Vlog ‘n’ sprog

Anna Whitehouse, aka Mother Pukka, photographed with daughter Mae "The Urchin" in Hackney.

There it was: £10,000 on an invoice for someone turning up to an event. That was what a 24-year-old vlogger was paid at the leading women’s magazine I worked at. As someone pedalling away as a journalist for £150 a day, I was split between blinding jealousy and a dogged determination to be one of those ‘vlogging’ people.

Prior to that moment, money was never my focus – I ditched a fruitful career in law to become a junior reporter on Practical Caravan for £18,000 a year. I’m a doer of things (which bizarrely includes writing about tow bars) that make me happy; I’ve never stuck to a job if it isn’t working and I’ve always thrived on ‘the fear’ – those moments when the rug is pulled from under your feet and you’ve got to somehow relocate your foundations among the rubble.

But on that pile of invoices, there was a stark link between time spent with my daughter and money. That was the net gain; If I could get paid £10,000 for approximately two hours of work, that would mean I’d get the rest of the month with my daughter. It became a ratio in my mind; the ratio of vlog to sprog.

And like any mother, anything linked to your child takes on a slightly primal focus. 

So here I am talking about money for money. In the name of transparency, this is a paid blog post and without it, I’d be spending less time with my kid. The ratio of vlog to sprog is ever-so-vaguely balanced today.

But with each collaboration, it does matter to me what I’m saying – that it’s firstly clear this is paid for secondly that it is not just a puff piece ending in tightly-tied purse strings.

When GetStocks approached me, I was wary – what is a stock? That exchange thing seems quite foreign to me and my meagre, americano-dented income. Why would I write about it? (Let’s call a spade a spade: The money obviously). But how does it relate to me and why would anyone else care?

I think it’s because I’ve always only made a half-fettered attempt to manage my finances and imagined there might be others out there, too. As long as I was doing stuff with words and there was food on the table – and we had a table, I didn’t care, really. Naively I lived in the moment and my finances were an afterthought – quite the wakeup call when looking into buying a house. I felt like quite the financially inept wazzock as we start considering living in a converted phonebooth.

But with a kid in tow, money starts to become more serious. It’s not just about lurching from bar to burrito. The pennies count; towards lessons in the triangle and towards a future that’s for someone far more important than yourself.

According to the Fidelity Investment report 92% of women want to learn more about financial planning and investment, yet the majority of women hold back when it comes to talking about money. Only 47% of women say they would be confident discussing money and investing with a financial professional on their own.

I’ve never considered investing in anything other than the Zara sale. I assumed that sort of thing was for people in suits furnished with a Rolex and an ability to use words like ‘fiscal policy’ with aplomb. But the reason I am writing about this is because if you are thinking of ditching that 9-5 to be with your kid, then this is a potential revenue stream.

There’s risks that need to be taken at every avenue of the ‘I quit’ decision; but this has become a genuine string to my slightly-less-lacklustre financial bow.

GetStocks is a social platform that not only allows you to see what others are whacking their money into but also shows trading trends. So for example, ‘traders that hold stock A in their portfolio also hold stock B, C and F”, which keeps investors in the loop of what’s happening and offers up new investment ideas that you can literally nick.

It’s basically Facebook for people looking to make a buck or two (million). A seasoned investor might be investing in a dinosaur footprint business – you can then piggyback that investment and potentially cash in.

Having played about with it (initially like I was on a Monopoly Board; but towards the end seriously), I got quite hooked. With a small investment, I was able to make a profit – nothing lifechanging, but certainly enough to make me realise that this app really does make it easy to trade stocks and make mullah. 

It might not be enough for a caravan but if I’m with my kid more, I’ll settle for a new tow bar.

Go to www.getstocks.com for more information. This blog post was created in collaboration with GetStocks. 

Anna Whitehouse

Founder of Mother Pukka, Anna Whitehouse likes super hero cape-making classes and dislikes the naming of celebrity couples (TomKat, Brange etc.) She tries (and often fails) to parent the shit out of life.

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Turns out I’m not an afternoon person either.

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