Former Limpopo ace student Fulufhelani Mashapha published her book, titled “Mind Your Cents”, on 25 November last year.
In 2015, Fulufhelani was the pride of Limpopo when she obtained seven distinctions and passed mathematics and physical sciences with a mark of 100%. The 26-year-old hails from the dusty streets of Mukumbani village in the Luaname mountain valley. She started her journey as a writer last year in 2023, but she has been giving financial advice since 2020.
“My journey started with YouTube in 2020 when a lot of people were struggling financially, and some had lost their jobs. I realised that many people who take out loans sometimes do not know that there is credit life insurance that may be attached to their loans. Because of this lack of awareness, they sometimes do not claim from these policies,” she said.
Fulufhelani is a qualified actuarial scientist who works with insurance products on a day-to-day basis. “I started creating personal finance YouTube videos to talk about insurance, managing debts, credit, credit scores, etc. I wanted to create a platform where people can come together, learn about personal finances, and learn from each other. I started getting similar questions from the YouTube community from multiple people, some based on the content I had released already and others on new content. I then decided to write a book that gives people the fundamentals regarding how to manage their finances from budgeting, saving, and investing to buying insurance, buying cars, and using stokvels to build wealth,” she added.
“I have been greatly humbled by the positive reviews and feedback I have received from people who have read the book. Being a writer means changing lives and equipping someone with the right tools for them to thrive. Every copy of ‘Mind Your Cents’ I deliver, I see as a parachute being given to someone about to jump off a cliff.”
She said as a self-published author, the main challenge was finding an efficient way to get the books out to people and different bookstores.
