Kathleen: Hello and welcome everyone to an exciting interview with the Canadian Young Investors Society. I'm Kathleen Qiao, the Editor-in-Chief for CYS. Joining us is a very special guest, Alycia Chea, a financial educator and content creator known for making personal finance relatable, accessible and engaging. Through her platform, she empowers young people to take control of their financial futures and shares insights on budgeting, investing, and financial literacy in a fun way. Before we go into our questions, Alicia, why don't you take a moment to introduce yourself and share a bit about your journey in financial education?
Alycia: Yes, hello everyone who is watching this right now. I'm Alicia. I'm so excited to be on this interview. I am a full-time nine-to-five worker who just graduated university not too long ago. I started making finance investing-related content around, probably say 10 months ago and I've been having so much fun. I've been creating videos for my audience to help them learn, take control of their finances, and better manage their money more effectively. And yeah, thank you so much for having me.
Kathleen: Thank you. So we'll move on to the first question, which is, what is your educational background? And would you recommend that people follow a similar education path to you?
Alycia: Yes, so I graduated from Simon Fraser University. I did a Bachelor of Arts. I majored in psychology and I did two minors. One was in linguistics, and the other one was in counseling. Would I recommend this educational path? I would say yes and no. On one hand, psychology is such a fun and interesting field to learn. And I had the time of my life learning about human behavior and psychological development. But I will say it is not a degree that easily allows you to get a high-paying job right away or get a job in the first place right out of university. So if you want to learn something super interesting that you'll really enjoy, I would say yes, I would recommend it in that aspect, but just know you might have to put in a little bit of extra work to get a job afterwards.
Kathleen: That's nice. I might have to tell my friends that because they're going to psychology. So that's a good advice. Thank you for that. So moving on to question two is what inspired you to start sharing financial content and what was your journey like in becoming a finance influencer?
Alycia: So I was inspired by the community of content creators who really promote financial transparency to their audience, where they share different aspects of their personal finances and put that part of their lives out there for people to watch and take inspiration from. I was just so inspired by the impact that they had, and I also just really love sharing parts of my life online. So, my journey to become an influencer contained a lot of ups and downs, I would say. I had a lot of fun creating videos and content—it’s one of my hobbies that I love doing. There were some challenges in consistently posting quality content that people want to see, but at the end of the day, it's so rewarding, and I'm just so thankful that I have the opportunity to be a content creator and have the platform that I have. I kind of started on TikTok just vlogging parts of my day-to-day—my workouts, my dates with my boyfriend—I started very low-key, just normal everyday day in my life vlogs, and then when I put out my first like finance-related video, I started getting some attention from people, you know, asking questions like. How did you save up this amount, or how did you start investing? And when I responded, that's when I realized, Oh, I'm creating something that provides value. So I just had to keep on doing what I was doing. And in the beginning, it was difficult to really figure out what lands with my audience and what people like the most, but over time I became more comfortable with it, and I had that momentum to keep on going, so it's tricky in the beginning stages for sure, but I think it gets easier with experience.
Kathleen: That's nice, so moving on to the next question, which is that many young people feel overwhelmed by investing, what's your advice for someone who wants to start but doesn't know where to begin?
Alycia: I would say first and foremost, you don't need the same amount of technical knowledge as professional day traders have. I would say change your perspective on investing. Don't think of it as a get-rich-quick scheme that's going to make you a millionaire in 30 days. Instead, think of it as an everyday habit that you can implement to reach your long-term financial goals. Start with the basics—you don’t need the same level of technical knowledge as the pros, but you do need to understand the fundamentals. Take advantage of the many free resources available online that provide foundational knowledge for beginners. Once you start and gain hands-on experience, you’ll ease into it, learn more as you go, and realize that investing can be a simple habit to implement that makes a huge difference.
Kathleen: Yeah, I feel like a lot of young people when they think of investing, they think, Oh, if I start investing, I'll make like a million dollars the next day but yeah that's really not the case most of the time, so yeah, it's really great advice thank you so moving on to the next question is you often talk about etfs and long-term investing. What are some of your favorite etfs or investment strategies for beginners?
Alycia: So personally, my investing strategy is to have a globally diversified portfolio, which means that you are invested in companies from all around the world, not just the US, not just Canada, but in Europe, in emerging markets, places like that. So to achieve that, I like all-in-one ETFs because they are essentially baskets of stocks coming from US markets, Canadian markets, emerging markets and international markets, so you are essentially buying one fund that allows you to have small pieces of thousands and thousands of companies worldwide. So I like those for beginners because it's easy to purchase. You know the management expense ratio is very low and once you purchase that one fund, you're all set with a very well-diversified portfolio. So you start off strong in a very simple and easy way. And once you have that basket of stocks from all around the world, you can add on and increase your concentration in areas that you want to be more heavily invested in. So say you really want to invest in tech; you shouldn't just buy a tech ETF and call it a day, but you can have that all-in-one ETF that kind of gives you your baseline, and then, in addition to that, buy a tech ETF to increase your concentration in tech companies. So that would probably be the strategy that I would recommend for young, beginner investors.
Kathleen: Cool. Awesome. Thank you so much. The next question is, one of your popular topics is financial habits and money mindsets. What are some of the biggest financial mistakes people make in their 20s, and how can they avoid them?
Alycia: So I think, observing the people around me in their 20s, I think that people understand that you do have to work for your money. You do have to go to work. You have to get a job. But they don't realize that you also have to make your money work for you. So some of my friends would get three, four jobs and they'd work like 60 hours a week doing multiple things. And they're making a lot of money because when you're putting that many hours in, you're going to get a fat paycheck. But what they do is they stash all that money, and they'll either burn through it so quickly on whatever, and on budgeting properly, or they'll just let that money sit and the value of their money they will lose to inflation. So I think that knowing how to not only make money but also park that money in a place where it will grow over time and retain its value is something that's very important and just as important as bringing in your income.
Kathleen: Yeah yeah, I think one of the biggest things is investing. I also worked like 40 hours a week over the summer, so I also spent a lot of the money, but I did invest part of it, so that's really important as well. I also agree with that tip so thank you for that. The next question is, you've openly shared your journey to saving six figures at a young age, which is amazing. What were the key steps that helped you reach that milestone?
Alycia: So first of all, I kept my expenses low. I share this many, many times that I still live at home with my parents. I don't pay for rent. I don't pay for groceries unless I want to pick something up specifically for myself. So my expenses are very minimal. I'm not going to live in a fancy apartment downtown and spend my entire paycheck on rent. So that is one part of it. And the other part is increasing my income through; I personally like job hopping. I know people have mixed feelings about job hopping. So for those who don't know, job hopping is basically when you work at a job for about a year or even less, and then you go to another job. And what happens with that is you're able to increase your salary without having to negotiate. Instead of me going on my hands and knees and begging for a three-thousand-dollar salary bump in my existing salary, I can go and apply to a different position, and they'll say, okay, you're hired, here's the job, and your salary will be x amount of dollars. And that amount can be way more than what I am making at my current position, so there was no need to negotiate for that salary bump or that salary increase. So that's something that really helped me increase my nine-to-five income. And then lastly, I also talk about this a lot. I always practice paying myself first. So each time I get paid, a portion of that just directly goes to my investments and my savings. I don't think twice. I'm not going to think, oh, maybe I should spend a little extra or have that mentality of, oh, my paycheck just landed, let me go on a crazy shopping spree. I always put that into practice to consistently pay myself first and be very disciplined with it. And that consistency and that discipline really rewarded me over time.
Kathleen: Yeah, okay, a big part of it is definitely discipline because I remember when I used to get my paychecks, I definitely had that urge to go shopping a lot. So a big one is definitely discipline. But moving on to the next question, as a finance creator, you're helping a new generation become financially literate. What's been the most rewarding part of this journey, and what challenges have you faced as a finance influencer?
Alycia: I think the most rewarding part is seeing people take the knowledge they get from watching my videos and actually put it into practice. A lot of people watch content and learn a lot, but they don’t always take action. I love seeing people open an investing account, start investing, buy a stock, or buy an ETF. Just hearing that they’re following through on what they’ve learned is really rewarding because I think more people need to take action. Seeing that truly makes my day. In terms of challenges, I would say I get very mixed feedback from people on the internet. Some will say, "Oh, because you don’t know X, Y, and Z, like the technical analysis of stocks, why are you making finance content? Or, you know, people will say my knowledge isn’t in-depth enough—so why am I making finance content? It’s hard to explain that I’m just an everyday person with the same knowledge as someone else who is also investing. I just want to share my journey and be transparent. I don’t want to come on the internet and act like an expert who knows everything. Sometimes that’s hard to put out there because people automatically assume I’m trying to be in an expert role or that I know it all. That kind of feedback has been challenging to receive, but at this point, it’s pretty normal.
Kathleen: Yeah, yeah, definitely. But I think that might be the last question. Thank you very much, Alicia, for sharing your experiences and expertise with us today. It’s been incredibly inspiring to hear about your journey, the impact you’ve made in the financial literacy space, and the lessons you’ve learned along the way. To anyone watching, I hope this interview has encouraged you to take charge of your financial future and make informed decisions about money. On behalf of CYS, thank you for tuning in. Stay connected with us for more insightful interviews and resources. Until next time, keep learning, keep going, and keep investing in yourself.
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