Blogger Spotlight: Maria Nedeva, The Money Principle

Maria Nedeva created The Money Principle, a blog that aims to help its audience get out of money trouble and build wealth. The blog recently featured on the Top 10 UK personal Finance Blogs. We spoke to Maria about building wealth, the effects of Brexit, her rules for financial health and how she is direct with brands.

How would you describe your blog?
The Money Principle is a blog that helps people leave their money troubles behind by taking them from ‘no money at all’ to ‘building sustainable wealth’.

Why did you start your blog?
I was in financial trouble myself; more specifically, £100,000 worth of consumer debt. Through learning about money and doing, we flipped out finances – in five years we went from £100,000 of consumer debt to £100,000 new investments. We didn’t stop there either.

I started The Money Principle to share what I learned and to support others on their way to financial health and wealth.

What’s the biggest issue facing personal finance today?
I believe that one of the biggest issues in personal finance today, and one that I’m very interested in, is about women and investing. All research shows that women do well when investing but very few of us invest. This is a problem at a time when the future of the state pension is uncertain, more women are on their own and we live longer.

I also believe that this matter is not going to be solved by education. Knowledge can get you far only after the fear and motivation have been taken care of.

How do you think Brexit, once enacted, will affect our finances in the UK?
Ha! This is a good one.

I think that we’ll have a very hard decade or so (and this is optimistic). Brexit will negatively affect our finances in variety of ways including:

• low pound
• consequently, all imported goods will be more expensive
• this will be bad with food (or we can revert to eating mainly root vegetables)
• inequality in the UK will increase (and poverty as well)
• crime will rise with it (beyond a level of poverty opportunistic crime rises)
• education and health will be (predominantly) private and costly
• we’ll experience labour market gaps (jobs for which our people are either over- or under-qualified)
• weaker pension funds will fail

This is one of the cases where I really hope that I’m wrong. Getting out of profound economic, social and identity crises is very hard work.

What piece of advice would you give a young adult in relation to how they manage their money?
Here are The Money Principle rules for financial health:

• Make sure you don’t waste and remember that frugality is over-rated
• Pay off all debt before you are in your mid-30s (probably except your mortgage)
• Earning more is very easy: just remember that it is about contributing value to people’s lives
• Start investing and don’t be scared. Make use of digital wealth managers and low-cost index funds
• Do not lust after material things – it is just rubbish that empties your bank account and kills the planet
• Buy experiences instead – much more satisfying

And the main thing: whatever you choose to do, remember that life is for living with joy.

How do you engage with your readership?
I mainly write aiming to educate and entertain. Sometimes I make videos, but Hollywood is not on the cards!

I also talk to my readers on Facebook and Twitter and I always respond to emails.

What makes your blog successful?
Honesty. This is something I learned from my martial arts practice.

Honesty not only tells my readers that I’m fallible just like them; it also makes me think about things much more deeply so I become better.

How do you like to work with PRs?
I suppose the key is in mutual respect. Here honesty rules again – I only work with brands I love.

What’s the one thing all PR pros should know about you?
No messing about, no ego, no bullsh*t. Just value!

What other blogs do you read?
I read many blogs and am always on the lookout for new ones. I have preference for blogs that focus on big issues in personal finance like paying off debt, money management and investing. I regularly read: Budgets are Sexy, Listen Money Matters, Reach Financial Independence, Monevator, Rockstar Finance (which has very good curating), and Miss Thrifty.

Maria and her blog The Money Principle are both listed on the Vuelio Influencer Database, which is the UK’s leading influencer database available to the PR and communications industries.