ABOUT Pernia

After this I took a year off and spent half of it working in a boutique strategy consulting company and the other half traveling the world. I actually covered more distance than the circumference of the earth! Traveling is one of my passions. I have traveled to over 45 countries and mastered the utilisation of annual leave to maximise time I can spend traveling.

At 25, I passed all my exams (on the first attempt) to become a Chartered Accountant. I completed my studies and training at one of the Big Four.

Soon after I left the Big Four, and moved jobs roughly once a year as I figured out exactly what I wanted to do. I now work as a Group Financial Controller of a private equity backed group of creative studios.

At 28, I purchased my first home, on my own, and went from paying rent to paying my mortgage as a first time homeowner.

I never had a day one career plan where I knew exactly what I wanted to do. That’s why I did a history degree. I enjoyed it, I was good at it, and it taught me a lot of soft skills, like time management (which ended up being crucial to successfully complete the ACA).

I like to think that I am proof that you don’t have to have everything figured out from day one and that you can go with the flow and still build a successful career. The most important thing is continuing to learn, understanding what you want (which changes as your life does) and seizing opportunities.

I also was never formally taught about personal finance, despite going to some highly regarded schools and university. Everything I have learnt has been through my professional qualification, experience and family. Parents and grandparents have a massive impact on the things you learn outside of school, like personal finance, and not everyone is lucky enough to have parents that are knowledgeable or experienced on these topics.

This is evidenced in Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad, whereby his biological father didn’t have the experience or expertise to teach Robert to be rich, so he relied on a friend’s father instead. Not everyone has access to a friend’s parent to learn about personal finance either. I am by no means anyones’ rich dad (or in my case, mum). But I do want to make financial information accessible to as many people as possible.

 

I aim to leverage my years of experience working in the finance functions of start-ups and scale-ups to apply best practices from how businesses run their finance functions to personal finance. 

In the time I have been running my Instagram page, the feedback has been remarkable and it has been incredibly fulfilling to help people and hear your positive feedback. Through this website, I hope to provide more information and tools, and help in an even more meaningful way.