Bola Sokunbi is a Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI), finance expert, author, speaker, and founder of Clever Girl Finance, a financial education platform, and community for women empowering them to achieve financial wellness and live life on their own terms.
Clever Girl Finance has been voted as one of the top personal finance websites for women. In addition, Bola and Clever Girl Finance have been featured by several media outlets including Time.com, Money Magazine, CNBC, Forbes, Fast Company, Essence, Black Enterprise, Cheddar TV, ABC News, and The Chicago Tribune as well as on several other finance websites and podcasts.
Bola and Her Vision
My name is Bola Sokunbi, founder of Clever Girl Finance, where we guide women on how to pay off debt, save money and build real wealth through online courses, a YouTube channel, podcast, and content on our platform. We have one of the largest social media platforms for women as it relates to finance in the United States of America.
I started Clever Girl Finance out of a need and want to help other women who started asking me questions based on my journey of saving and investing. I got into saving and investing coming out of college and not really understanding how finances in America worked as a child of immigrants. I had to figure out how to budget, how to invest, how to plan my finances and I eventually was able to save over $100,000 in 3 1/2 years after I graduated from college. Fast forward several years later I am now married with children and I continue to save and invest and just navigate my finances through different life transitions.
All that I have been able to do has been inspired by my mom. I watched her transform from a woman who got married at 19 without a college education into getting her college degree after 30 and becoming a woman who took charge of her finances and built financial wellness for herself. My ongoing vision for Clever Girl Finance is to help women achieve financial wellness with no shame and no judgment and empower them to understand that they are capable of success. That they are capable of building wealth once they are able to gain the knowledge and confidence around their finances. My goal is to build a platform that reaches as many women as possible across the world with the message of financial wellness and female empowerment.
Bola on “Women subconsciously harboring thoughts that prevent them from gaining
financial freedom & wellness”
One of the things I see is us, women, feeling inadequate and that we are not capable based on our past failures and mistakes. We tend to leverage those past mistakes and failures as a form of self-judgment; as opposed to taking the lessons and thinking of how we can leverage those lessons, assess the situation, and move forward to actually achieving our financial wellness. So that feeling of not being capable is one way that sorts of limits us.
There is also the element of us constantly giving to others – it’s our nature being the sex that we are. We give more to our spouses, partners, children our coworkers; we give, give, give and we think of ourselves last, that is our nature. We are also living longer on average than men and we are earning on average a lot less than men and not only are we earning less but we are investing less and that is a huge factor that affects our overall wellbeing.
It is imperative that we let go of the self-judgment, self-doubt, and thinking we are incapable. I believe we become successful at letting go when we find a safe space and like-minded people so we can together build financial confidence through conversations. Conversations where we are equipped with the knowledge to be able to talk about money without feeling ashamed or embarrassed and being able to take those mistakes and turn them into stepping stones towards our success.
Follow Bola at IG: clevergirlfinance
Website : www.clevergirlfinance.com
