Healthy financial conditions can be realized if a family has good financial planning. Financial planning is the art of financial management carried out by individuals or families to achieve effective, efficient and beneficial goals so that families become prosperous amid almost specific future needs and uncertain income coupled with various risks everyone cannot ascertain and avoid.
“How do we determine whether our family’s financial condition is healthy? Three indicators need to be considered, namely how much cash we have where our finances are in the healthy category if the balance reaches four times the monthly routine expenses or even more. The second indicator is the number of monthly debt repayments, and it can be said to be healthy if the maximum amount is 35% of the total monthly income. The last indicator is savings, which can be said to be healthy if we have at least 10% savings from our monthly income,” said Dr. Umanto, S. Sos, M. Si.
Dr. Umanto conveyed this as Secretary to the Leadership of the Faculty of Administrative Sciences, University of Indonesia (FIA UI), as well as a resource person in the Family Finance Seminar Activity Family Women Association (IWK), which took place on Monday, December 19, 2022, afternoon at the FIA UI Auditorium. FIA UI organized this seminar with a sponsor, namely Mandiri.
In this seminar, the head of IWK FIA UI, Lyviana Chandra, SE., MM., said that an activity needs to be carried out so that every academic community knows how to manage finances so that income can meet their daily needs. This seminar is a necessary momentum for the FIA UI academic community to manage all their income to meet long-term needs such as schooling for children, buying a house, and other costs so that household financial arrangements are more harmonious.
“We need to make a financial plan to meet our daily needs in the short term and for long term needs. In addition, this financial planning will reduce family financial stress, which will generally lead to family financial conflicts. For this reason, financial planning is also important to form a harmonious family,” said Liviana Chandra, Chair of IWK FIA UI.
Furthermore, Dr. Umanto explained three essential steps in family financial planning. The first is to set financial goals in the household, namely current and future needs, check and evaluate the wallet regularly, and make a monthly household budget.
“To plan family financial management, there are three ways: identifying financial conditions, determining desires that are generally certain to be many, and determining the main desire of the many desires. That way, we can get financial freedom or a healthy family financial condition,” said Dr. Umanto.
For that, what do we need to do? The first is to keep records of assets and debts, keep records of income and expenses, and calculate the comparison of the size of the wallet’s contents regularly and periodically. Tips for an unhealthy wallet are to set aside income money for reserve fund needs in the form of cash or cash that is easy to convert and start saving with a certain amount routinely saved daily. In addition to debt management solutions, namely by only borrowing for critical and productive needs, avoiding online loans/loan sharks, and not need to have a credit card if not needed.
“Budget is the key to success in financial management. The budget is a plan that is prepared for all family payment needs and fulfils plans. The benefits of budget planning are that we can see the flow of finances in and out, become a guide in financial management, prevent ourselves from being “bigger pegs than poles”, and become traitors to our expenses,” said Dr. Umanto.
This is also in line with what was conveyed by the Dean of FIA UI, Prof. Dr. Chandra Wijaya, M.Sc., in the opening remarks of this event that this financial planning will help how we manage family finances so that the stake is not more prominent than the pillar. All parties and all levels of society need this financial planning. For this reason, this event is expected to be a provision for FIA UI academics to be able to manage finances well.
The conclusion of closing this activity was also conveyed by the General Manager of FIA UI and also the Moderator of the Seminar, namely Indirani, MA, who stated that having dreams come true, start saving every month, prioritizing mandatory budgets when income is limited, understand what are the needs and wants, adjust lifestyle for entertainment expenditure items and communicate with partners.
For information, in this event, Mandiri, represented by Gilang Petragani, Head of the Supporting Branch of Bank Mandiri, UI Campus, Depok, and the team provided assistance and guidance on buying a house at a young age to around 80 participants who attended.
