Meet Mandy, your money-smart friend
By Laura Fernandez
‘Mandy’ short for ‘Money-AND-You’ is exactly that: the money-smart brainchild of three BCom students (Babs, Ben, and Joey) – and your new best friend.
Since launching in April 2020, Mandy has taken on Instagram, Facebook, and the world wide web. As one follower described, Mandy has filled the gap in providing ‘non-political, concise and informative financial media… finally.’
By dissecting complex financial topics into ‘bite-sized’ educational content, Mandy is breaking down barriers to education, and the personified approach is, well, a whole lot more ‘digestible’ than a textbook.
Taking a look at their own education experiences and those of their friends, Babs, Ben, and Joey became increasingly aware of a financial literacy gap in the market. Many young Australians were completing high school with a lack of practical financial education – a sentiment that was being echoed in meme culture.
Enter Mandy.
But who is Mandy, really?
Mandy was founded by a team of BCom students who participated in the University of Melbourne’s International Case Competition program (ICC), which provides students with an unparalleled development experience to train for, and compete in case competitions with some of the best universities around the globe.
Meet the team:
Barbara (Babs) Van der Merwe: Founder – Branding; Marketing; Content Production
Joey Moshinsky: Co-Founder – Operations; Marketing; Content Development
Ben Toohey: Co-Founder – Strategy; Financial Brains Trust; Content Development
Mandy’s founders shared their thoughts, learnings, and plans for their passion project with us.
What inspired you to start Mandy?
The concept of being the money-smart friend resonated with us. As the go-to commerce friend in our circles, we always found ourselves answering personal finance/investment questions. We were excited by the idea of sharing, on a larger scale, the university learnings that we have found so empowering.
Which university experiences have contributed to the inception or development of Mandy?
Other than a wealth of money-related content, what have you learnt so far?
Are there any particular challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) equips students with the skills and knowledge to understand and solve key business challenges. Make a difference to society, policy, and organisations while forging a pathway to a global career. Choose from majors including Accounting, Actuarial Studies, Economics, Finance, Management and Marketing.
What’s next for Mandy?
Grow, grow, grow. Financial education is important for all young people – ultimately, we want to become the money-smart friend that people go to and will reliably be there for their financial questions. We’ve got a series of very exciting projects in the works, that deliver our content in true Mandy-fashion in a number of different ways beyond simply Instagram.
Some of the tough questions Mandy’s been tackling recently:
Does ethical investing actually work?
Is accessing your super early a good idea?
Is smashed avo back on the menu?
How did artificial intelligence get a quarter of the world on Tik Tok?
Want more?
Listen to the Students’ Association of Management and Marketing’s podcast with Mandy Money or get in touch with Mandy directly:
Instagram: @_mandy_money
Facebook: @moneysmartfriend
Website: https://mandymoney.com.au/who-is-mandy/