The Year of Responsibility
The year 2019 was fairly exceptional in a global perspective as well as looking from my small personal bubble.
I believe that everyone has the right to learn and make their own decisions. I also think that education and awareness are keys that help everyone to make more responsible personal, communal, national and international decisions.
For example, climate change really hit the news and larger wheels are slowly gaining pace. Entrepreneurship and financial skills of young people were actively discussed in Finland.
I’ll open my views and personal actions towards the issues above.
My personal view on the action
I have long been an advocate of incentives and their ability to guide one's actions toward the direction that provides the best return. When investing your own time or money, you get to decide how you define the best return and what are your incentives. In my case the incentives can be financial, social of ecological and an optimal opportunity combines all of them.
I have different “baskets” reserved for different types of opportunities. I also divide opportunities in time/money -axel. Time is something you spend your days' building and money is where you enable someone else to build.
What have I built with time in 2019
Enabling financial literacy for youth
In Junior Achievement Finland we built and launched a Personal Finance -curriculum targeted towards vocational education and the curriculum will be used nationwide to teach students the basics of earning money, consumption, savings, security, and financial planning. I wish that we can reduce the number of payment challenges, and help youth to understand the importance of sound financial management.
www.nuoriyrittajyys.fi / Oma talous haltuun
Building the digital platform companies in Finland
Europe is lacking behind in digital platforms. Different platforms will derive the significant change in a way most companies operate and super platforms touch the lives of billions.
In Sofokus Ventures we are building in investment vehicle and accelerator program to support the growth of new Finnish digital platform companies. This will enable more entrepreneurship, more work, and innovations in Finland.
Enabling things with money
Defending the Finnish Rental Home Ownership
Finland has become some sort of safe haven for many international real estate investors. This has caused foreign companies to enter to residential real estate market and export rental income abroad. At the same time, many Finns have unused capital in their bank accounts.
In Asuntos??st? we provide a low entry barrier opportunity to real-estate investing and wish that more Finns start to invest and earn passive income. This will make our country a bit wealthier and give us more financial freedom to do things we see important. My personal goal is to get wealthier too.
www.asuntosaasto.fi
Generating Co2 Free Electricity From Geothermal Heat
I bought a small generator that produces clean electricity using geothermal heat.
Now my generator is humming 24*7 in Bulgaria where they only needed to dig 40m below the ground to find geothermal heat. Total CO2 reduction is more than 10t since march 2019 and I make money by selling the electricity to the grid.
Enabling Electric Taxi Ride Service in Kenia Instead of Buying an Electric Car.
Our family drives about 30km/day. In a taxi service, they drive around 175km/day (this is Africa, so traffic is not that smooth). I don’t have exact numbers, but imagine that I do greater good by investing in a company that electrifies taxis than spending the same money in a personal electric vehicle. I also hope that my choice is financially better for me too.
Modular wooden houses to replace concrete
Celt Finland builds modular wooden houses from cross-laminated timber and I placed a small investment to them. If things go according to plan (this is the risky part) I can say that I have enabled more wooden buildings to Finland. If things go really well I'll also increase my investment capital.
Conclusions
This is how I placed my bets in 2019. I encourage you to think about your time/money criteria and make 2020 a good year for all and be the forerunner of change.
I wish you happy holidays and a successful year 2020 according to your goals.
Building impact driven tech solutions.
5 年You have been involved with really wise and challenging projects. Good luck for 2020! :)?
Digital Entrepreneur & Investor │Digital Heart?│Better Monday?│Composable Commerce│Digital Maturity
5 年Thanks Turo, great to have you with us! Great text and excellent thoughts. ??