Did school teach you what to do with your paychecks when they land? For most of us, that answer is a strong no, so Mar is on a mission to fix that by bringing the secrets of the rich to the masses at a rapid rate!
Mar’s first experiences with finance go all the way back to when she was 10, when she and her mother were living in the United States after immigrating from Brazil. She was the only one in her family who could speak English, so as a child she was on the phone dealing with the bankers and businessmen regarding her family’s finances. This experience consisted of a whole lot of them saying “do this” without explanation and her just following whatever they said without being giving an explanation of how it would impact them long-term. It’s especially dubious because the bankers who were effectively in control of Mar’s are only interested in the short-term gain they get from commissions and such, not in the family’s long-term financial security. This trend continues on to this day with many of her clients, including her own father-in-law, being in a position where their advisor gave them a short-sighted set up many years ago that has been losing them money for years. Mar helps her clients out of this by giving them an understanding of the tradeoffs related to their financial decisions and meets with them on regular intervals to make sure their setup is working out for them.
Even though she’s making a splash in the personal finance industry now, Mar actually got her start working in corporate, but moved to the non-profit sector because she felt like she wasn’t making much of a difference in the world. Her start with finance came when she met a friend from Church who was well off but was also able to be a present mother and wife. This lady sat down with Mar to do a financial strategy session and ended up teaching Mar much of what she knows. That led Mar and her husband to go through the process of getting licensed, which was a monumental amount of work, but they were able to make it through because of their great mindset- “You can do anything for a season.” After getting certified, they were able to build their agency, which started out with helping family members, but has now expanded to working with all sorts of clients! You can learn more about Mar’s firm here on her website.
Mar’s TikTok plays a vital role in her mission to help 10 million families improve their finances in the next 10 years. It started out as being just a way to share information with more people than the limited number of clients she’s able to work with at any given time. As Mar’s TikTok’s started to pick up steam, she actually stopped posting for a period of time because of how overwhelming having so many eyes on you can be. At this point, she took a step back and asked herself “Am I really about what I say I’m about? If I really believe my life isn’t about me and is instead about helping other people then I need to get over this because people need financial education now more than ever before!” With that conviction, she’s been able to keep spreading the word of financial literacy to her nearly 300k followers.
Even with the best mindset and mission, burnout is an inevitable part of being a content creator, but Mar has some great strategies to help deal with this. The most important thing is be patient with yourself, you need to give yourself some space to be able to get inspired again. Her favorite things to do during this time are to look at other creators whose content inspires her and to get into nature, since one great hike has the potential to give your mood a total 180. On the flip side of burnout, when you are in the right space to be making content, take advantage of it and get through as much as you can!
Next up for Mar is to keep going on her mission to help 10 million families in the next 10 years through both TikTok and her agency. While she is working on both, the agency is her main focus. Mar recognizes that poverty is a vicious cycle that stems from a lack of education, so if she’s able to help the parents of a family reach financial literacy, then they’ll be able to pass that on to their children, therefore breaking the cycle for that family. If you’re interested in improving your own personal finances or supporting Mar on her journey, check out her TikTok @moneymarprivette and her Instagram @marprivette!
