In my Money Managers interview series, I interview notable members of the personal finance community. Generally, my interviewees are bloggers or professionals working in finance. In this article I interviewed Fiona, creator of the famous blog, The Millennial Money Woman. I love her financial tips and how she makes personal finance a lot more simple and approachable. Without further ado, let’s get into the interview!
For my readers who may not be familiar with you, would you please introduce yourself? Who are you? What do you do?
My name is Fiona, aka The Millennial Money Woman. Some people call me a finance ninja!
My interest in finance started when I saw my grandparents lose everything – and more – in their late 70s (just before retirement) due to poor financial planning.
My grandparents played a very pivotal role in my early years and they are the reason why I am now in the finance industry.
They built a small business together and worked every single day of their lives. Their business was nothing fancy but they made it work. However, they unfortunately didn’t plan too well into their future – financially speaking. And that’s why, after a financially devastating year, they lost everything and more. I saw them firsthand lose their home, their business and their car. They did not have a single cent to show for their lifelong hard work.
That was my pivot point.
It was then, when I realized that if I had the power to positively impact someone’s – anyone’s – financial life, I would.
That was the beginning to my quest for helping others find financial freedom.
I earned my Master of Science in Personal Financial Planning and managed to graduate college debt-free by working 50-plus hour weeks (on top of my regular class and study work). At 23, I bought my first house, co-founded a local non-profit charity, and as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I founded my blog The Millennial Money Woman, which helps others take control of their financial lives and achieve financial freedom early in life.
I would never change anything about my life and the course I’ve taken so far.
Seeing the positive financial impact I’ve had on the people I’ve worked with, is so gratifying.
What is your blog about, and in your opinion, what sets it apart from the others in your niche?
The purpose of my website is to help young professionals find ways to:
- Save money
- Make money
- Invest money
- Plan for their future
The ultimate goal of my website is to help my readers understand that they can build wealth, no matter their financial background.
Although there are many personal finance blogs out there, here’s what sets mine apart: I break down complex financial jargon into pictures, easy-to-understand words, and simple graphics.
There are many people out there who are visual learners (like me) and yet it seems like most personal finance blogs don’t offer informational, simple and impactful images and graphics. That’s where I separate myself from the rest.
When and why did you start blogging? Looking back, would you have gone about starting it differently?
After seeing the positive impact that my non-profit financial mentorship program had on the young professionals in my community, I knew I had to broaden my reach.
Even more so, once the pandemic hit in early March of 2020, I knew this was my opportunity to begin a website targeted directly toward millennials and young professionals.
So many of my friends lost their jobs in 2020 and I saw their debt loads increase – virtually suffocating them.
I knew that if my friends were going through a rough time, then there were likely tens of thousands of other young professionals going through the same difficult period.
That was the genesis of my blog, The Millennial Money Woman.
The only thing that I would have done differently is starting earlier. In fact, I had thought about starting a personal finance blog back in 2016, when I first found out what a blog actually is. I just never got around to it, until the pandemic in 2020.
The biggest lesson I learned was to never procrastinate. Put in the work today and you’ll thank yourself later.
Are there bloggers, authors, friends or anyone else who has really inspired you?
The one person who has inspired me massively is my mentor. His childhood was one where you would not expect him to have become successful. However, through grit, perseverance, and determination, my mentor became a serial entrepreneur, starting up and selling multiple businesses for millions. My mentor taught me that it’s never too late to start building your dreams.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced so far, through helping people learn about finance as well as in your own personal finance journey?
The number one challenge that I’ve faced when helping others learn about finance is that many are not patient. Patience is absolutely key when it comes to finance and managing your money! Yet sadly, I’ve found not many people are patient.
People want to see results today. They don’t want to wait for a few years – or decades, in many cases. But then again, there is a reason why a “short cut” is never known as “the way.”
Chances are, get-rich-quick schemes are either not legit or they can cost you more money than they’re worth. To build wealth, it takes time and patience.
Time for a bit of a loaded question – what is your favorite type of investment and why (index funds, stocks, bonds, real estate, etc.)?
Investing doesn’t have to be made complex and difficult. In fact, when it comes to investing, I am a pretty simple person – I invest my money in low-cost index funds using a dollar cost averaging strategy. Studies show that index funds can be a tool that helps you invest your way to wealth – if you’re patient.
I’m also a big fan of index funds because their expense ratios are typically very low. For example, a Vanguard index fund will likely cost you less than 0.10%, while other ETFs or mutual funds could cost you north of 1.00%. Although these numbers may seem minute initially, if you’re calculating the cost over a period of several decades, these expense ratios could have a pretty large impact on your net profit. In other words, the lower the expense ratio, the more money in your pocket. And because index funds are often passively managed, they carry a low expense ratio, which means you get a bigger bang for your buck.
At the end of the day, what is the main thing you hope your readers take away from your blog?
The overarching message I want to leave my readers with is that anyone can build wealth. Regardless of your current situation, your upbringing, or your job, if you really want to make a change in your future, you can. All it takes is discipline, patience, and perseverance. And, sometimes, you need to start small in order to become big.
What’s the best piece of advice you received growing up? How did it shape you into the person you are today?
What revolutionized my view about money and finance was that you can become a millionaire by the time you’re age 65 if you start investing just under $14 a day beginning at age 25 with an average return of about 7%.
I always thought that to become a millionaire, you’d have to invest $100,000s. I never had $100,000s, which is why I thought investing was not meant for me. However, when I learned that you can still join the two-comma club if you consistently invest over a few decades by following the dollar cost averaging strategy, I changed my entire view on life.
Everyone views success differently, what personal metric do you use to define your own success?
For me, the ultimate form of success is having the choice to live life on your own terms. In other words, success to me would mean that I would have the choice to stop working if I wanted to and still not sacrifice the quality of my lifestyle.
Success, in my opinion, means freedom. I am looking for the freedom to spend my time as I want – with my family, traveling, on vacation, etc. without worrying about how much something costs and without worrying about potentially upsetting my boss.
People tend to struggle with finding a good work-life balance, especially these days. How do you manage? In other words, what’s an average weekday like for you?
I’m very lucky to have found something I am passionate about and something that gives me a sense of purpose in my life. If I were not passionate about my work, I would have likely quit months ago.
A work-life balance is very important, and I really look forward to finding that balance one day in the future. At the current moment, because I’m still building my website, I’m basically living and breathing my business every second of every day. On an average week, I’ll likely pull around 100 to 120+ hours.
As you can see, my blog takes up almost every minute of my life. However, because I’m passionate about what I do and because I know that I’m helping people improve their financial situation, I don’t really see my work on the blog as painful or unfulfilling. I love what I do.
What’s something you’re interested in – outside of personal finance?
I’m really interested in the interconnectivity of financial health, mental health, and physical health. In that respect, I’m really into fitness. It is my opinion that you shouldn’t just “pay yourself first” financially speaking. I also believe that you should pay yourself first when it comes to exercise and keeping your body fit. I’ve learned the hard way to never, ever take your health for granted. You won’t have the ability to earn if you’re unhealthy. Exercising and staying fit has improved not only my physical fitness but also my mental fitness. If you stick with a workout routine and crush it every day, that success transcends into every facet of your life, making you stronger, more confident, and ultimately more prosperous.
If you had to give advice to someone who has just joined the job market and started their personal finance journey, what would it be?
I think the largest misconception – especially in my millennial generation – is the idea that you can always start saving tomorrow, especially if you’ve just joined the job market and are being paid an entry-level salary.
I’ve heard it so many times before: You Only Live Once.
That’s true.
But YOLO doesn’t mean you should spend your paycheck the second you see it and forget about investing even a small portion of your income.
I think people wrongly believe that a $5 per week (or per day) investment won’t make a big difference in their overall financial life.
It might not make a difference today.
But it certainly will make a difference in a few decades from now.
The keys to building a solid retirement portfolio include:
- Start investing today.
- Be consistent with your strategy.
Another crucial piece of advice is to stay out of debt – specifically high-interest debt. High-interest debt, like credit card debt, could virtually ruin your chances of becoming wealthy and building a substantial net worth.
You owe it to yourself to live debt-free.
Are there any projects you recently completed that you’d like to share?
I just finished authoring my book, which I just recently published and released! It’s called “How to Get Rich from Nothing,” and it focuses on more than just monetary wealth. The book discusses how “rich” represents wealth in a financial, mental, relationship capacity, for example. The book is designed as a 14-week growth program, where each chapter represents one week. At the end of each chapter, the reader is given a list of challenges to complete for the week so that they move one step closer to accomplishing their goals. I’m really excited about the book’s release!
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed learning about Fiona and her views on personal finance as much as I did! If you liked what she had to say and want to see more, be sure to check out her blog, The Millennial Money Woman. As always, if you have any thoughts you’d like to contribute, add a comment!
