I am only 23 years young and happy for the most part. But it has not been always like that.

If I were to tell some of the people in my life now, that I know what almost having to drop out of university because finances was like, they would not believe me. My life has felt like a life orientation case study for as long as I can remember, in 2008 I got accepted at Observatory girls and when I had to go and register my mother had to plead with the principal for an extension to come up with the registration fees, uniform and textbooks, but we somehow managed to get over that hurdle. I used to be that child who did not have a school jersey and had to get soup from the school kitchen for lunch because I did not have anything to pack for lunch, I was that child that could not afford the tuck-shop food while other children had change from buying in the first and second break.

When I started varsity in 2017, My mom got retrenched. The company liquidated after 159 years and this was the dynamite on the already in force rolling snowball. But the ups and downs have awarded me the gratitude I have for my mom today.

I am proud to say that I am the first graduate in my family. But it was not as easy as it sounds. When I got to university, I was confronted with a hardship I never knew existed. Excelling is all I have ever wanted but University is a different adjustment, my experience at university forced me to get to know myself, and really question what I want in my life, and so when my academics took a downturn I felt like a failure, I felt like I was down and out, but I kept pushing and pushing until today. I am currently working at Morebo Wealth, and although my experience differs from my peers, I would not change my story. But let me reverse my story a bit…

My name is Sisipo Mazule, I was born in the Eastern Cape and for the longest time I was embarrassed to be Xhosa, because I grew up in a number of locations in Johannesburg; Yeoville for all my primary life, Rosettenville during my high school and university life.

I am the eldest in my immediate family, I have two younger siblings. When it comes to my relationship with them, it is one where I share even a bite of chocolate with them. I grew up knowing that I had to share everything with them hence today no matter what, I cannot help but include them in my plans whether it is thinking of a business idea or something as simple as going to McDonalds. they will always be a part of those plans.

Growing up, my parents would get paid and borrow money and would still have nothing to show for it. This meant years of bad decision making in terms of how to help us maintain our lives. When I think about my attitude towards money, I tend to be a shy spender and a great saver because when my mom and stepdad had sudden spending sprees, I had already picked up on the pattern. I knew their sprees were followed by longer periods of struggling to pay back their loans and I quickly became “anti-debt” as I do not want to ever suffer the consequences I suffered growing up.

At the age of 11 I decided that I would study finance management because I felt as though the root of all our problems came from not understanding how to manage money. I quickly also realized that this was not just a problem that my family was facing and this this has now led to me wanting to use my story to inspire others out there to work hard and keep fighting even though they have every reason to give up.

Yes, I have never actually experienced going to bed without food, but we have been thrown out of a house we used to live in. Yes, I did not have to walk kilometers to get to school, but I have had to take responsibility of my sister when we had to wake up and walk at 05:30am to the bus stop so we could make it to school on time as that was our most reliable mode of transport. I did not have much, but I had much more than those less fortunate than me.

With my background in mind, I know, where I want to be in 5 years, 10 years and 15 years’ time. I am not as anti-debt as I used to be because I now know how to handle credit. I realize that in my line of work that trying to educate someone with no financial literacy background will be harder done than said, but that is not a problem, because what I have managed to achieve shows me that it is possible. People just need you to speak to them in their language.

It was the great Nelson Mandela who said “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.” Keeping this in mind I want to ensure that I bring myself to my client’s level to ensure that they are understood and looked after.

That is my story.