MABEL OF GIRL$ ON THE MONEY

Mabel is the founder and Chief Education Officer of Girl$ on The Money - a stock market investing education company targeted to women, minorities, and individuals that are underrepresented in the world of investing. She is passionate about investing education, helping women feel more confident around money topics, and empowering them to take action and control of their finances.

Mabel is also the best selling author of two investing books "Stock Market Investing Mini Lessons for Beginners" and Stock Analysis 101. She teaches highly rated courses around the topics of personal finance and investing. Through all of her resources, content, and social media platforms - she shares what she has learned (and continues to learn) thanks to 10+ years of investing experience and 2 finance degrees. You can follow Mabel on Instagram @Girlsonthemoney.

“I had to create a space where I could show, using myself as an example, that anyone can learn to invest and anyone can do it successfully.”

— Mabel A Nuñez

What inspired you to start Girl$ On The Money?

In my senior year of college, I took my first class on investing; It was a topic that I had never heard of before. I took one class, and I became interested in the idea that anybody (with some income) can buy pieces of amazing corporations and grow wealth through those types of investments.

So I decided to educate myself on investing, and then I realized that most of my female friends didn't want to talk about the topic, felt that investing was too hard, or felt that the topic was not for them. I realized there was a problem in regards to women not getting into investing or learning about it and participating. So the annual growth in the money came about just with a mission of teaching women how to do it. And not only that, but getting them excited about it, teaching them that it's not it's not difficult. And it's kind of like how the money and the mission of it was born.

What are some standard investing practices or tips that you think all women should know?

There are certain things that you should have in place before you start investing, so, for example, an emergency fund is very standard. I know many people think “oh, that's boring,” but it’s actually very important. You have to have some money set aside separately from the money you invest. You shouldn't have the emergency fund in the stock market ever! Have your ducks in a row and have your emergency fund on the side. If you have consumer credit, work on getting rid of that as well.

Then, start an investing fund – so, essentially just save money just for investing purposes; you can do that by opening an online brokerage account (an investment account). Then, think of companies that you like, where you’re a consumer, where you understand the business, how it works, and how it makes money. Always go with companies that you understand, that you know, that you feel good about, that you believe will still be here in the next five, ten years – that's an investor. 

Also, look at your investments as they fluctuate – how do you feel about that? That helps you get used to that industry; everybody should start on the [investing] journey slow and steady, but always with companies and investments that you understand.

Describe the process of writing and publishing your two best seller investing and finance books.

It wasn't as difficult as people might think, because it's a subject that I really love and I'm obsessed with. I write newsletters every week, so my first book was essentially put together by those newsletters back in 2015 when I started writing them. had about a year worth of newsletters on different topics, for example, what is a stock, how to analyze stocks, how to find good companies, what the stock market is like, essentially just information about the basics of investing. 

I put them all together and hired an editor to make it look presentable and worthy of being published; so that was like a simpler method for my first book. For my second book, I actually had to sit down and make that effort to write it because I didn't have information on how to research a stock anywhere else. 

What challenges did you face in starting Girl$ On The Money, particularly as a woman of color?

The world of investing and finance is mainly men. I mean, this “all male, Caucasian male, Wolf of Wall Street” image is the mentality that a lot of people have about the world of investing. So I had to create a space where I could show, using myself as an example, that anybody can learn to invest, and can do it successfully. Does it matter where you're from, what you look like, what your background is? No – it’s a skill, so you can learn it just like any other skill. You don't need to have a background in finance to be a successful investor. None of that. You don’t need a financial advisor or bank to help you learn to invest, and I paved a way for myself by showing that I was knowledgeable about the topic, and that investing something that everybody can do. 

If someone logs on to girlsonthemoney.com for the first time, where should they start?

That's a great question, because, you know, the website has different sections. I’d say start with the blog section; scroll back to the very beginning, which is where I start talking about the stock market, because as the time goes by, I talk about different topics. Go back a few years ago and start there. 

What's a book that yu're you've read recently that you would recommend to the CWBS community?

I'm reading The Gone Fishin’ Portfolio by Alexander Greene, and it’s about investing (obviously, as you can see, I'm obsessed with investing!). But it promotes the idea that you don't have to be a day trader or sit on your computer all day to invest.

What advice would you give to other young women seeking to create similar platforms that provide accessible, female focused financial literacy?

If you feel that you're somebody that knows their stuff, you're confident, you have some experience, and you’re a credible person, showing what you know on social media platforms to make it easy to understand [is a start]. You don't want to go to social media and put up random terms that nobody has heard of and not explain them. You want to make any traditionally difficult topic easy, fun, and simple so that people can say, “oh, this is actually not that difficult.”

You have to be consistent so that, you know, you cannot post today and then disappear for two months and come back – people want to see consistency. They want to see that you’re an expert in your field. 

Lastly, use yourself as an example. Use your stories to talk about different things, because people connect to that. 

Who is a woman leader that you look up to?

Julie Stav; she's one of the very few women who is Hispanic in the investing world, I’ve been following her for over a decade. So inspired my journey through the years of making [investing] simple, encouraging more women to invest, and just showing that anybody can learn how to invest. So I look up to her tremendously; every time somebody asks me about a woman that I look up to, it’s her.