Meet the female founder who wants us to have more money conversations
We spoke with Victoria Harris from The Curve about managing money and getting into nature more often.
Kia ora Victoria, Thanks for chatting to us. Can you start by telling us what you do and what your typical day looks like?
Kia Ora! I’m Vic and I am one-half of The Curve; an education platform for women to learn about finance, investing and everything money! I founded the company with my business partner, Sophie, just over two years ago. We educate in a non-scary or intimidating way, with no complicated jargon or confusing graphs. Money can be so empowering. It can lead to flexibility, choice and freedom - which is so important for women.
My days are pretty diverse! They usually start (very) early. After exercise I usually sit down with a coffee and read the news. I’ve started my days this way pretty much my entire adult life! I love keeping up-to-date with what's going on in the news. Part of this process is also figuring out what financial news might be of interest to our community. The rest of the day consists of anything from recording a podcast, writing blogs, replying to emails and DMs, team meetings, recording selfies or TikToks (lol), updating our online course…there is ALWAYS something to do and the joy of running your own business is that it is never ending!
You started out in investment banking right? That’s a pretty high-pressure environment…
Not quite investment banking but funds management, which is also very high pressure.
You’re investing money on behalf of clients. You’re usually dealing with millions of dollars and have to make quick, but well-thought out decisions. You are constantly looking for new investment ideas, while monitoring the companies you currently own. The stock market changes every day as people buy and sell shares, so you never know what will happen!
It was very high-stress, but I loved it.
Tell us a bit about The Curve, what’s it about?
Throughout my 13-year career I noticed two things;
1) there were pretty much no females in the industry
2) women really lacked the confidence when it came to managing their money.
I constantly had friends come up to me wanting to understand investing and asking where to go to learn the basics with like-minded women. There was nowhere I could point them. So we decided to create this safe space for women, by women. And that’s how The Curve was born. Fast forward two years, we have an award-winning podcast with neary half-a-million downloads and have had over 600 people from many different countries do our online course. It’s been pretty insane but we still have plenty more women to reach!
Money can be a big cause of stress for a lot of people, what’s the solution?
Money is like sex; we all have it, some just more than others. But money is also like sex in that it is never talked about. This can create a world of silence. Instead, we should be encouraging money conversations. Financial stress is the number one cause of mental health issues in NZ. The more we talk about money, the more we can educate each other and improve our wealth trajectory collectively.
At The Cure, we’ve opened up the conversation around money to help women realise that everyone is different; we all have a different level of knowledge, income, expenses, habits etc and so comparing yourself to others, will only stress you out more! We need to be more honest and vulnerable with our money stories so we can all help each other.
Before you went out to Unyoked, had you spent much time out in nature? If so, was it mostly doing activities or had you gone out just to BE in nature?
I absolutely love being out in nature, but I definitely don’t do it enough. I need to try and remind myself how good it feels when I’m there. For me, I love working and being busy, but what I have realised is that it is important to take breaks for my own mental health too.
I love going for walks, literally getting lost (lol) and discovering new places. Nature can be so beautiful and surprising. I also LOVE a good sunrise and sunset - even though they happen every day - they are pretty incredible.
How were you feeling mentally and emotionally before you headed out to nature?
I was pretty stressed to be honest. We were about to move to London for a few months and even finding time to go away for a few days seemed stressful - bad I know! I was also feeling anxious about leaving my friends and family, so a weekend away from them seemed like pretty bad timing too, but I couldn't have been more wrong.
It was just what I needed.
And it was such a beautiful reminder of how incredible New Zealand is.
How did you feel when you got back?
Veeeeery relaxed. And honestly I couldn’t believe I hadn’t done it sooner.
Most of my weekends are filled with running around doing admin, meeting up with friends, catching up on emails….very little time for myself. So to actually have to stop and relax, like really relax, was so beneficial.
What’s one thing about the experience that you didn’t expect?
How much I would enjoy cooking on an open fire. It was so fun! And definitely made the experience.
What did you do while you were there?
Walked, played cards, read, ate, walked some more, slept, drank tea, cooked on the open fire, walked more…it was very wholesome. The west coast of NZ is pretty wild making for some beautiful sightseeing.
Ok, final question…I have a textbook ‘avoidant’ relationship when it comes to budgeting and finance, can you help me?
Yes! And how convenient that you mention this….we’ve recently just launched our newest addition in The Curve Classroom called The Money Reset. It is a unique two-week online course to help you FINALLY take control of your finances. We’ve specifically designed it for people like you! It includes a personalised budgeting and spending tracker so there is no excuse! To learn more, head to thecurve.co.nz.