Why it’s important to teach your kids about wealth

It was terrific to see a real mix of generations attending the Australian Malaysian Singaporean Association (AMSA) event we hosted at Ironfish HQ on Wednesday night. The 50-odd attendees included a noticeable number of family groups – all of whom had come to pick the brain of Ironfish CEO & Founder, Joseph Chou, on everything from the secrets to his entrepreneurial success, how to prosper as a new migrant, insights into the current property market – and why it’s important to talk about wealth.

Planning for your future

“With modern technological and medical advances, we will live longer than ever before – but how many people are actually prepared for the reality of that? How will people be able to afford to live that long?” questioned Mr Chou.

“Wealth is a taboo topic. We don’t talk about it amongst ourselves, or with friends or colleagues, generally speaking. And yet, I know from experience that wealth can be taught. That’s why it’s so important to us at Ironfish to help empower people to plan for the future and to help them to become financially free,” he said.

After a Q&A session with AMSA Vice President, Colin Lee, there was a lengthy Q&A session led by the audience – prompting Joseph to open up about his legacy, his attitude to wealth and success, and how he passes this on to his children.

The face of success

For me, success isn’t about owning a fancy car or luxury home. Success is being able to buy back your own time, so you can spend time doing what’s important to you,” said Joseph.

“Some people earn a lot of money but complain that they have no time. Others continue to work hard because they truly enjoy it and gain satisfaction out of their work, and helping customers. Along the way in my journey to building wealth, that’s what happened to me.

“I want to keep developing the culture of Ironfish so we’re an organisation that employees love to work for, and that our customers love to belong to. Beyond that, my personal goals now are to work towards qualifying for The Giving Pledge – a campaign to encourage billionaires to donate at least half their net worth to charity,” Joseph said.

How often do you hear a CEO talk like that? I think I want to work for Ironfish!” – Colin Lee, AMSA VP of Business chatting with Joseph Chou

 Giving your kids the best opportunities

Family was a major focus of many questions in the night – given the family-centric community of AMSA.

“It’s important that my kids understand the importance of working hard, being dedicated and focused on their goals – with whatever it is that they want to do in life. Giving kids too much removes the opportunity for them to learn and succeed in their own right. I agree with Warren Buffett’s philosophy: give your kids enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing!” he said.

property investment strategist

Event attendees with Ironfish Burwood Strategist, Yusi Liu

Learn from the best

AMSA member and event attendee, Lionel Lye, is a relatively-recent Singaporean migrant who has just started his own mortgage broking business.

“Joseph’s story was very well known to me before I came tonight,” he said, “Being a migrant myself, Joseph’s journey to success really resonated. His love for people, his passion for what he does, and how he managed to make it this far is very inspiring. As Joseph said, I think it’s important to gain as much wisdom as you can from people who are more successful than you – and that’s a big reason for why I’m here!”

At Ironfish, our service extends far beyond property investment sales, strategy and support services. We aim to inspire people; to help people make a fundamental change in the way they think, push beyond their daily rut and take positive action in their lives.  We know that changing people’s attitudes is crucial to changing people’s financial situation for the better – which is why our CEO, Joseph Chou, dedicates so much of his time and energy to presenting and public speaking within community groups as well as industry.

If you’re interested to attend Joseph’s next talk click here or if you’re a business looking to engage Joseph for a presentation or Lunch and Learn session for your employees, click here for more details.

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