“If you had approached me for this interview five years ago, I wouldn’t have had the knowledge let alone the confidence to contribute anything valuable!” says Anna Roberts. The elegant and articulate Kiwi broadcast journalist, businesswoman and (most recently!) mother to twin boys is a far cry from the confessed introvert she claims she once was: “I did not like the spotlight. I never once put my hand up in university…ever!”
Anna, who moved to the UAE from New Zealand at the age of 7, says her career trajectory is the pure result of pluck and persistence. “I started from the ground up, interning at a radio station while in university.” After spending a few months as a promotions assistant-driving around town handing out stickers and other gear, she was finally offered the chance to host the breakfast show (unpaid!) but jumped “at the opportunity to hone my craft.”
A curveball came in the form of the global financial crisis. Graduating in December 2008 to a bleak job market in New Zealand, Anna flew to Europe at the recommendation of a family friend and managed to find work on a superyacht “making beds, varnishing decks, cleaning toilets for multi-millionaires,” she recounts. It wasn’t until 2010 that she returned to Dubai and radio and ultimately the city that saw her become an entrepreneur, bride and mother.
Here’s her money story in her own words…
Write Your Own Money Story
“Growing up, I was deeply influenced by two sorts of money stories,” shares Anna. The first story was influenced by her middle class household. “Both my parents worked and saved religiously and emphasized modesty and financial prudence. Every car or major purchase at home was second-hand. If we got something new, like a new pair of shoes for school, we needed to make the most of it for as long as we could.”
The second story was Anna always being told that she was “poor in mathematics” and routinely placed among the weak math students. “When I look back, I realize I fed that weakness by accepting it as a limitation instead of challenging it.” Although she became an adept saver (“My Mom would call me Scrooge!”) and financially independent at a young age-working two to three jobs while at university-Anna felt inhibited towards investing for many years.
“As women, a lot of the media we consume focuses purely on beauty, fashion, and relationships. We are told we need to get more things and spend more, instead of being advised on how to make more money, save more, invest more. Change the stories you consume if you want to create a new story for yourself!”
Investing 101: Find a Safe Space and an Entry Point
The internet is a great way to access reams of investing knowledge at one’s own pace, believes Anna. Once you’re ready, she says: “find a safe space to ask more detailed questions.” “I don’t understand venture capital, or how to decipher the NASDAQ or which IPO I need to keep my eyes on. I trust my brother – who’s in investment banking – and my husband who is a long-time investor, to share their findings with me and guide me in my approach. We all have someone in our lives who knows this stuff so ask for help!”
Her second suggestion is to look at investment opportunities in verticals/sectors that are of personal interest and make that an entry point. “I understand the world of media and how digital shifts are creating new opportunities. Make-up and beauty is a space I’ve always loved. When I find a company in this space that promotes the kind of vision and values I believe in, that’s when I seriously consider investing.”
For Anna, having a personal connection in investing is important. “I am especially interested in investment opportunities in women-led businesses. I would love to support female founders who don’t have the same privilege that I was born into as a European-origin New Zealander whose first language is English and came from a middle-class background.”
Money Habits as an Entrepreneur
Before diving into entrepreneurship full-time, Anna tested the waters. She switched to freelancing for her employer as she began building her client base. “It gave me a runway monetarily so that I wouldn’t be without a regular income all of a sudden.” In 2015, she took the leap and invested her entire gratuity (“all of AED 32,600”) into her business, spending the next 18 months pivoting various aspects of her communications consultancy The Nudge Effect.
Entrepreneurship, says Anna, is as much about pivoting your business as it is pivoting your life; and especially your money habits. “Money is your runway as an entrepreneur. You want to extend that runway as much as you can so you can truly have lift off.” Having paid off her car loan, Anna reduced discretionary spending wherever she could. “Sometimes it meant foregoing a long birthday dinner but only joining for dessert. If your business is a priority, the people who really care about you will understand because they want you to succeed.”
Money and Marriage
“Money is one of the most important things two people ought to discuss if they are looking to be seriously committed to each other, ideally before you even get engaged,” explains Anna.
She recommends (prospective) partners ask each other the following questions: “How much do you have in savings? How much debt do you have? How much do you want to have saved in the next few years?” Both partners should keep up the conversation as you continue to build a life together. “How many times a month do you want to have nice dinners out? How many couple vacations a year? It gives you a lens into the other person’s preferences and priorities so you can start to create a framework for what you value together. If you can’t have this conversation, how are you going to expect to have discussions about other big things like deciding when to have children and how you want to raise them?!”
If you’re married, Anna also pointed out that in the UAE, both partners do not necessarily have equal accessibility to funds in a joint account (compared to other jurisdictions like India or New Zealand) so couples should decide if there is a value in also maintaining individual accounts in the event of an emergency.
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