Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got to talking about money?

I am originally from Zimbabwe and grew up in the suburbs in a middle-class family. Growing up in Zimbabwe I saw the limited choices open to many women due to lack of personal wealth and saw the opposite the better choices women had when they had personal wealth. Even as a young girl I knew I wanted more for myself and other women.

I moved at 18 years to Melbourne Australia to do my degree at Deakin University and fell in love with beautiful Aussie and its people. I noticed that a lot of women in Aussie did not feel confident about money and building their wealth. I decided to do my part and start Herconomics to empower women to take steps towards their financial empowerment.

Herconomics is a mission-driven company that is focused on educating and empowering Australian women who want to invest in shares but feel intimidated to buy their first share so they can build long term wealth and live life their way. Herconomics offers a share investing course for beginners, runs wealth builders webinars and shares women's personal money stories via the #1000moneystories project.

I believe in a world where every woman has the personal wealth to live life her way and be the best version of herself. I believe that a global sisterhood bringing women together to learn, share stories and connect with each other about money will make a vital difference in fighting poverty and bringing prosperity to the world. I believe in the power of women taking total personal responsibility for their own lives and coming together to lift each other up because when women positively come together magic happens.

Can you give us three words that come to mind when you think about money?

Freedom, Choices, Experiences

In your opinion, why is it important for us, as women, to be talking more about money?

I think every person regardless of gender needs to talk more about money. It is like that elephant in the room that people and families try to ignore and it just gets bigger till it stomps on everyone. It’s especially important for women to talk more about money, in particular high level subjects such as investing, because for a long time in history, high level money matters where not a woman's domain. Talking more about high level money topics such as investing for instance, helps to make it less intimidating, it increases women's knowledge, it makes it clear they are not alone in having challenges and it empowers women to take steps toward building wealth and living life their way.

“I believe that a global sisterhood bringing women together to learn, share stories and connect with each other about money will make a vital difference in fighting poverty and bringing prosperity to the world.”

— WADZANAI NENZOU

What’s the biggest money ‘faux pas’ you’ve made and how’d you fix it?

I have been working in the Financial services industry since 2006 that’s 14 years and I also studied a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Accounting. I also have worked in various parts of the industry in investing and financial advice. I had plenty of knowledge to invest in my first direct share many years ago but because I was expecting to know every single thing possible in share investing before taking the step I only made my first direct share investing in the last few years. I had unrealistic expectations of what I needed to know before investing. I had invested in exchange traded funds and managed funds and other types of investments in the past but when it came to investing directly in a company via the stock exchange I felt afraid and insecure even though I was in the industry it took me years to take the step. In recent years I have taken that imperfect step onto the sharemarket. I finally realised that done is better than perfect and that I needed to take the first step and my confidence and knowledge will grow with time. From this struggle I realised other women probably felt as intimidated about investing in shares and thats why I created the Herconomics Share Investing Course for Beginners.

What are your top 2 tips to help more women have conversations about money?

Firstly it is important to understand that you are not alone in having money struggles or insecurities. That it is perfectly ok to not know it all. This will make you more willing to be vulnerable about money. Secondly be compassionate to yourself and others when it comes to current or past money mistakes. We are all human and have made all sorts of mistakes with money. What is important is to learn your lessons and improve with time.

Other Ladies Talking Money is an interview series created by Ladies Talk Money to showcase some other incredible women and non-binary people who are also working to change money for the better. We don’t have any direct affiliation with those featured, nor do we recommend or endorse their services. We just happen to love what they do, and choose to show our appreciation through this series and doing what we can to spread the word.

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Any finance info discussed in this seriously fab feature is general advice only. You should consider your personal circumstances before acting on it or reach out if you’d like to discuss your individual needs.