I am Nurul Yahi, I am...

The founder of Dear Duit blog. I first became curious about money when I watched one of Oprah Winfrey’s show with Suze Orman as the guest. Suze was giving advice to a lady with financial difficulties. In my 9-year-old brain, I thought how hard could it be to manage your own finances? My parents give me RM1 so I have only RM 1 to spend that day, I can either spend it all or save it. I did not understand how one could overspend, the workings of credit cards and loans. Watching Suze Orman coach the struggling lady, I want to do the exact same thing when I grow up. It was amazing witnessing the lady’s life being changed and I want to transform someone else’s life one day too. I did my degree in Business Administration with Islamic Financial Planning Professional Certificate from IBFIM. I have always been fascinated with people’s stories and I simply love listening to their transformation journey. It is incredible how resilient people are!

1. What is your best investment and worst investment?

Best Investment
I have to say my best investment is my consistency in putting a certain amount of my monthly pay into my ASB and Tabung Haji. Regardless of how challenging the month is, I made sure I put at least RM50 into both of the accounts. It really helped me during times of emergency when I need money fast. I learned that small decisions like this (although slow in terms of wealth accumulation) can really make a difference.

Worst Investment
I invested in MLM businesses that promised me full business support (in the form of potential clients to grow my business) but in the end the promises were broken after I put in a big investment amount. I realise it was my own greed of wanting to earn money fast that led me to fall into the MLM trap again and again. No matter how convincing it is, I would never touch MLM ever again.

2. What was your first-ever investment (and how did that go)?
My first ever investment was taking out a large portion of my pay to invest in ASB. That was before getting married and having kids, hence I could afford to “ikat perut”. I decided to marry really young, so I didn’t experiment much investing in other assets apart from ASB.

3. Your investment no-nos (why not and what happened)
Never invest in something you don’t understand or if your gut feeling tells you no. Do not give in to your greed or the temptation from others. Our dreams, goals and risk tolerance might not be the same. When someone attempts to sell you something, if he or she does not consider your existing financial struggles but forces you to go into debt just to fund the investment, it is a big warning sign for you to not invest.

4. What are you investing for?
Currently, I am still struggling to manage my finances and I don’t know all the answers. However, the one thing that keeps me thriving is my kids. I would love for them to grow up with a mother who tries her very best to provide for them.

I am on this journey of achieving my financial investments goals and I am experimenting with different things while constantly learning. Working in an Organizational Psychology company taught me to simply embrace all problems and happiness life brings me. It is truly amazing to be able to share all my challenges and wins. There is no such thing as financial freedom because in spite of being careful with my money, the unexpected in life can happen and take it all away. The only way to look at it is to build a strong mindset and perseverance to face all kinds of financial difficulties.

5. Nurul’s investment philosophy and approach
I am determined to hold on to grit in the face of any adversity life throws at me. It does not matter if I am poor or rich, my resilience will get me up to try again one more time.

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About “This is How I Invest” - As Fi Life’s motto is “Buy Term (Term Life Insurance) & Invest the Rest”, this series features how different personalities “Invest the Rest.”

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