20 Sep Nurul overcame her financial struggle. She shares how you can beat the odds too!
Aspiring personal finance blogger, Nurul Yahi has built an audience on Instagram sharing lessons on finance. Continue below to learn from her experience.
1. How did you get started on educating people on personal finance?
I always wanted to start a blog and be a full-time blogger on
educating personal finance.
I have always followed on Pinterest and blogs. But there are not many Malaysian based writers. But I never really had the discipline to write consistently.
I wanted to start small so I microblog on Instagram to motivate me first before investing in a blog.
2. How did you personally get interested in personal finance as a topic and why?
I was watching Oprah and there was this one interview by Suze Orman talking about personal finance to a college girl that had a huge credit card debt. She hadn’t even started working yet.
I was baffled by it and thought:
how can banks just freely give away credit cards to people who are not working?
So I started reading up more about it and felt an interest in Psychology.
I always wondered about people’s spending habits and how I can help them achieve financial peace.
3. Personal finance can be a boring topic. When creating your content, how do you keep the topic of personal finance interesting?
I share my personal struggle.
I feel it’s refreshing to see people’s struggles compared to the “picture perfect post” on social media.
I personally I’m sick of watching people posting their expensive cars and holidays.
I’m embracing my broke life and working towards financial freedom and I feel many can relate to that.
4.Is there a particular website/platform you like to visit for financial advice?
I love mom blogs because they are the most honest people on the
internet. I can relate to the struggles they are going through.
5. What is the number 1 tip you tell your audience when they want to start managing their finances?
What do you really want in life? Because in the end, you are going to die. What is your legacy?
6. Can you give me an example of a time in your life where you struggled with money?
I am still struggling with money.
I still look at my calendar for my next payday.
I still have anxiety wondering if I am enough for my children;
there is so many other things that I struggle with but the more I write about it, the more I feel more confident that I will get [personal finance] right one day.
7. What book or movie is a must for someone who wants to learn more in personal financing?
The Pursuit if Happyness is amazing and made my heart ache watching how he pulled through his struggle and determination to end his poverty. My favourite book is Financially Fearless.
8. What is something that you were sceptical about when it came your personal finance but ended up working anyways?
Getting married young.
I always made fun of girls who just are so obsessed with getting married as soon as possible. When I was in university, I pledged to myself that I wanted to be a millionaire first before getting married. But when I started my job I didn’t see that happening anytime soon.
I was so depressed, almost every other night I would go from one networking event to another just to get ahead. But all I hear is you are still young you got a long way to go and my career was not going anywhere.
“My then boyfriend decided he was ready to marry and I was like why not?
It’s not like my career is getting anywhere.”
When I was working in a financial advisory company, most of the
financial advisors mentioned that I was making a mistake of getting married young. I was not financially ready, I can’t afford children and the list goes on. But he made me happy.
With the little funds that he had, he found me a place for rent that was more than he could afford to make sure I had a comfortable home.
We were both struggling, but we were happy.
“Personal finance is not all about investments and insurance, it is an emotional journey.
I wish I can help more people realise that it is going to be okay and we can go through this financial storm and reach financial peace.”
9. What is the best advice ever you got for your own personal finance?
My mother used to say that
“part of your money is not for yourself:
you either voluntary giveaway some amount of money to the poor or God will forcefully take it away from you.
You may experience an accident or tragedy that requires you to spend.”
10. Would you rather be good or lucky and why?
I’d rather be good, it will soften the blow if I ever had a fall.
11. What are you working on now?
Client Liaison & HR Administration.
Additional questions
Why do you think some people are lazy with the way they manage funds?
Denial is a bliss.
Self-awareness is lacking and it is easier to blame the government, the system or the place that brought you up than it is to blame yourself.
Anybody can lend a hand but they cannot bring you out of your denial.
Do you believe are the young these days financially illiterate? And why?
I don’t think so, I feel they are much more literate.
Compared to my mother’s generation we spend a lot more time interacting with others. I grew up talking and messaging with my friends more as compared to my parents.
So I grew up being more open talking about everything with my friends including money.
We share our struggles more openly and read more with the abundance of resources.
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