Life of SavingsBy:Team INTI-USM

The ObjectiveThe objective of our project, called "Life of Savings", is to encourage the world to save money but the term "save" was also used to portray saving our experiences and knowledge that we gather throughout our life to achieve our goals. “Goals” can refer to many things like achieving satisfaction, getting what you want, et cetera.

The ProcessWe started out by asking 3 banks and over 100 students in UniversitiSains Malaysia (USM), consisting of all three main races of Malaysia, which are Malays, Chinese and Indian as to show the spirit of 1Malaysia in our video. 1Malaysia is a concept created by our Prime Minister that says that we are not divided by race, rather, united because we are still Malaysians.

The ResponseWe asked the banker why does he think saving money is important and also several students in USM who have proven their abilities in the Microsoft Imagine Cup. We then asked over 100 students these 3 questions, “Will you save to buy something that you like?”, in which all of them said, “Yes!”, “What do you feel when you bought it with your savings?” and generally, they said, “Happy and excited!”, and finally, we asked “What did you buy with your savings?” and they gave multiple answers.

The ResultThe concept of saving money here is that people save money in order to get what they want in the future. So, that is what we want to project to the world. However, money does not always get the things that we want most, as some things are too valuable that only experience and knowledge can bring you the satisfaction

The RealizationWe realized that most people in Malaysia, especially students save money to get what they really want and they still study their best to achieve a goal that cannot be achieved by means of money only, and that is knowledge. When we reflect back on how Malaysian people and youths think, we realized that we have to have our own goals to achieve or the things that we want to buy in the future. This will push us to save more and more money, making our piggy bank fatter, fatter and fatter, as depicted in the video. Once we have enough money to get what we want, we will have the satisfaction and that is the “Fun” part of the entire journey of saving money.

The Letter to PMSince the government has been trying to reach out to the youth market, we came up with the idea to send our results to the Prime Minister, who is also the Finance Minister of Malaysia. In the letter, we have also suggested a few ways to inspire more Malaysians to save money.

The Idea for PMThe usual campaigns done by the government should be remodeled to fit the time of today, so instead of a generic campaign, we came up with a whole new campaign that fits into our “Life of Savings” project that is to encourage more people to save by encouraging them to have a future goal that they want to achieve with their savings. This will change the mindset of spendthrift people to be more careful with what they spend on as they might need it for future purposes. By sending this letter, we hope that the government would hear our research results and would implement the idea that we have given some time in the future.

In Simple Language…The last part of the video depicts our message in a simple language that is by using paper cut-outs to ease things up for the viewers to relax and watch it. We started out by using a character. He starts out as a child who wants toys, and then he grows up to be a teenager who wants hand phones, an adult who wants a car and a father who wants a house to keep his family safe. They can only achieve that by saving money as it will bring happiness to them when they get their wanted item. However it is not only about the money, it is also about the experience and knowledge that they have gained throughout their lives to fully achieve happiness and satisfaction, bringing them to a whole new level of “Fun” through saving!