What money journey are you currently on?

Join financial experts on November 9 to learn the basics of budgeting, building credit, retirement planning, buying your first home, small business financial strategies and more.

These days, everyone in my family has a different perspective on personal finance.

After working for various companies for more than a decade, my son is starting his own business for the first time. My daughter has worked for the same company since she graduated college and is able to save and invest money even though she lives in expensive San Francisco. My wife retired last year but has worked part-time on several projects since then. And I still work, but plan to retire in a few years and work part time.

None of us are in what I consider to be the most difficult decades of the typical personal finance journey, where seemingly everything financial hits at once: paying off a home mortgage, raising children, saving for college, saving for retirement, while (add your needs here).

No matter where you are on this money journey, two of them Hawaii Business MagazineThe latest initiatives from may be helpful. In September, we launched a free weekly email newsletter called the Hawaii Business Personal Finance Report, designed to provide advice and information from local and national experts.

And on Saturday, November 9th, we’re hosting the all-day Money Matters financial conference at the Mid-Pacific Institute. You can choose from five tracks depending on where you are in your personal finance journey: Getting Started, Getting Back on Track, Small Business, Retirement Planning, and Kūpuna. Register at moneymatters.hawaiibusiness.com.

Advice for your financial success

In the opening keynote, Shannon Okinaka, most recently the longtime CFO at Hawaiian Airlines, and I will have a conversation about the many important personal money management lessons we can all learn from Hawaiian, including how an airline manages incredibly complex operations and the associated processes handles uncertainty, price volatility, customer demands, black swan events and more. Almost everything you encounter on your personal journey is something airlines have to constantly deal with – and their responses and coping strategies can help you develop your own strategies.

Each workshop is designed to give you important information and actionable advice. The topics cover a wide range and here are just some of the sessions:

• The possible dream: Buy your first home in Hawaii
• Budgeting to get back on track
• Family, Fraud and Finance, a session aimed at Kūpuna but open to everyone
• Financial Management 101 for Small Businesses
• Best Strategies for the 401(k)/IRA Newbie
• Protect yourself from underhanded schemes, scams and scams
• Use your assets for credit power
• Build your credit from the ground up
• Balancing Act: Strategies for Generating Income from Retirement Savings
• YOU are important! Do you have a CareReceiving plan?
• Annuities and self-directed IRAs as part of a retirement strategy

Defining goals and steps to take

Our final keynote speaker is national finance expert Colin Ryan, who will speak on “Embracing the Human Side of Money.” His goal is to help you define and achieve your vision of financial success so you can live the life you want.

I’m confident you’ll learn a lot at the Money Matters financial conference, no matter what your personal finances are. Tickets are $50 for the full day and include free parking at the Mid-Pacific Institute in Mānoa, access to any session of your choice and a bento lunch. Register at moneymatters.hawaiibusiness.com.

I’m excited because I want to learn so much from the experts in these sessions. Honestly, there will be a few occasions when I want to attend two sessions at the same time, so I think my wife and I will split up to cover more topics.

Unless you’re in the richest 1%, I recommend saving this Saturday for a valuable day of learning. The payoff could be enormous.