If we all use money, why are we not taught in schools how to manage our finances effectively? Recent graduate Olamide Majekodunmi (BSc Business Management, 2020) wants to change this, to benefit individuals and have a wider societal impact. She shares her journey from graduate to business owner, podcaster and campaigner.
Making cents of finances
As a student, Olamide (Ola) worked a part-time job in addition to having a student loan. She developed an interest in learning how to manage her finances to ensure she could afford to spend time with her friends and take part in student activities (including her beloved hockey!).
She says: ‘When you first move out, you realise how little you know about personal finance. It is usually seen as a dry subject, but it involves so many essentials in life, from how to budget and save effectively, to investing, credit cards, mortgages and more. I learned a bit about money on my business course, but realised this wasn’t standard for all students; many of whom had already had to make major decisions about funding their studies without much financial knowledge. ‘
During my first year I would use cash and live off five or ten pound notes every week. In my placement year I read the book Money: A User’s Guide and that sparked my interest in finances even more. I found out that I wasn’t alone – a staggering 24 million adults in the UK don’t feel confident managing their money. There is a huge financial literacy gap in the UK and beyond.’
From Instagram to Downing Street
Following graduation and the country going into a national lockdown, Ola found an opportunity to share her financial tips more widely.
She says: ‘I was living at home during the pandemic and was lucky that I didn’t have to pay rent. I realised it was a good opportunity to start investing some money. I helped some of my friends invest too and decided that I would love to teach other young adults how to manage their finances. So, I created an Instagram page called ‘All Things Money.’ It started as me making videos with financial advice and then hosting monthly online workshops and everything grew from there. I’ve been running it full time for two and a half years now.‘
‘All Things Money’ has built a community of over 25,000+ young adults across social media platforms. Ola hosts her own finance podcast with over 100,000 downloads, does live events, hosts workshops, has created a range of e-books and has featured in multiple news outlets. Her advice ranges from apps that help people manage their money better to how to improve your credit score (and why it matters).
In the few years since her graduation, Ola has achieved a lot but says her proudest achievement is being invited to 10 Downing Street earlier this year, as part of her mission to make financial education compulsory in all schools from primary school age. Ola volunteers as a Young Trustee at MyBnk, a UK financial education charity.
She says: ‘We interact with money every single day, and the fact that it’s not taught in all schools is just mind blowing. The lack of financial education can be seen with the amount of people that get into debt, and the impact that can have on people’s mental health. It goes to show the huge impact that financial literacy can have.’
Never stop learning
Ola plans to continue to campaign for changes to financial education and is also studying for her financial planning diploma to become a financial advisor.
Since graduation she has volunteered her time to help current students and fellow recent graduates as a speaker at several events. If you’d like to volunteer your time and expertise, please get in touch by emailing alumnioffice@contacts.bham.ac.uk.