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Borrowell’s co-founder and COO on the best and worst financial advice, and the biggest money lesson she’s learned from her customers.
Who wants to pay to find out their credit score? Ten years ago, this felt really backwards to Eva Wong—so she co-founded Borrowell, the first company to offer free access to credit scores and credit reports in Canada (in partnership with credit bureau Equifax). In addition to credit scores, her company offers credit-building tools—including Rent Advantage, for tenants who want to build a credit history—and an online marketplace for loans and other financial products.
Wong is passionate about helping Canadians better understand money and credit. She’s received many accolades for her work, including EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year award in Ontario in 2019, and inclusion on the 2017 Women in FinTech Powerlist curated by Innovative Finance, an independent industry association. Below, she shares her thoughts on managing money, saving for the future and much more.
David Chilton is one of my finance heroes. When I was in high school, I read his book The Wealthy Barber (Penguin Random House, 1997). It’s inspiring, and it was helpful for me in understanding personal finance. It’s one of the bestselling books in Canada, and David later became an investor in Borrowell, which was a cool moment for me. I count him as a friend today.
I like to cook and bake, and also travel when I can.
I think I would still do the same thing. I feel very fortunate that I’m really excited about the job that I have, and it’s important to me to be doing something meaningful.
Getting an allowance from my parents at a young age. They took me to Canada’s Wonderland for the first time when I was around six years old. I had such a good time there that the next day I went to my parents’ room and gave my mother a one-dollar bill to say “Thank you.” They laughed, and I think they just thought it was really sweet. I didn’t have any understanding of the cost [of the outing], but I guess I understood that money had value, and I wanted to give them a thank-you gift.
When I was in high school, I saved up to go to France on an exchange program.
My very first job was as a piano teacher. I charged $5 for half an hour, and after a few months, the mother of my first piano students said it was too low, and she increased my wage to $8.
My first “real” job where I got a significant paycheque was a summer job at a bank when I was in university. Being a good Asian daughter, I gave my first paycheque to my parents.
The biggest money lesson I’ve learned as an adult, I learned at Borrowell and through our members. What I’ve learned from interviewing some of them is that a lot of people who struggle with money are actually very good at managing money, but they don’t have enough income.
I probably had prejudices before, thinking that people who struggle with money just aren’t managing their money well. But what I’ve found is that when you live on a very narrow margin, you actually have to be very good at managing your money. If you’re like me, making a salary that covers my expenses, I don’t have to be good at managing my grocery bill, or worry about my car breaking down, because I know I have enough money to pay for it. I don’t have to be that good with my money because I have an income that’s higher than my expenses.
But for people who are living paycheque-to-paycheque, a lot of them are very good at managing their money because they have to be. It was good for me to learn that, because it can be easy to say that someone has a spending problem but, for a lot of people, they actually have an income problem, and it doesn’t mean that they’re not diligent with managing their money. That’s why it’s important to have good credit, so that people can access funds if there is an emergency, because they often don’t have savings to fall back on.
To start from a young age the habit of saving at least 10% from your earned money.
Having an emergency fund when you have outstanding debt, and if you have access to a line of credit, doesn’t make sense. So, the worst money advice is putting a significant amount of money into an emergency fund of cash that just sits there.
If you have a line of credit you could draw from in case of emergency, I would use the [emergency fund] money to pay off debt. If you have debt, that’s a guaranteed interest cost, as opposed to just paying interest when you use your line of credit. Later, when you’ve paid your debt, you can start an emergency fund or invest your money. But pay off your debt first.
I’d rather receive a lump sum all at once. It gives you more flexibility to do something impactful and meaningful with it. I feel like having a smaller amount every week or month is more like a safety net and more of a safe answer.
Paying off debts, especially the ones with high interest, like credit card debt, is underrated. A lot of people get caught up in thinking they have to contribute to an RRSP, or they have to save, or they need an emergency fund, but if you’re carrying a balance on a credit card and paying 20% interest, I think the better financial choice is to pay off debt.
That it’s really complicated to start investing. A lot of people might be intimidated about where to put their money, but it’s better to just start and put some money into an index fund than to worry about having to choose individual stocks or a complicated investment strategy.
Not taking a bigger risk, like not investing in real estate in the early 2000s in Toronto. I was too careful, and sometimes you need to take some risks.
I probably spend more on travel than the average person. For me, travelling and having experiences with people is really important. My family spends a significant amount of our annual budget on travel, because spending on experiences, I think, is more meaningful than spending on things.
Probably a couch. It cost over $1,000, which at the time felt like a significant amount of money. It was a customized couch, and you could choose the material, the shape and the legs. We had the couch for probably 20 years, so it did last a while.
My take on debt has changed a bit over time. Growing up, I was very averse to debt. It always felt to me like not having debt would mean a sense of freedom and peace. I’ve been able to sleep well at night and not feel stressed—and I do appreciate that. But, as I’m getting a bit older, I realize that debt can be used to grow wealth. I’m more open to taking on debt, and more open to that as a means of gaining wealth, as opposed to always being concerned about being in debt.
A family trip to Europe. We flew into and out of Germany, and we drove to Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
Die With Zero by Bill Perkins (Mariner Books, 2020). It’s subtitled “Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life.” I didn’t agree with all of it—the author has a very different perspective on money than I do. But I really appreciated his pushing the thinking of spending your money while you’re alive and not holding on to it.
The author tells a story about throwing an extravagant birthday party for himself and inviting lots of friends and family. He spent a lot of money, but he says he doesn’t regret it because it was such a great time. It was a real call to generosity.
Whether you spend the money on yourself or other people or you give it away, he’s pushing for people not to hoard their money and then die with all this money they haven’t given away or spent. I appreciated that and the thinking around being more generous and a little less tight-fisted with money.
I keep an extra $20 bill hidden in my wallet, because you never know when you might need cash. I usually don’t carry much cash because I’ll spend it, so I try to stick it somewhere I can’t see it.
My home. My family and I spent a lot of time here during the pandemic, but even afterward, we like to host a lot of people. So, I have a lot of good memories. And again, I like to cook and have people over, so, I’d say my home.
My next goal is for my kids to be financially savvy. They’re 10 and 13, so that’s a bit of a longer-term goal.
Own.
Buy.
Invest.
Budget.
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