Nasfund encourages students to practise savings culture

THE National Superannuation Fund (Nasfund) is aiming to encourage more young people to think long-term and plan for their retirement at an early age after reaching out to students in high schools.
The fund, through its “Young Savers” campaign has promoted superannuation literacy awareness among students starting this year led by its marketing team.
Chief executive officer Rajeev Sharma, who was the guest speaker during St Joseph’s International Catholic College’s recent graduation ceremony, used the opportunity to speak to more than 100 Grade 12 and Grade 10 students including parents about the importance of saving for retirement.
Sharma told the graduating students how longevity and inflation would impact their future and encouraged them to practice a savings culture at an early age to reap the benefits of accumulative compounding interest.
“Today, the lifespan of people in Papua New Guinea has improved due to better healthcare services and the need to save for retirement is crucial,” he said.
“You will also notice that due to inflation, the prices of goods and services have increased compared to 10 years ago.
“This means that you will need more money to maintain the same standard of living in 10 years’ time,” Sharma added.
“Therefore, savings should be your first expense before every other expense.’’ Sharma encouraged the students to start setting their savings goals and planning for their retirement early.
St Joseph’s College executive director Br Anthony Samy Pancras thanked Sharma for his advice to students to start saving. He also thanked Nasfund for supporting the college by sponsoring laptops and tablets that were presented to the school’s high-performing students during the graduation.
As part of the Fund’s commitment to promote early financial awareness among young people, Nasfund invites schools who are interested in being part of the Young Savers campaign to reach out to its marketing team by emailing [email protected] to schedule appointments for a Nasfund team to visit the students.