This week, we’re featuring Chidera Peters, fintech manager by Day and personal finance coach by night. Chidera’s story tells you what happens when passion and numbers meet.

Tell us about yourself

I’m Chidera Peters and I’m a content creator. In 2019, I started creating YouTube videos and I’ve been creating content since then. For my 9-5, I am a manager at a fintech company that allows remittances for Africans in the UK.

What was your journey to becoming a content creator? 

Before I started YouTube, I worked in different fields; digital marketing, public relations, and communications. Then I had to travel to the UK for my masters. When I was in the UK, I realised that I had a lot of challenges as an international student and when I searched online for a solution, I couldn’t find anything relevant. 

This motivated me to go on YouTube and share my experiences to help other international students avoid the mistakes I made. Gradually, I became serious with it and today we’re here.

Yes, you are! So at what point did you pick up personal finance? 

I like to believe that life is in stages, and at every point in your life, there’s something that resonates with you more. When I was a student, I was just concerned about getting by and finding useful student-related content. It was what I was experiencing and knew about. 

After completing my studies, I started working and realised that there were things I didn’t understand about finance. The way money works in the UK is different from how money works in Nigeria and I had to learn about that. I didn’t know there was something like Lifetime ISA or that I could get money from the government with my pension. I was oblivious to these things and that made me want to learn more about them. 

As I learned more about personal finances in the UK, I shared content about it because I was certain people needed to see the information. That’s how I delved into personal finance and helping people, specifically immigrants here in the UK to manage their money and maximise financial opportunities available to them here. 

How do you then manage your 9-5 job as a creator?

It is what it is I guess. There are some times when my content creation side suffers due to work because sometimes it gets intense. But a solution I’ve devised for myself is to batch-create content. I’m probably the last creator to jump on this, but I block out some days, mostly Saturdays, to create content in bulk. 

Another thing I do is prioritise my most important tasks for the day for my 9-5. So once I do them, I can spend an hour or two thinking about content, researching, or reading up something relevant for content creation. 

Generally, I’d say batch creating, planning, and prioritizing my 9-5 tasks have helped me get by. 

That’s great. As a personal finance Coach, can you describe your savings approach?

The first thing is that we all need to learn to pay ourselves first. Before I budget, I set aside money for myself. This is something I’ve noticed with a lot of clients. People spend money on a lot of other things and decide to save what’s left. And that’s not prioritizing yourself. 

My formula for approaching saving is simple. First, have a percentage of your salary you want to save. For example, if you’re paid 2000 pounds every month and want to save 10%, it means you’ll save 200 pounds. 

So immediately you receive your salary, move your 200 pounds to your savings account. Then plan your monthly expenses around the 1800 you have left. Whatever can’t fit into it will have to be moved to the next month, as long as they’re not essentials. This way you can prioritize saving. 

That saving is for yourself, because at the end of the day, it doesn’t make sense that you do every other thing, but you forget the most important thing, which is yourself; prioritizing paying yourself. 

Another approach is to set aside a day every month to go over your finances. This way you can track what comes in and what you spend to give you a better idea of how to plan for the next month. 

You can also have bank accounts for savings. It’s not a good idea to leave all your money in one place because you tend to spend more due to the illusion that you have more money. 

When you move it to a different account, you can separate your money and stick to what you’ve set aside for the month. These are the basics. 

Initially, when you said you have to pay yourself, I thought you meant a reward system a,s per you don try this month. Wasn’t it?

No, not really, but it’s also part of it. Out of the 200 pounds in our previous example, you can set aside 20 pounds to pamper yourself. You can even make it a monthly thing where 20 – 30 pounds is for pampering. While the others are for investment, emergency funds, etc. 

10% is the bare minimum for saving right? If you want to do so, well you should save about 20% of your salary or more. This way you have more to spend on yourself. 

I’m interested in your digital products. What inspired that? And how much have you made so far from these products? 

I have a couple of digital products on sale. There’s one called a wedding planning bundle that helps you manage your money better when planning for your wedding and to know where all your money goes. I have an income and expense tracker that helps you to keep tabs on your finances, and even a couple of free budgeting products. 

So far, I’ve made six figures in Naira just selling digital products. It’s passive income for me – Money that just comes in without me doing much. Because once you create the product, that’s it, you just have to keep promoting it frequently. 

SEE: How Content Creator and Business Strategist Pasheda is Using Selar to Make Steady Passive Income

What was the first time selling a digital product like?

The first product I launched was an ebook called Workwise. It was a guide on how to apply for jobs and write your CV as a recent graduate. This was when I was in Nigeria. It was very scary putting it out but one thing that helped me was that I built interest for it. 

I had other free resources that people downloaded and organized live workshops in partnership with the Kaduna State Government where I taught over 250 young persons about Job skills, careers, etc. 

Also on my page then, I was actively sharing career and entry-level information. So I had all that before I wrote the book. I majorly wrote it because I was getting a lot of questions and I couldn’t answer everybody. 

The book did well but it could have done better. And I think that was largely a result of my marketing efforts. There were so many things wrong with the launch plan but it was my first time and I’m proud of how I went about it. 

How much did you make from it being just “good”?

That’d be 300,000. It was 2,000 and I sold 150 copies. This was in 2017. 

What do you believe is the biggest mistake people make when it comes to managing their finances? 

The biggest mistake I’ll say is ignorance. That is, you deliberately not check your banking statements because you believe it’s too technical or that it’s complicated. At the end of the day, it’s called personal finance for a reason, nobody’s going to do it for you unless you outsource it. Even if you outsource it to a personal finance advisor, at the end of the day, you still have to be involved.

You need to be on top of your money to make the right decisions. You also need to learn about money and increase your knowledge. Join the right communities, follow the right pages, and take deliberate steps to improve your finances. It won’t happen overnight if you’re not intentional about it. 

SEE: How to Invest Your Money as a Creator For Long-Term Wealth

So you know the whole idea of black tax especially for Nigerians, what tips do you have for people navigating that situation?

One of the major culture shocks I had living in the UK is that people do not have the financial responsibility to send money to their parents. E truly shock me.

But over the years, I’ve been able to handle it by setting a specific amount for black tax. Since I have to send every month, I try to stick to the amount that I’ve set. Once I exceed it, I don’t send any more till the next month. 

I’ve learned that if you don’t set that boundary, you will financially hurt yourself trying to please other people. 

Another thing is you need to be clear on their expectations of you. When I came to the UK, my family had this idea that since I entered the UK, I have money. I had to make it clear to the family that it was a scholarship and I didn’t have money stacked somewhere. So just letting your family know how things are with you can help you manage the black tax. 

Agreed. What tips have helped you to set and achieve financial goals?

Firstly, you have to identify what you want to do. As a content creator, you need to know how much you want to earn from content creation and then work backwards. 

Set plans on how you’ll achieve the goals. Whether it’s creating a digital product, brand partnerships, and sponsorships or anything. If it’s products, how many products do you have to sell? If it’s brand sponsorships, how many brands do you have to work with? 

Next, identify the various channels that will help you achieve these goals. Whether it’s creating two or more low-priced products, leveraging affiliate marketing, or reaching out to brands you want to work with. Identify the various channels that will generate that income for you. 

This way, every action you’re taking brings you one step closer to your financial goal for the year. 

Do you have any tools for tracking your finances or managing your money? 

I use my income and expenses tracker. Every month I go through it and fill in the required slots using my bank accounts. It then calculates it and lets me know how much of my income was spent and how much was saved. 

It also helps me stay on top of different payments that I’m expecting because I get paid for different things at different times. 

I use Snoop also but it’s a UK app that informs me of my upcoming payments and reminds me to have enough money in my account for it. 

I also have a Piggyvest account which I use for savings. In the UK, I use Monzo, a bank app that allows you to create different savings tiers to save for different things. 

Okay. Looking back at your journey as a digital creator, what financial lessons have you learned that you wish you had known when you started?

Firstly will be to charge what you think you’re worth. When you’re starting, there’s usually this fear of underpricing yourself because you’re trying to break into the market. It shouldn’t be so. Start at a price you think you’re worth. 

Secondly will be not tracking my income from content creation. In 2019, I had no idea what I made from content creation, sponsorships, etc. So I didn’t know how to improve it. Being able to track your income helps you identify areas to improve it. 

Say a word of advice to creators who are inspired by you

It’s hard sometimes. As a content creator, you can create content and it performs poorly. There’s no hard rule to it. But eventually, consistency pays off. 

Another thing is to stay true to yourself. Content has changed over the years and it’s so easy to want to lose touch with who you are or how you create content. Instead, focus on the things you can share and let every content you put out be what you really want to share. Don’t let trends determine the kind of content you share. 

Inspired by Chidera’s story?

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