One wealth advisor’s quest to build financial literacy in Botswana
Malik Shehu, CFA, MBA, co-founded a financial literacy initiative after witnessing his classmates at university grappling with the burden of sending money home instead of focusing on their own futures. Wanting to ensure children could grow up without the stress of supporting their family, he made it his mission to understand money and learn how to communicate, to help invest for the next generation. Now a Consultant at Malaczynski Burn Risk Management, an investment and risk management adviser, Malik is happy that he has lived up to daydreams at school and he now leads a career driven by purpose.
Do you remember the time in Mrs. Jimbo's math class, whereby you would daydream and you'd imagine your older self walk in, and he'd look so cool?
I got the opportunity to study finance at the University of Botswana. The defining moment for me wanting to become a wealth advisor was that I saw my classmates were struggling financially because they would get their allowance and they would use it for sending money back home.
As children, we should be taken care of by our parents and not the other way around. So in my quest to try and stop black tax, I ventured into wealth advisory so that I can teach people how to manage their money properly.
Co-founding a financial literacy initiative has really helped me speak to the masses, to have their voices heard, to speak about the difficult things that they normally would not in the family household. I wanted to create a space where everyone talks about it: how they are budgeting, how they are saving, how they are investing, because then whatever they have to share could help the next person.
The more people know and understand money, the better they can do.
A letter to my younger self
What advice do you wish you had heard before starting your career in finance? In this series of personal stories, CFA® charterholders from different backgrounds discuss the insights they have gained during their career journey and the pivotal moments that shaped their professional paths. What would you write in a letter to your younger self?
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