Abiola Olaore is the founder of Active Budgeter, an award-winning money management community platform on a mission to help young people with their money. The community group shares experiences, support and interacts with each other to reach money goals.
The community has reached over 26 countries and continues to grow with over 5,000 community members. Abiola is here to talk to us about what motivated her to launch the community and what she’s learnt so far.
The start of the Active Budgeter community was very personal. I wanted more information about how to build my finances and I wasn’t finding any platforms that spoke about money in an engaging and easy-to-read way.
Also, seeing the negative impacts of people experiencing difficult financial situations such as divorce and mental health struggles motivated me to take action. I wanted to do something to help others avoid such situations and become more financially literate.
I built Active Budgeter in 2017 as a community platform. It continues to grow with a key focus on helping Gen-Z and Millennials to achieve more with their money. Our recent focus has been on supporting our generation through an accountability campaign, My Money 2030, which asks people to think about their money over the next ten years.
Whilst lots of brands work in this space, what is different about Active Budgeter is our community: we have open conversations, inspire each other, and work together to achieve our money goals regardless of location.
Today, I am sharing some of the lessons I have learned so far about creating a community focused on financial literacy.
Knowledge is power
I want all Active Budgeters to feel as if they know where they are going—and not experience the same kind of frustrations I did when it came to finding relevant content and advice on money management.
Too much of the content you can find online is still lengthy and technical. This is especially at odds with younger generations who want digestible content in digital formats.
Ultimately, understanding the basics of money is power and having a vision of where it is going can help keep you motivated. No matter how much you have or where you are coming from, it is possible to improve your financial life.
Now is the time to think differently
There is too much of a taboo around money management. Being an Active Budgeter disrupts that mindset and champions people talking openly about money.
Money management shouldn’t be stigmatised. Eliminating negative connotations is key here: such as that a lack of having an emergency fund means one is bad with money.
It pays to start young
The focus at the moment within the Active Budgeter community is specifically on Gen-Z and Millennials. People in this age group make a lot of very important financial choices, often at a point in their lives when they haven’t yet gathered all of the information and knowledge that they need in order to make informed decisions.
For me, as somebody that sits right in the middle of these generations, I know their frustrations first hand. I want to be a part of a generation of change.
Over the years, I have found that brands also seem to struggle when it comes to communicating with younger audiences. Each generation has a different way of communicating and it is important to be in tune with that.
Brands can engage through the use of emojis, simple text, building a community of users and publishing image-led content to attract young people. The traditional lengthy, technical, black and white text approach does not work.
The unique part of this approach is that it allows for brands to keep their customers engaged long term.
Long-term thinking
Active Budgeter is running a campaign right now called My Money 2030. This campaign encourages young people to be accountable to their 2030 money goals.
Each member is given access to an exclusive 10 year worksheet that automatically calculates how far they are towards reaching their 2030 goal.
Actively encouraging everyone to create a plan for how they would like for their money to grow long term is a powerful and exciting move. When we plan long-term, it helps to shift how we behave financially and motivates us to think differently about money.
In many respects the same applies to brands and how they think about their customers. How will today’s young people be shaping their finances for the future? And how can marketers engage with them now and for the longer-term?
Overall, I just want young people to enjoy the process of working towards their ultimate money goal and get creative whilst reaching it.
During this journey, one will continuously be growing, learning, and building their personal wealth in the way that suits their preferred lifestyle.
Remember, money management should not be a lonely journey. Engage with like minded people who are on a similar mission.