Women are constantly on the look out for new opportunities and ways to be financially independent.

Although more and more women are capable of landing good career positions today, many still aren't savvy with managing their hard earned funds.

Natalie Pringle and The New Savvy team aims to change all that — by creating a platform focused on empowering women to achieve financial happiness through education, media & conferences.

We had the chance to catch up with Natalie Pringle, the Chief Marketing Officer and Hong Kong lead of The New Savvy.

Below is the interview:

1. Tell us more about yourself and The New Savvy.

I moved to Hong Kong in 2015 to open the SE Asia division of an International Real Estate firm and quickly understood the importance of networking here in order to build a strong community. I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by a phenomenal group of women who are doing incredible things professionally and this has inspired me to keep moving forward and always look for ways that I can keep learning and developing myself.

I’ve always been passionate about supporting the women around me and because I was in a position where I worked my way up through the organization very quickly, I wanted to show other girls and women that they could also achieve their goals and do anything that they set their minds to. Whilst growing professionally is important, I’ve always sought other influences whether through reading motivational and business books or attending events to make sure that I am exposed to new ideas. This has helped me to ensure that I continue working on being a rounded leader for my team.

I saw The New Savvy conference advertised on Instagram early in 2017 when I was browsing inspirational women’s groups and decided I would fly to Singapore to attend. I can honestly say that it was one of the best decisions I have made as it really opened my eyes to the world of financial literacy which I knew I had overlooked previously. I have always worked hard and earnt pay rises, however, I did not really know what to do with my money once I had saved and as a result have made mistakes in the past. The New Savvy conference was a turning point and I knew that there must be many women in a similar position as me who could benefit from their work.

The New Savvy is Asia's leading Finance, Investment and Career platform for women and has the bold vision to empower 100 million women to achieve financial happiness. We are now in four different countries and are continuing to expand throughout Asia.

2. Why did you join The New Savvy?

I joined The New Savvy as I attended their first full day conference in Singapore last year and really felt that the topics being discussed were so important and that the movement needed to be shared with more women. Whilst there are lots of Female Entrepreneurial and Women in Business events here in Hong Kong, there wasn't anything addressing what women actually do with their money or how to become more savvy once they set up their own company so I knew the community could really benefit from having The New Savvy in more locations.

3. What have you contributed to The New Savvy that has a significant impact?

I became the CMO in March this year and have been responsible for all of our content across the platform as well as our social media strategy.

With leading the launch in Hong Kong, I have developed the brand here, hosting events almost every month, collaborating with different women networks and curating our first Future is Female conference outside of Singapore. We have grown the community offline here and have since launched in the Philippines in May and will be launching in Bangalore next month.

4. Where there a culture shock when you moved to Hong Kong from London?

It was a fairly easy transition as Hong Kong is quite Westernised and I was also incredibly busy setting up a new office for the company I worked for in London so didn't really have an opportunity to feel homesick. One of the great things about Hong Kong is that there are so many great networks and communities with people who have all moved here as a new face at some stage so they understand what it is like to be away from home. It is easy to make friends and meet new people.

5. What were the challenges faced by you as the Hong Kong lead?

We are always looking at ways to make sure that our content is current, unique and relatable so since we have launched in Hong Kong we have had to be mindful of what the concerns and issues are which are faced by women in Hong Kong and how these may be different to those experienced by Singaporean women. Now that we are also expanding into the Philippines and India we need to be really aware of what the community needs and make sure that content is tailored for each location.

In Hong Kong, we found that there are a great number of women who are considering career pivots or who have reached a high level in their company but still need support and advice when it comes to managing finances so we always need to be mindful that we are pitching our events and content at the right level to provide excellent information which is actionable but not too simplistic.

6. What is your outlook for the next year?

We will be continuing to expand our coverage throughout Asia as we will be launching in India before the end of the year. We also plan to introduce our SavvyUpTogether mentoring scheme in Hong Kong after it was successfully run in Singapore for the first time this year. It is a scheme which pairs 6 mentees with experts in Finance to help them achieve a specific goal when managing their personal finances so is quite unique and targeted in comparison to other, more traditional mentoring schemes which tend to focus more on career development. In addition to this, we will be strengthening our communities across Asia and hosting larger events now that we have had the inaugural 'Future is Female' Conference in Hong Kong which was really well received.

7. Share with us some tips for women on managing their finances.

Keep it simple and go back to basics. Taking control of your finances can seem like a huge and daunting task so take out a pen and paper and work out your budget, what you need to save or invest to achieve your goals and then introduce small steps to achieve your objectives.

Always be aware of the real cost of any debt including loans and Credit Cards and pay off your most 'expensive' one first when working to clear debts.

If you are working towards a goal then make family and friends aware so that you are accountable and you can work on it together to make sure that the steps that you have introduced are manageable. Those around you can help to support you with achieving your goal and will understand why you may not be able to make it out for every dinner or cannot always take expensive holidays during the time that you are working on your goal.