Hi, I’m Ken
I am so glad you’re here.
The Humble Penny is home to our growing Community of Fearless Dreamers who seek Financial Joy in their lives.
Short Audio intro:
My ultimate goal is to give you the tools and insights that will help you achieve Financial Independence and Money Joy in your life.
As time passes, we’ll help you move on from just embracing financial independence as a Fearless Dreamer to actually taking radical action to become a Dream Maker.
This forms part of our core mission to help 10,000 families achieve financial independence this decade.
Before getting ahead of ourselves, let’s talk some unspoken realities…
Do you ever feel like you work hard but just don’t earn enough money?
Or ever feel like you should be saving more for uncertainties but just never manage to?
Ever dream of freedom and the option of retiring earlier? Or imagine a more desirable lifestyle for you and your family?
You aren’t alone because I have been there too.
Helping you achieve these are just some of the reasons why I have started this blog having achieve Financial Independence aged 34!
A bit about me –
I am a – Millennial | Migrant | Minority
The story goes –
Millennials are screwed financially with mounting student and consumer debt, no savings, no pension and no financial hope for the future.
Migrants face a torrent of challenges, not least because they typically have no ‘trust funds’ to inherit.
Minorities (I’m Black African) typically face an uphill struggle generationally, compounded by huge gaps in financial literacy.
Such is “the danger of a single story”.
Going by the above, I and my generation are supposedly doomed. It doesn’t have to be so!
I believe the steps we take today will help us tell positive stories tomorrow.
The Future is Bright and Desirable and you can design and live the Life of Freedom you want.
Welcome to the Home of the growing generation of Fearless Dreamers.
This will not only make you happy as you worry less about getting by daily, but it will bring you joy as you feel confident about the future and begin to have influence over other people’s life circumstances, which is what Wealth is all about.
I can tell you the above confidently because in my mid 30s, together with my wife (Mary), we’ve been able to:
- Become mortgage free in 7 years from a 25 year mortgage to become 100% debt free.
- Achieved Financial Independence aged 34 with me having began life as a first generation immigrant with £0 aged 14.
- Quit our corporate jobs to focus more on family life, pursue our passions and truly live our best lives.
We’ve achieved the above as a young family with 2 children whilst having fun and enjoying our lives (although doing it smartly).
We know it’s possible for you (with planning, hard work and creativity) and we’re here to show you how 😊
About me more personally:
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel (with over 30,000 subscribers) and see us have fun creating video content 😉
Here is a video of a Day In Our Lives as a family since we quit our corporate jobs.
I am happily married to Mary (9 years+) and we have two great sons – Joshua & Elias. Family means the world to me.
An optimist with a deep appetite for winning and becoming successful at anything I commit to.
I grew up in the bustling City of Lagos (Nigeria) for most of my formative years and this has not only taught me great Resilience but also given me a creative approach to solving problems as well as a healthy appetite for risk-taking.
Today, I am personally 100% debt free and moved from the limited universe of just being an Employee to become a keen Investor and Business owner; with a Passion for Helping and Teaching others what has worked (and not worked!) for me in my journey to Financial Independence and Freedom.
Above this, it is my desire to enjoy the process, keep learning and remember in all things to be thankful and ultimately Seek Joy.
This all sounds great today, but the truth is, life wasn’t always like this.
I started my second life as a first-generation immigrant to the great City of London (UK) at the age of 14 in 1998 and began the next stage of my life adventure.
Those who have trodden this path will know of the many challenges one experiences. Mine wasn’t helped by the zero assets and minimal rights I had access to.
I would spend the next 10 years of my life in survival mode, living predominantly in the Faith Lane.
Those years (filled with trials & errors, failures, regrets, desires) were the makings of the Me you see today.
I continue to be a learner and deep down, I am shifting from thinking of myself as someone who aspires to be a ‘person of success’ to become a ‘person who creates value’.
Hope, Faith and the application of learned Wisdom have been and remain my driving forces for change.
Other stuff:
I hold a First Class honours degree in Economics & Accountancy from City, University of London.
I’m also a Chartered Accountant (ACA, ICAEW) and an Executive MBA holder from the University of Cambridge.
I have experience of setting up, building and selling businesses, and have worked with high-growth small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) over the last 10 years, including extensively in Investment Management.
Beyond running this site and my personal investing activities, I served as a Chief Financial Officer for Investment Management businesses in London for over a decade, with a focus on backing entrepreneurs in the Creative industries.
In my spare time, I enjoy music (I love Hans Zimmer and Afrobeats!), reading, writing, working out, traveling, video creation and hanging out with my peeps!
I offer Coaching to Financial Independence seekers and side hustle aspirers.
I also mentor young people with a desire to find their path and stay out of trouble.
Expand to read My Personal Story on WHY I Started This Blog
Why I started this Blog:
In the late Summer of 2016 on a flight from London to Philadelphia, I stared out of the window in deep reflection about my life, where I had come from and where I was heading.
Something about being up 40,000 feet not only made me feel helpless but also made me marvel at how glorious the world looked from up there.
Something bothered me about living life primarily for my own self-interest. I felt I wasn’t making enough of a meaningful contribution to others. I also wasn’t doing all I could be doing and wasn’t firing on all cylinders.
A guy called Rob Geraghty, whom I was introduced to around that time had kindly sent me THIS BOOK and THIS ONE in the post, both of which I read all through the flight and thoroughly recommend.
The first one challenged me to approach my life problems by Design, whilst the other honed in on discovering my Passions and Talents.
So the challenge was to list:
1) 10 things I was Passionate about.
2) 10 things I was Really Good At.
This was TOUGH and here are my actual answers from that flight after much thinking:
1) 10 things I Am Passionate about:
Helping Others, Mentoring/Coaching, Family/Faith/Relationships, Education, Enterprise, Teaching Others/Learning, Travelling/Life experience, Immigration, Managing Money, Volunteering/Charity.
2) 10 things I Am Really Good At:
Being Resourceful, Being Organised, Being Empathetic, Communicating Effectively, Investing/Deploying Money, Taking Calculated Risks, Planning Ahead, Accounting & Finance, Solving Problems (Creatively & Innovatively), Winning/Resilience.
The idea is that if you can combine a Passion of yours with a Talent, mixed in with the right Associations, Action, and Faith (belief), then you will be unstoppable in that pursuit.
What I didn’t know was that this little exercise would lead me down a path of self-discovery. For days I mauled over my Passions and Talents in various combinations.
I wasn’t getting ANYWHERE in terms of what I needed to do next.
Then I decided to send a WhatsApp message separately to 5 of my closest friends/family. I asked them what they thought about me in terms of my Passions and Talents.
The answers were remarkable. Something about their answers gave me validation for what I needed to do next. Here is a sample from my Brother, Kingsley:
“Focus & Resourcefulness. In terms of talents that are not learned, these stand out to me about you. When you want something, you are able to FOCUS on that one thing without distractions; you achieve these things through RESOURCEFULNESS. I remember when you were young and wanted to buy your Merc. You researched and researched and even pinned up the exact model you wanted on the walls and subscribed to magazines about them. That is focus and resourcefulness in action; same as your first job, first house purchase, choice of a partner, etc. Your passion is in giving advice/mentoring/learning; these things I have noticed you do tirelessly, you are always willing to relay back to people who are going through a journey that you have already been through”
I knew instantly that I needed to do something that involved helping people live their lives better.
At this point, it was no longer something I SHOULD DO, but rather something I MUST DO.
It would involve me working tirelessly to Give and possibly without Receiving. Even the thought of that brought me great Joy.
I knew this was in my sweet spot and I was getting closer to what I desired next.
One day, whilst having dinner with my wife, I told her that I am quite good at gathering information and able to rally people for a Cause. I told her I was considering some form of an educational platform.
A repository of quality information that Anyone from Anywhere in the World could access for FREE. With a goal of “taking everyone along”. Giving anyone who needed it the Tools to get to a Good Place in their Financial Life.
Mary paused for a second, looked at me and literally said the words “the humble penny“. I made a mental note of that phrase and thought that would be an excellent name for a blog.
But there was a small problem.
I got a ‘C’ grade in GCSE English and I typically avoided writing anything on the internet; I had primarily been an observer of other people’s great contributions. In addition, I had ZERO online skills.
My wife challenged me to learn new skills and as such, every aspect of this blog you see is the result of leaving my old ways behind and learning the skills for tomorrow.
I have literally had to put one foot in front of the other to get to where I am today with producing Great Content for You.
So the fact that you’re reading my blog is a GREAT ENCOURAGEMENT to me.
Blogging has been TRANSFORMATIONAL for My Life for many reasons, one of the biggest benefits being that it has made me more FEARLESS.
I loved this journey so much that I’ve written a Free 7 Day How To Start A Successful Blog Course.
I believe that Everyone in a position of INFLUENCE should start their own Blog. And that includes You because You have a Voice and a Unique STORY.
It has never been cheaper or easier to set up your own blog and begin telling your story whilst having fun and influence online today.
Finally,
I am very excited to have you onboard and I look forward to getting to know you as we will learn from each other and tell better life stories as a result.
It is my desire to serve you 2 times a week with great content from everyone in my sphere, which I hope will transform your life, and take you from where you’re today to where you want to be.
I typically post on a Mondays and Fridays, although, if I’m creating premium Action Plans for Financial Joy Academy, I only post on Mondays.
One post will be on this blog, and another will be on YouTube. Do Subscribe to our YouTube Channel.
I’ve done a mini sitemap for you, so feel free to check out the Start Here page.
Join our Free and helpful Private learning community HERE on FACEBOOK.
Do please Subscribe below and join 35,000+ Monthly Readers:
Feel Free to write me an email about absolutely anything by Clicking Here
I look forward to hearing from you 😀
To Our Success,
Ken Okoroafor
p.s.
We’re pleased to be award-winning:
1st place – Best Designed Money Blog
2nd place – Best UK Personal Finance Blog
2nd place – Best Money Making Blog
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