But first…

As Girl Economics has been going for several weeks, I want to collect some feedback as to how often you’d like Girl Economics to be published in future. Whether you love having a new interview in your inbox every morning, or whether you’d prefer having the newsletters slightly more spaced out, I would really love your feedback!

An Interview with Sadia Ali

What led you to go down the route of becoming a financial influencer?

I had a successful career in investment management and, while it was incredible and I really did enjoy it, I felt as though more people needed to know about how they can manage their finances. I came from very humble beginnings myself and have been able to get my finances into a really nice position. I thought that if I have been able to do this, anyone can! When I looked around at my coworkers and the clients I was dealing with in investment management, they were almost all from a very particular background and societal position. I didn’t think there was any reason that the knowledge and information on how to succeed financially should be secluded to that part of society. This resulted in me founding Wealth with Sadia, and I try to post every day to influence, educate, and inspire people to take action with their finances.

Do you think that financial advice should be taught more in schools?

There is a lot of talk about the lack of financial education in schools and that there should be a much greater focus on it. To a certain degree, I agree with that. But I do also find this prospect quite difficult to implement effectively for numerous reasons. Firstly, the programs would be funded by banks and so the education you do get would be very selective and one-sided. Secondly, I think that many people just would not put the things that are said to them into practise! I think it is much more important for financial education to start in the home. Inspiring more adults to take their finances seriously will influence the way that children view money for the rest of their life.

Why should people be interested in learning how to better manage their finances?

I think money is so intertwined with every aspect of our life. It has an impact on our health, how we feel, our relationships, and even who we are as a person. It influences so many different factors in our life and I feel that if people had a little more information and knowledge on certain aspects of money then they would not get themselves into a position where it becomes a stressful thing. I really want money to be empowering and a tool for success, not something that brings people down. One out of three marriages fail because of money; studies have reported that money is the number one cause of stress in the UK; over 50% of 6-figure earners live paycheque to paycheque. This last fact shows that it really is not a problem with income, it is a problem with education.

For someone reading this who wants to improve their financial literacy, what steps would you recommend to go about achieving this?

I think a really great place to start is awareness in terms of just having an understanding of where you are with your own finances. For example, if you are going off to university then make sure you understand what it means to be taking a student loan and what impact this will have on you in the future. Even taking a step back and evaluating whether university is the right route for you, perhaps considering apprenticeships instead, can help you contextualise whether you are taking out a student loan for the right reason, and not just because that is the ‘conventional’ path.

And then I would really encourage young people the start investing because of how compounding and appreciation works. Even if you are looking at investing, even if you are just thinking about it, you are much more likely to start sooner than if you are not taking the time to learn more about it.

There is so much information out there and so many people sharing their financial journeys which is great, however it does mean that you have got to be incredibly careful in making sure you trust the person you are listening to. A lot of the time people will take action and try to improve their financial position but because they have not received their information from a reliable source, things go wrong and then that person is much less likely to invest in the future.

A great thing to do is begin using platforms where you can invest using very small amounts of £5 or £10. This will get you used to the process while not exposing you to too much risk as you are learning.

Tell us more about your daily work

I work on Wealth with Sadia full time. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I take meetings and calls with my existing clients and then on Mondays and Wednesdays I am open to calls with prospective clients and people who may just want to have a one-off call. I also work on my social media content on Mondays and I try to get my admin tasks done on a Friday.

Did you find the gap between working in a corporate environment to running your own company difficult?

At first I found that being my own boss was the most incredible thing because I didn’t have to answer to anyone and I didn’t feel many challenges. As time goes on and you have higher goals that you want to achieve, you begin to realise that it is literally just you behind your laptop and there are certain things about corporate life that I did begin to miss including team camaraderie and the safety net of knowing that, no matter what happens, you’ll get your pay at the end of the month. There are challenges but you get used to it and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

What fed into your decision to leave your job in investment management?

I think working in corporate was an incredible experience to build my expertise and learn from others. I think that it was a natural transition for me to leave because I felt I had a deeper purpose driving me in that I wanted to make information on how to increase your wealth more accessible. I almost feel sad for people who go straight into entrepreneurship because I think that having a background in corporate sets you up for a different type of success than if you don’t have that prior experience.

Do you think that the rise of social media financial influencers is a danger or is it a good thing in making finance more accessible?

I think it is amazing that people are building an awareness around finances and are taking steps to share their journey. We have got to be careful with who we trust in our decision making around money and investing because there can be great risk if things go wrong. There are also liabilities that arise if you are taking advice from people who may be sharing their stories with good intentions, but who don’t have the financial qualifications to be giving advice to others. I think that people sharing their journey is fine, as long as they are transparent about their skills in the industry, or lack thereof.

Is there someone who inspires you?

I love the investment philosophy of Vanguard as a company but as an individual, I really like Ramit Sethi. His background is in psychology which is really interesting because a lot of finance actually stems from psychology. He talks about money and its psychological impact on us all. For me, this is really fascinating in that I can tell you about all of the benefits of investing and you know that it is something you should be doing, and yet many people still don’t do it!

News

Short Read of the Day

The Japanese Yen is facing quite the predicament: the Yen is falling because investors, losing confidence in Japanese markets, are selling it – and investors continue to sell it because it is falling. Despite raising interest rates to between 0 and 0.1% after years of negative rates, the Yen continues to slide, and this is having tangible impacts on the quality of life for many Japanese.

Long Read of the Day

An economic idea that guided the policies of Reagan and Thatcher, neoliberalism remains quite controversial amongst politicians, economists, and the general public. Though slightly one-sided, this Long Read provides an interesting primer on the ideology.

Video of the Day

This is a slightly older TED talk, however I find the ideas raised to be hugely relevant today as the UK is currently seeing stagnant growth and a cost of living crisis alongside the FTSE closing at record highs! The speaker takes a look at why the stock market can be booming even when growth is sluggish, and vice versa.

Bhutan:

Nestled between India and China, Bhutan is a landlocked country with an area of only 38,394 km₂, and a population of around 800,000 – mere fractions compared to its populous neighbours. Being surrounded by these emerging economic powerhouses, it would be likely to think that the country has attempted to emulate their neighbours and the economic trajectory they followed. They haven’t.

Due to Bhutan’s terrain of mountainous landscapes and deep valleys with powerful rivers running through them, the makes transportation of goods is difficult, not time-efficient, and arguably most importantly, not cheap. This geographical barrier, coupled with the inefficiencies of outsourcing due to transportation costs, has thwarted traditional economic models pursued by more accessible nations, such as its neighbours.

Another way that similarly located countries have experienced economic growth is through tourism, such as Nepal for example. Pre-covid, in 2018 and 2019, it received north of 1 million visitors, and in 2023, after a few years of lower tourist numbers, it hit a million visitors again. With many of these visitors wanting to experience the natural beauty of Nepal and the Himalayas, Bhutan could benefit from these people too, due to its similar terrain and picturesque landscapes. But the country seemingly doesn’t want to.

With a $200 US dollar fee per person per day to even enter Bhutan, and a lack of affordable hotels and consistent flights, it is difficult to organise a trip to the country. With only one international airport in the country, and only 2 airlines that mostly fly to neighbouring countries, many of those who do enter the country come in a private jet. This makes the country a holiday destination for only the wealthy, who, when they arrive in Bhutan, usually have a limited list of things they can do, which rarely includes leaving the hotel resort. Bhutan’s tourism policies prioritise exclusivity over mass influxes of visitors.

So why has Bhutan and its government rejected traditional models of economic growth and mass tourism? It focusses on Gross National Happiness, a term first coined by King Jigme Singye Wangchuk, the 4th King of Bhutan, in the 1970s. In fact, he stated “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestic Product”. This has been reflected in Bhutan’s development policy, one of the main results of this policy being the formation of the tourism rules they have in place. But what is Gross National Happiness?

As simple as it seems, the GNH contains 9 metrics; Living standard, community vitality, good governance, psychological wellbeing, health, time use and balance, education, cultural diversity and resilience and ecological diversity and resilience. Of these 9 metrics there are then 33 conditions expressed as indicators, such as literacy rates, wildlife damage and fundamental rights. And it seems to be working: from the 2022 GNH index carried out by the Royal Government of Bhutan’s Centre for Bhutan & GNH studies, 9.5% of Bhutanese people were deeply happy, 38.6% extensively happy, 45.5% narrowly happy and only 6.4% unhappy, statistics which are likely to rival many European (mostly the Scandinavian) countries.

However, that doesn’t mean that the country hasn’t taken some GDP-boosting forward-thinking decisions. Due to the landscapes, the country has a near-perfect terrain for dams that produce hydropower. The dams produce hydropower for the country, but due to the efficiency of the dams and the small population, Bhutan exports approximately 70% of the hydropower generated to its neighbour, India, which is helping Bhutan to pay back the loans taken out to build the dams. This has created a win-win situation for Bhutan, as it is experiencing sustainable economic growth and development, whilst maintaining the happiness levels in the country. In fact in the past 10 years the GNH levels has increased from a score of 0.743 to a score of 0.781, with little effect from the pandemic which is something rarely seen elsewhere in the world.

Whilst Bhutan has made seemingly successful strides in prioritising the happiness and well-being of its citizens, the country still faces pertinent problems, including the deeply troubling issue of high levels of sex trafficking within the country. Bhutan faces the harsh reality of exploitation and human suffering, as well as high levels of violence against women.

In terms of socio-economic problems the country faces, there are high levels of youth unemployment. In 2024, Bhutan has suffered what has been called an economic crisis, which has been marked by a youth unemployment rate of 29%. Alongside this, the country faces high youth emigration, with younger citizens seeking opportunities outside of the country. This suggests a potential future challenge of an aging population, that is likely to become increasingly dependent within the future.

Bhutan’s commitment to Gross National Happiness sets it apart from other countries, not only those close by but globally. Whilst grappling with the serious issues within the country, the different approach shows that there can be more than just one sign of ‘developmental success’ and is potentially a train of thought other countries will incorporate in the future to improve the well-being of their citizens.

• Katie Daly

Thanks for reading! See you in the next issue - Erin McGurk