A guide to financial freedom in Bangladesh
On August 13th, bKash hosted an event titled “Financial Freedom: Take charge of your personal finances” at Brac University. The chief guest, Md. Sabbir Ahmad (General Manager of Financial Services, bKash Limited) inaugurated the event with a question — What does financial freedom actually mean? While most answers centered on wealth, the speaker pointed out how it is more about skills, planning and passive income.
Drawing connections with Bangladesh’s GDP, Ahmad noted that the country’s population, with a median age of 27, would have a natural advantage with proper training. He also discussed Bangladesh’s GDP growth, $100M in 2010 to $460B in 2025, that led to a significant drop in poverty since 1970. With the inclusion of mobile phones and the advent of companies like bKash, the country aims to become the 25th largest economy by 2040.
He proceeded to highlight how success is contingent on meticulous preparation; current skills would soon become extinct with data science, artificial intelligence and programming languages conquering. At the heart of all this lie the four pillars of financial freedom — budgeting, saving, investment and debt management. Ahmad introduced the 50/30/20 rule: allocating 50% of your income to needs, 30% for wants and saving the remaining 20%. Moreover, he mentioned some investment avenues like DPS through bKash, government bonds, mutual funds, gold and equity markets. These habits would eventually manifest into FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early), the concept of early retirement and chasing passion.
Finally, the curtains fell with the hopes of painting a better future for Bangladesh through investments, savings and relevant skills.
