Navigating the Cost-of-Living Crisis: My Insights from the Fintech Talents Conference (2023)

On May 16, 2023, I had the honor of participating in the FinTech Talents conference in London, a prestigious gathering of innovators in the FinTech industry. As a panelist in the discussion on “Utilising Embedded Finance to Mitigate the Cost-of-Living Crisis”, I had the opportunity to share my perspectives and contribute to the discourse around the contemporary challenges in our field.

In my discussion, I emphasized the importance of looking beyond just financial capital when considering solutions to help consumers navigate the ongoing crisis. I advocated for a more holistic approach that takes into account Social and Human capital, alongside Financial capital. This perspective, I believe, allows us to see consumers in their entirety, enabling us to offer comprehensive financial planning, educational planning, and career planning that cater to their unique circumstances.

This philosophy is at the heart of our work at Heartland Finance and wallet79. In our approach, we integrate Heartland’s financial services with a deep understanding of the individual’s social network their different types of capital. By doing so, we empower our customers to make informed decisions that can optimally leverage their diverse assets and capital.

The essence of my message was to challenge the traditional view of consumers as purely financial entities. Instead, I proposed a 360-degree perspective that considers their skills, experiences, social connections, and overall life circumstances. This perspective fosters personalized and effective planning strategies that equip individuals to navigate and potentially mitigate the cost-of-living crisis.

I saw the panel discussion as an opportunity to inspire industry professionals to recognize the value of Human and Social capital in addressing the cost-of-living crisis, and to demonstrate how Heartland Finance and wallet79 are already pioneering this approach.

How Serey helps a single mother in Venezuela to make ends meet

The following article has been originally posted by Celimarm on our Serey platform. Serey rewards its users with Serey coins, which have monetary value in real life. It showcases what blockchain-based social media with the right incentives mechanism can mean for those in developing countries.

In my country, Venezuelans wake up thinking about how the dollar will increase today, which they will be able to acquire with the little money they earn from their extra jobs. This is because the minimum salary of a Venezuelan worker, as stipulated by the government, equivalent to $15 per month, is an amount that is not enough to cover food, clothing or footwear expenses.

Doing this, many people look for the American dream, where they sell what little they have here, to be able to make a dangerous journey through a jungle that they must first pass, apart from the long road they must take to reach the United States, some they go alone, others take their children, putting him in danger.

Every night that I go to bed I ask for those people who are heading to that great path, to take care of it and guide it, in the morning I am grateful for the blessings that I have by having a house, a bed to live in with my daughter and mother, to Despite not having a job here in Venezuela, I have found that window of help that I am dedicating day by day to this is the Serey.io platform, I thank its founders, the witnesses, users who make life in this community. With the profits from the rewards I have been able to cover food expenses, medicine, I am not rich, but I try to manage myself to be able to cover these expenses that occur every day in my house.

This month I had a different expense than the one that has not been in my program, they are the expenses of the purchase of school supplies, I have a four (04) year old girl named Daniela Beatriz who is the sun of my life in enlightening me day by day, which is what drives me to get ahead, enrolling in preschool this year gave me a list of school supplies, where I have been able to buy a large part of their supplies.

I recently did a shutdown, where I got 2 paid in the following week giving me a total of 5858 coin on each shutdown, to get 11,716, the price value at that time was $0.004, the rewards gave me $47.

Where I could buy what you can see here in the photo.

Bags $10
shoes 15$
Colors 2$
Crayons 1.5$
Pencils (box 12) 3$
Clear 0.20$
pencil sharpener 0.9
Construction block 1$
Paste 0.9$
Thermos of water 3$
Sketchbook 0.9
Uniform (Shirt and pants) 10$
Total of 44$

This list does not include the food expenses of the house for those two weeks off, nor the expenses to cover the school snack.

If I wasn’t in Serey, I really wouldn’t know how I was going to be able to cover the expenses.

Among other things

Today in the value of Serey, it is increasing to a value of 0.005, making the value of each post continue to grow, your earnings too.

Serey: It is a platform that not only helps to share your passion, knowledge, comments, find a sea of ​​information that each user provides, but also helps financially many people who dedicate and invest their time here in Serey.

That is why we must make Serey continue to grow, attracting new investors, people who want to share their passion, in turn find a window of financial aid, just as it helps me, I know many more people.

When I met one of the Founders Chhay Lin, a long time ago, he is a person with a good heart, and when I told him about the situation in Venezuela, he offered me the idea of ​​creating a Venezuelan community, from where Eusocial was born, to Another person that I greatly appreciate is @balrog where he has guided me through telegram, he is aware of any occasion that may happen, no matter the time, nor the moment he always responds when needed. Thank you both for this great opportunity.

Personal superiority

So, if you see a man, frightfully obese, stuffing his mouth with every kind of injudicious food and rendering his condition even worse, you need not say:I am superior to that man. But you can certainly say, if it is true: I am not, like him, a glutton.

And if you see women sitting around a table, playing some mindless card game, giggling and chattering about nothing of significance, killing half a day in essentially pointless activity, you need not say: I am better than these. But you certainly can say, in case it is true: I am not, like them, silly and unthinking.

And if you see a pompous man, puffing himself up, talking much and hearing nothing, calling attention to his power and position, insensitive to those around him, then you need not say to anyone: I am a better person than he. But you can say, in case it is true: I am not, like him, a pompous bore.

Conversely, if you see someone doing something very well, displaying creative gifts that have been cultivated to a high degree of excellence – a musician, for example, or a writer, or the pursuer of things more plebeian such as horticulture or skilled parenting, or whatever may rest upon creative powers that have not been allowed to atrophy – then admit, with some sense of shame, that you are not as worthy as a person as she. And do something about it. That ought, by nature, to be your primary business in life.

– Richard Taylor