[00:00:06] Viktoriia Miracle: Hello. Hello and welcome, welcome to happy time happy money podcast and I'm your host Viktoriia Miracle. Today we have Ella Safri and Ella is from far away from Brunei. If you don't know that's next to Malaysia, like super fine 7am for her, and it's 3:00 PM for me. And we here, and she is a 30 years old engineer striving for financial independence. She teaches a woman financial literacy and her goal is to help others learn how to manage their money and invest in order to build wealth and reach financial independence. I love that vision. Welcome. Welcome Ella.

[00:00:52] Ella Safri: Hi Viktoriia. Good morning. Good morning. Good afternoon for you.

[00:00:57] Viktoriia Miracle: Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. No matter where you listening or watching right away, you can watch this episode on YouTube as well as the same on listening to the iTunes. I just got a feedback that people doesn't know there is a video version. So yeah, you actually can see us. All right. Well, tell us more. We have a lot to learn more about you.

[00:01:21] We talked a little bit, but I would love to know the whole story of like, how, how did you start it and what inspired you to do what you're doing?

[00:01:29] Ella Safri: I think it went back to when I was 25, you know, I was already thinking about the future. I was like, okay, how can I prepare myself and set myself up well for retirement, what can I do with money?

[00:01:42] How can I maximize my money, you know, as I'm earning them. So, cause back then I only knew about saving, you know, everyone told us, you know, save your money. I just never really heard about investing. I didn't know what it was. So I started reading up about it, watching videos about it. And then I was just like, wow.

[00:02:01] So is this really how investing works? You just put your money to work in a stock and a real estate ETF or mutual fund and it will grow at a certain rate every year. It's essentially, you're letting your money work for you. But the thing is back then when I was 25, I didn't know that we had the option here in Brunei, so I didn't invest yet.

[00:02:25] I saved, I saved, but I didn't invest and I only realized could invest or when I was 28 and that's when I started actually investing and, you know, making my money work for me and doing all the financial planning to make sure that I'm set up for the future. So part of the reason why I set it up my budget culture earlier this year, I think I created it in mid February something like that was because I was talking about it with friends. And it was just amazing because I mean, a few of us know about it, but even then some of us know about savings, some of us know by investing, but none of us really knew about you know, having being able to reach financial independence, that retirement essentially is a number until I came across this fire movement, from the book, your money or your life, or even from Instagram outreach journey.

[00:03:20] Those were the people that I followed and, you know, learnt from and not a lot of people know about this just generally how to let your money work for you. So why not create a platform and that's where I can kind of like help influence people to, you know, start being good with their money, start investing their money, start thinking about retirement, start thinking about reaching financial freedom.

[00:03:49] That's why it started.

[00:03:52] Viktoriia Miracle: That is awesome. That is so beautiful. And, you know, a lot of people think when they starting in financial industry of that, they need to have like financial education or not. So you have a financial education, like, what is it? Like what is your background?

[00:04:10] Ella Safri: Yeah. So actually my background, I studied chemical engineering, during my university years. So that was my bachelor's. And then I thought to myself, I was like, is this something that I want to keep to as a career? Or shall I think of branching out into like the finance industry? I wasn't sure back at that point.

[00:04:30] So I decided to pick up a masters in engineering with finance, finance was my minor, but the thing is the finance that I studied was more, I guess, corporate finance. It wasn't really personal finance in the sense of, you know, investing your money in retirement and all that. So I, so essentially I didn't really have a finance or specific finance background is you could say, but I learned most of what I know now from all the books that I've read, like there were so many books out there. And then there's so many YouTube videos or Instagram where people share their journeys, you know, share their knowledge and there are courses out there as well that you can sign up to enjoy.

[00:05:13] That's how I learned it and I'm still right now learning that, like, I love it so much that I've decided to pick up the qualification, the CFP, the certified financial planner education, a course. Sorry. So that's what I'm studying right now. And I'll be sitting the exam soon in December actually will one of the ASAP.

[00:05:32] Viktoriia Miracle: That's awesome. I know you're also, you started from the budgeting culture and your name. And so my budgeting, so I know you already shared that a little bit of part of the story, but I want you to go again and share that story like that. It just, I guess it just shows that you can, you know, shift and pivot and do whatever it is, but still be in alignment.

[00:05:54] Oh, where are you started?

[00:05:56] Ella Safri: Yeah. So I, my IG handle my, you know, I guess my brand is what you call it. I started with my budget culture, cause I thought, you know, everything starts off from the basics. If you want to build wealth, if you want to save more, if you want to start to invest, you need to understand first if you have enough money or if let's how can you save more? How can you invest more? And for me, it's all about budgeting. You start off with a budget to see where you can spend your money on things, on the things that you value and everything, but where are you going to optimize? Because I feel like if you don't have a goal, if you don't have a plan, then how would you know where you're going?

[00:06:42] So like, for example, if we're driving and we don't know where we're going to, we use a map. So having a budget is essentially the map to reaching financial freedom. That's what I believe in and that's how I personally kind of like started my journey as well. I mean, I always budgeted, but until I really had a goal until I really had a plan, then I'm like, okay, this is how much I need to save, or, oh my gosh.

[00:07:07] All these small expenses are actually adding up. You just don't realize how much $5, $10 do add up to and you're an, that's essentially like an insight that it can give you by having a budget. You see the categories on, you know, where you're spending the most, where you're wasting, essentially. If that's not really the things that you value and that's where you can optimize.

[00:07:33] So that's where you can also maximize the money that you're earning. You know, so that's how I first started. And I thought as I grew along my journey, I'm now focused a lot, especially in investing, because investing to me is the way that we can build, build wealth, the way that we can close that gender gap inequality, the way that everyone can reach financial freedom.

[00:07:59] It doesn't really matter what you invest in, but as long as you invest, you know, investing in the stock market, investing in real estate, some investment crypto or so many types of investments or investing in a business as well, essentially because businesses later on can give you cash flow can grow. So despite my name, I still kept that handle my budget culture because I feel like it still fits in with everything.

[00:08:25] That's still the basics, but I talk more now on generally money and investing. I do go into budgeting here and there as well.

[00:08:35] Viktoriia Miracle: So, where is your, like, what is your portfolio look like right now? When, so when did you start investing?

[00:08:43] Ella Safri: I started investing when I was 28, so that was two and a half or so years ago and right now my portfolio is I think about 80, 88% the stock market.

[00:08:56] Viktoriia Miracle: So the bulk of it is in the stock market?

[00:08:59] Ella Safri: Yes. The bulk of it is in the stock market. Yeah.

[00:09:02] Viktoriia Miracle: And I know we said a little bit to you also invested a little in crypto and you know, what I actually want to go is that I know many people there. I mean, they're trying to say, I'm not in crypto.

[00:09:12] I don't understand that this is too crazy. This is too complicated, but it's like, how did you start it? Like, what exactly was your thought pattern and what would you recommend to our audience and it's like where to go to actually shift that because I feel like I'm a little bit too far encrypted to remember.

[00:09:31] I started when I was like seven years ago and I don't even remember for me, it was like, I will share what it was for me. For me, I just was working for a person. And then, you know, we were just trusting some cash and whatever, pick it up. And he had a lot of cash and he works with Bitcoin and I was like, what the hell is that?

[00:09:51] Oh yeah, and the more I was transferring cash from like one office to another, I was like, I need to get into this. I'm curious because this dude definitely know something that I don't. He has this group tail ATM's in New York and that's what, that was his business and that's where I fit. I went online and I couldn't find that many thinks about it because it was, it wasn't still, like there was no YouTube about it.

[00:10:18] And I tried to understand blockchain and I was like, this is really complicated. Okay. Let me just buy one Bitcoin. And I will, see how it works. Let me just do it. Whatever $500 worst can happen, I lose this $500, whatever, and there was only Coinbase at that moment. There was only, I think, blockchain.com and Coinbase, and it took me three weeks.

[00:10:42] For them to clarify my documents, to clarify the bank, the payment, it was like so such a long process, but I bought it and I forgot about it. Yes. I wanted to invest already and I totally forgot about it until it reaches like 3000 again until 3000 in the year or so. Okay. I need to get back to her, whatever.

[00:11:10] For me, that was just a curiosity of like unknown, but also the same time. I know that there was the money, but I had no idea what was it? So what it was for you, because I know like now there's so much information and they cannot give an excuse for person saying, oh, I don't understand and it just Google it like

[00:11:32] Ella Safri: exactly.

[00:11:33] Viktoriia Miracle: Its so simple. There is actually simple. So tell me your story. How did you find.

[00:11:39] Ella Safri: For me, I started with actually, can't remember how I started with crypto. I think, I, I like to, well, I don't really, I didn't really find it in my books. I like to watch YouTube videos. I follow quite a few of the big influences on YouTube.

[00:11:56] And I think, I think that's probably where I started hearing about it. I mean, I heard about it probably a year before I started investing in crypto, but I never really thought about it. You know, I always thought, oh, I, I didn't understand this technology. Would you mean creating coins out of thin air?

[00:12:16] What, how does that make sense? How does that hold money? So I never. You know, learned about it. I was never really interested. I thought I was just a scam. It's just this meme thing or something, you know? But then as I think I, I started watching more YouTube videos at the beginning of this year because there are a lot out there.

[00:12:33] There was a lot of information out there, like you said, you can just Google it and there's so many. And then I just started learning about it. Yeah. People were actually explaining how the blockchain works or you start seeing the white papers that they talk about as well. So it started all from YouTube videos and then I got more into it by, okay.

[00:12:58] Does that's what they're saying? That's what they're explaining. It made sense. It, it sounded like a good thing to jump on. But I started reading some of the white papers as well for some of the ones that I invested. And I was like, this, this makes sense. But at the same time, it was just like, like I'm a high risk as well, a pro profile types.

[00:13:17] So I don't mind, like you say, you know, just throwing a couple of hundred if I lose it. So what? It's something that I can stand to use. It's something that I can afford. So I started off a little bit as well. Like I started off with a few hundred and then, you know, you start seeing how they work, just like the stock market, you know, it goes up, it goes down.

[00:13:34] Although with crypto, it's definitely more volatile. So, you know, you just start seeing how it works, how it's traded. And then over time, I'm like, I started adding in more money and then I started adding in more and more and it just over time. It's like, I just became more convinced, especially with certain projects.

[00:14:02] I feel like, you know what, this is something that we could potentially be moving into for the future. So why not? Why not try it. And for me, I'm the type that doesn't like to be left behind. So I thought, you know, what, if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't, I'm just going to be on the train either way.

[00:14:22] Viktoriia Miracle: And I think it's, you know, it's a, it's a great mindset to understand that, okay. If that's where the world is going, either you are in the boat, you are off, you know, you're on the train or you're off the train and you either catching up in, even by little by little, not trying to understand everything, but it's just, just getting on it so that when there is a time, you get to learn a little bit more and you get some learn a little bit more. And I love that you said that you started from white papers. So for those who doesn't know a white paper, it's like something that the company writes and that's their vision.

[00:14:58] It's like a roadmap that you follow. So yeah, I highly recommend, always starts from white paper of the project. If you investing, you know, in anything it's like a vision for big companies, you understand like what they're providing, what is it the you buying from them.

[00:15:16] Ella Safri: Essentially, it's like a business plan.

[00:15:18] Viktoriia Miracle: Yeah. It's like a business plan and like a road map you said, yes. And mainly there's so many coins that you, you know, you, you need to have like millions of hours to read all the white papers. The most important part is to really, to choose something that has technology in the utility, in the use of it and most likely yeah, that the, I mean the crypto industry it's like exploding.

[00:15:46] Yeah. So what you will share was your like top three mistakes when you start investing?

[00:15:54] Ella Safri: Okay. So the top three mistakes that I did, was back then, you know, I didn't understand that, you know, investing can be as easy or as hard as you make it. So I started doing some, like day trading, swing trading, not, not, not a big day trading.

[00:16:14] Fan, I would say. So I think I'm mostly, I did swing trading and I also followed some of the hyped maybe not the main ones back then, but more those that had momentum, I was like, oh, this is going up. So let me jump on it and then let's see if I can come back off at a profit and I don't know, a few weeks or so. So I feel like you needed to be, I don't know.

[00:16:38] You need to keep up with the markets. You need to be aware of what's going on, you know, the news, the financials. So it was a lot of work. So I feel like, I mean, I made some money, but I lost some money as also. For me now, like the more that I know. I'm definitely leaning towards like the longterm investing style.

[00:16:59] If you want to swing to it. That's what you, but for me, I thought that was a mistake on my part. I should've just bought good companies or stock and just hold it. You don't long-term so trading, I guess you could say one. The other mistake that I made was trying to time the market like part of that swing trading back that I did back then, you know, you're always trying to time.

[00:17:25] Okay. Where's the low where's the high, but the thing is, it's very hard to time, you know, like, unless you're on your computer so much, and you understand technical analysis, the ins and outs of it and the trading. It's not going to be easy for you to do. I mean, even, even experienced wall street guys would treat, you know, I think statistics show that 90% of traders use their money.

[00:17:51] So only the 10% get lucky.

[00:17:53] Viktoriia Miracle: I think it was 95.

[00:17:55] Ella Safri: 95. There you go.

[00:17:57] Viktoriia Miracle: So it's like sucha little when the do trading.

[00:18:01] Ella Safri: Exactly. It just doesn't make sense. I thought, you know what? This is just too much work and timing the market. Why time the market, when I can just invest regularly and dollar cost average over time, you know, so I can buy it the highest I can buy at the lows.

[00:18:15] It doesn't matter. Long-term you will win either way. So that's number two. The other one, I think, I think I mentioned it as well earlier, but it's essentially having this FOMO where, oh, people are talking about buying into the stock. People are, you see the momentum of it going up. Let's jump on it as well and then later on you kind of like burn and crash.

[00:18:40] Viktoriia Miracle: Its like Shiba. Do you, have you ever heard of Shiba? Nobody's buying it and that's not a good time to buy.

[00:18:49] Ella Safri: Exactly. So I think those three were my main mistakes. But I think for me, I quickly learned, I think I made those mistakes. I think for the first, let's say half a year. And then after that, I was just like, okay, this is too much effort.

[00:19:03] This is too much, like I have better uses for my time, rather than, you know, being on my phone, checking the markets all the time, you know, reading the news of what's happening. I mean, I still do that, but it's not to the point of me being stuck to the computer and me being stuck to my phone all the time.

[00:19:19] I just check it here and then to see what's happening with the market.

[00:19:23] Viktoriia Miracle: And that's, that's a great, great, great, mistakes. And I think unless you are very technical, like you said, in technologies. Yeah. You, it's a work. It's a trader, like it's a constant work you have to up on the all news. And I will say, I will say women are not made for it.

[00:19:44] You know, guys, if you're listening, you know, we all adult, you know, if you have your time, your moon time. It's like you better not to watch on that market because then it goes down and you're like, no, I know.

[00:19:58] Ella Safri: Yeah, exactly.

[00:20:01] Viktoriia Miracle: And I'm like, okay, here we go. And there's like 20 things that you can analyze, you know, and just looking at the price. It's literally, it makes no sense. So what would be your number one advice for everybody that is listening right now for everybody to like how on start, how to move from budgeting to like investing freely I would say,

[00:20:28] Ella Safri: I think, so long as you have all the basics in place, like, you know, first create a budget, you know, the budget doesn't have the thing with budgets. People think of it as synthase or restrictive, so boring. But if you switch that mindset to, you know, the, but your budget is your money plan, your budget is your money management plan.

[00:20:48] That sounds a bit more interesting. You know, it's like, how can I manage my money? Well, It could be as generous as you want. It could be as restrictive as you are. You create your own money management plan or budget, you know, it's up to you and not someone else. So you spend it or save it or invest it according to your preference.

[00:21:10] So for me, Before you start to, let's say you're a basic beginner and you're just starting out, you know, it's normal for the first few months, especially, or even the first year that you don't see you sometimes go over budget and that's fine. It's because you haven't been tracking your expenses. You don't know on average, what's coming in and out during the year, because some months you'll spend less on it some months you'll spend more.

[00:21:36] So you just start having like a rough budget and then you start to track it and then you adjust it on a monthly basis until you find that sweet spot that you're like, this is on average. What I spend on this, or you can even create sinking funds, which is essentially a savings fund for certain things like travels, like gifts cause you know, gifts don't come monthly, get sometimes in a month you can even have plenty of birthdays or occasions, you know? So it's more expensive in terms of gifts. So it really depends. So have that budget, create the sinking funds and essentially make sure that you build up an emergency fund.

[00:22:18] So in general, it's three to six months expenses. However it could be go up to a year expenses two years, depending on your situation. If you're self employed, if you're a business owner and your income monthly is varied, you know, you don't have a stable income. So it really, or if you're a family Man or woman and you have kids.

[00:22:42] So it really depends on your own preference of how much cash buffer that you need to keep. So that's having the emergency fund and then once you have all those, all those basics, I guess you could say you can start learning generally how investing works, the basics of it, how the market works, what is a stock?

[00:23:01] What is an ETF? What is a mutual fund? And decide, how are you as a person? What is your risk tolerance? What is your risk profile and start investing from there? Once you understand the basics. I don't know, depending on where you live and how much what's the minimum to invest. You can put in as low as $20 a week, $20 a month, start off slow, you know, and then build it up and start investing consistently.

[00:23:31] So you just need to understand. If you invest in good companies and good stocks, you're good to go hold for the longterm, or let's say you don't want to have to do so much research on the companies and their financials. Look at index funds. It's essentially a basket of stocks, like the SMP 500, the top 500 companies in the US you can't really go wrong with that. You know? So I think for beginners, especially look at index funds.

[00:24:02] Viktoriia Miracle: That's a beautiful advice. Well, thank you so much, Ella. And where would you like our eyes can reach you out or find you.

[00:24:12] Ella Safri: So right now I've got a few platforms, but my main one is on Instagram. So my handle is @mybudgetculture.

[00:24:20] Viktoriia Miracle: Beautiful.

[00:24:21] Ella Safri: My budget culture. I have a TikTok and Twitter as well, but I would say my my main platform is Instagram. So that's where you can reach me.

[00:24:29] Viktoriia Miracle: Your Instagram it looks amazing and that's how I found her. I was like, I liked this girl. I think, you know, what you shared is just like those fundamentals that. You know, we're moving in this podcast to more of like investing in crypto.

[00:24:47] I mean, because I believe you get to an investing, it is a way to earn your time and money, right. And the life is only half. We only have those two things either that we're spending our time with what we're doing to do family or traveling or whatever, or earning money. There's no other way. And you'd have to be like, you get to have the time happy.

[00:25:11] Like you get to spend your time happily. You get to earn happy money. You cannot suffer on the world forever. Yeah, and, yeah, I think it's a beautiful started good for that. So thank you for coming on and waking up so early and coming on, sharing your wisdom.

[00:25:29] Ella Safri: Thanks so much Viktoriia for having me.

[00:25:31] Viktoriia Miracle: And if you're watching this own YouTube channel, totally, please do give us a, you know, shout out or like, or whatever in the subscribe, rate, review, if you like this podcast and if you love it and have any feedback, totally send it to me or Ella. She would love to hear it. I'm sure and I'll see you and then that on the next week and the next episode.

[00:25:59] Thank you. Bye everyone.