into the credit-card charges,’ he said.

‘So I have decided I do not need credit cards. Now, I have two debit cards. It is better to have money debited straight from my bank account. I now spend what I can afford.’

Having learnt how to manage his finances the hard way, Mr Soh, 30, now wants to help others. Last year, he set up a financial firm, Young Entrepreneurs’ Secrets, with two friends. His personal investment in the firm was $150,000. They launched a MoneyTree programme which promises to inculcate money management skills in children and young adults, aged nine to 22.

So far, the MoneyTree programme has trained more than 2,000 youth via face-to-face coaching sessions, boot camps, workbooks and an e-learning portal.

Besides Singapore, the programme has been conducted in Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Being an entrepreneur is not something alien to Mr Soh. His father owns a construction firm and his mother ran her own optical shop for 23 years before becoming a housewife. He recalled helping out at her shop when he was just six. When he graduated from the Singapore Polytechnic with a diploma in mechanical engineering in 1998, he joined his father’s firm as a project coordinator for a year before striking out on his own.

Read an interview with Ryan Soh in The Straits Times.