When you think of a financial event, you may imagine a crowd packed into a single seminar hall. The speakers at the event are all well-informed, but their content is dry, dull, and complex. That’s no longer the case in Singapore, which now hosts multiple finance festivals each year, such as InsureXpo and MooFest. However, the forerunner of these mainstream mega finance festivals is undoubtedly the Seedly Personal Finance Festival.
Since 2018, the Seedly Personal Finance Festival has been both a pioneer and a staple in the financial events calendar. This past Saturday marked the sixth edition of the event, continuing the grand tradition of educating and empowering people interested in taking better control of their financial health. By making personal finance accessible and engaging each year, the Seedly Personal Finance Festival has helped me see money in a different light, and this year’s edition was no different.
Since we are celebrating SG60 this year, the theme of the Seedly Personal Finance Festival was appropriately “Explore Singapore”. Many of the event’s design elements showcased Singapore’s unique and iconic landmarks. But from the booths to the stage, I felt three unofficial themes connected all the events of the day – time, resilience, and fun.
#1 Personal Finance Is About Time
The first recurring element in many of the stage presentations was time, specifically the benefit of starting your personal finance journey as soon as possible to take advantage of compounding interest.
Right at the beginning of the day, at the Personal Finance 101 panel discussion on the Orchid Stage, Michael Gilmore, co-founder of the Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards, affirmed the need to “start early” with personal finance.
His illustration was stunning – if you start at 20 and invest $7 a day, then assuming an annual interest rate of 7%, you will have $1 million when you turn 70.
Vivienne Ong, Marketing Lead of MoneyOwl by Temasek Trust, also echoed this sentiment in the same panel. She said what everyone has is time. So, by automating investments and investing in what you know, you’ll be freeing up time that you can better spend on yourself.
In another panel, entitled Your First Investment Portfolio, the importance of time was a talking point once again. Justin Tan, Portfolio Wealth Specialist at Standard Chartered Bank, shared that concerns about investment risks and returns are often unfounded when you consider a longer time frame. His wisdom was that risk is frequently mitigated over a longer time frame, and that returns that may seem small initially usually grow significantly over time.
Another panellist, Ng Xin Yang, Head of Wealth Advisory, uSMART, echoed this sentiment. He advised beginner investors to be patient and let compounding interest work over time.
#2 Personal Finance Is About Resilience
Time was also a notable theme of Acting Minister of Transport Jeffrey Siow’s sharing during his fireside chat with MoneyHero CEO Rohith Murthy. Mr. Siow, who is also Senior Minister of State for Finance, pointed out that the fundamental principles of personal finance —discipline, prudent planning, and long-term thinking — stood the test of time.
Source: Facebook/Jeffrey Siow（萧振祥）
But those fundamental principles also highlighted another theme that came across very clearly: resilience. Many had come to the event with new tariff threats from President Trump on Chinese products fresh on their minds, yet another reminder of the increased volatility we’ve experienced this year.
So, it was not surprising that many speakers also touched on the need to be less reliant on emotions when investing.
In the Personal Finance 101 panel, MoneyOwl’s Vivienne Ong shared that when it comes to investments, relying on oneself for motivation can be risky. A sudden market shift may lead to an emotional decision that could hurt your investment portfolio in the long run. Instead, she recommended automating investments in long-term assets, such as a globally diversified fund and even the CPF Special Account. This automation ensures that your portfolio grows steadily regardless of your personal emotions.
Echoing this was uSMART’s Ng Xin Yang, in the Your First Investment Portfolio panel, who advised building good investment habits rather than chasing trends and not panicking when markets don’t do well. In the same panel, Standard Chartered Bank’s Justin Tan also recommended dollar-cost averaging (DCA) with an amount of money that “you won’t think twice about”, to keep the emotions out of growing your portfolio.
Read Also: 4 Things I Learned About Investing At The Seedly Personal Finance Festival 2025
#3 Personal Finance Is About Fun
Ahead of the Seedly Personal Finance Festival, I was curious how they could run two stages simultaneously, each filled with equally engaging speakers. Just like last year’s Festival, they utilised wireless headphones for attendees in the Orchid Stage, which ensured that both stages would not need to worry about overwhelming the other. It also gave me “silent disco” vibes, which was a hint that I would have a fun day ahead.
Personally, the best part of events like these is seeing the creativity and effort that brands and organisations put into their booths. This year, many companies and brands stepped up to ensure that learning about personal finance was not a dull experience by giving their booths exciting, colourful themes in line with the Festival’s main theme of “Explore Singapore”.
Prudential Singapore’s booth offered retro snacks and goodies to attendees who participated in a pickleball-themed Hit & Roll challenge.
WorkForce Singapore’s booth resembled a living room where participants sat down to play a board game.
Not to be outdone, Seedly + SingSaver’s booth had participants play a life-sized board game, called Game of Cards, complete with a massive six-sided die. The Game of Life-inspired board showcased the strengths of different credit cards across activities and life stages.
The Longbridge and Standard Chartered booths made for an interesting juxtaposition, with the investment platform’s nautical theme tying in well with the bank’s lighthouse feature.
But it was two booths that really stood out at the event. Manulife’s safari-themed booth showed how a longer, fulfilling, better life is an adventure.
Tiger Brokers’ booth was inspired by Singapore’s beloved hawker stalls, featuring a cool dim sum-inspired challenge that tested participants to see if they could guess the weight of a certain plate of items.
All in all, Seedly Personal Finance Festival 2025 succeeded once again in helping me see money in new, engaging, accessible, and enjoyable ways. I’m happy to see the event continue to be an excellent starting point for both young and old to learn more about financial literacy.
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