Secrets to Building Wealth Before Marriage w/ Areeb Khawaja

What if the real glow-up before marriage isn’t skincare… it’s your bank account? Most of us grew up hearing “just save” with zero clue how money actually grows, moves, and works for you. In this episode, financial educator and consultant Areeb Khawaja spills the secrets no one in our communities explains, the quiet moves that build wealth before the marriage talks even begin. 

Think: the accounts nobody told you about, the small habits that snowball into freedom, the creative ways to minimise your taxes, and the halal pathways that grow your money without guilt. It’s not a lecture, it’s the money talk you wish someone gave you at 20. If you’re a single Muslim who wants clarity, confidence, and a financial head start, this one’s your blueprint.

Connect with Areeb for FREE financial literacy sessions through his email: [e-mail] 

If something we said made you think, laugh, or feel seen, leave us a rating and review! It helps more people find the show. And hey, if you know someone who needs to hear this episode, send it their way. Sharing is caring!

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Assalamu alaikum.
I'm Hibah.

SPEAKER_03 (00:02):
And I'm Zayd.

SPEAKER_01 (00:03):
You're listening to Diary of a Matchmaker.

SPEAKER_03 (00:05):
A podcast that will take you into our world as
matchmakers.

SPEAKER_01 (00:08):
We'll share our experiences and offer advice for
the single Muslim.

SPEAKER_03 (00:12):
So let's dive in.
Bismillah.
Alright, Bismillah.
As salamu alaikum, everyone.
Rabbi Shahli Sadhi was SillyAmri Bahl Uqtatamil Sani Yafkahu
Kawli.
Welcome to another episode.
I'm Zayd, and on the other micis my wife and co-host Hiba.
Um so we just received thisstory today, and uh I'll just

(00:34):
jump right into it.
So back when I was inuniversity, I went on a cottage
trip with some friends.
And I made what I now call thesecond most expensive mistake of
my early twenties.
I was on a jet ski feeling alittle too confident, and let's
just say the jet ski won thefight.
I didn't crash it, I crashed mybank account too.
After paying for the damages, Ihad nothing left for next

(00:56):
month's rent.
Zero.
So I scrambled and took thefirst part-time job I could find
at a small startup.
My manager was let's call himthe opposite of supportive.
Six weeks later, as the COVIDpandemic hit and the company
didn't make any sales, I gotlaid off.
No savings, no backup plan, anda lot of anxiety.
But honestly, that momentchanged everything for me.

(01:18):
It was the fur it was my firstreal lesson in personal finance.
The importance of an emergencyfund and why financial stability
isn't just about money, it'sabout dignity, security, and
peace of mind.
That experience shaped my entireapproach to teaching financial
literacy today.
So Arib, how did your parentstake that uh incident?
I'm guessing that well.

SPEAKER_04 (01:39):
Oh, well, thank you for sharing that.
Alhamdulillah, you know, one ofthe things that we're uh
grateful for is that nobody washarmed.
Uh there was no, you know, noone was hurt from that
experience, nobody was harmed.
Uh Alhamdulillah, I made it outuh unscathed, uh, without a
scrap without a scratch.
And that's I think that's one ofthe things that we're most

(02:00):
grateful for.
So I think, you know, from thatperspective, my parents were
very grateful.
And you know, we we took theride back home from that trip a
a lot more um uh you know,happier that you know,
alhamdulillah, we had come outof this okay.
I had come out of this okay,nobody else has got gotten hurt.
I think from my perspective, oneof the things that uh I still

(02:22):
think to uh and to this day,think about to this day, is that
you know anything could havehappened on that jet scene.

SPEAKER_01 (02:28):
So Wow, where where where was this?

SPEAKER_04 (02:31):
This was one of the cottages I can't remember um the
name, but I can get back to youon that.
It's actually in Ontario.

SPEAKER_01 (02:36):
Oh, in Canada, okay.
I thought it's somewhere in theCaribbean or something.

SPEAKER_04 (02:40):
No, no, it was here.
Um I could get away with a lotmore if it was in the Caribbean,
but it was here.
But the the lesson from all ofthat, like the jet ski
experience on its own was onething, I must say.
Like, you know, there was thatexhilaration, that feeling of
dread, oh my god, what's goingto happen now?
Now we have to pay for thedamages that have happened to
the jet ski and to the otherguy's boat, right?

(03:01):
And these damages aren't cheap,right?
Um, so alhamdulillah, aftertaking care of that, I was able
to pay for that, but I had nomoney left over for rent for you
know the next month because Iwas in university, I was just a
student, I wasn't workingfull-time at that time.
Uh, and you know, there was Ihad no concept of an emergency
fund or having savings at thatpoint.

(03:22):
And I remember thinking tomyself, oh my god, like how am I
going to be able to afford tostay here?
There's nothing I can do.
So I had to, I did what you knowwhat I did what I I knew best.
I got another job, right?
I messaged as many people I knewto like see if I can work a
connection and get a referraland get into one company and
apply as many places aspossible.
Alhamdulillah, it worked out forme and I was able to get a job.

(03:45):
And that's the other thing thatI want people to take away from
this lesson as well is when youdon't feel financially secure,
you end up taking on, you know,uh positions and roles out of
desperation instead of out ofwhat you want to do.
So that role was not, you know,the best fit for me either.
I ended up being in a positionwhere my manager wasn't, you
know, a very supportive manager.
He was kind of a micromanagertype personality.

(04:07):
Uh, he would call me every 10minutes to check up on how I was
doing in my work.
And you know, he didn't trustanything, you know, so he would
have to verify everything that Iwas doing.
And I just felt very, you know,uh put down from this entire
experience of having to workwith him.
And not only that, but then youknow, six weeks, this was like
early January um in 2020.

(04:29):
So just six weeks after that,you know, the lockdown was
announced, and this company was,you know, um they did home
renovations for um for people.
Uh, and so because of thelockdowns, they couldn't go out
and do the home renovationsanymore.
So they were no, they weren'tgonna make any sales.
The company was losing money,and they had to they had to let
me go.
So now I lost that job as well.

(04:49):
So it was like a whole, youknow, that one experience, that
one mistake of that jet ski,which was completely unaccounted
for, nobody had anticipated thatsomething like this could even
happen, um, had led down thisseries of events where you're
now worried about the rent, andnow you're worried about getting
a job, and you have to acceptthis one role that you don't
even like that much, and themanager's not treating you well,

(05:10):
but you can't leave because youhave to make rent for the next
month.
And all right, well, let's sayyou do your job, you're doing
everything as much as well asyou can, but then you know,
circumstances beyond yourcontrol uh get into play because
of a pandemic or macroeconomicforces, and then they cause you
know the company to not performwell and have to let you go.
Uh, it just set off it just thatwas my first lesson on why it's

(05:32):
important to be financiallyresponsible.

SPEAKER_03 (05:34):
It's it's amazing how like certain moments uh
almost feel like they're justmeant to happen so that Allah
can steer you in a differentdirection.
And it just kind of feels likethis was one of those moments in
your life where it brought youto where you are now.
But I also just wanted to sharea few things about you before we
uh get into the meat of theconversation.
Uh Arib Kawaja is a financialservices professional and

(05:58):
financial literacy educator whospecializes in helping Canadian
Muslims build confidence intheir personal finances.
Uh, with a background spanningengineering, design, and
technology, Arib brings aunique, human-centered approach
to financial literacy, uh,blending clear education with
practical values-based guidance.
His mission is to help people,especially young professionals

(06:19):
and growing families, achievefinancial stability and peace of
mind.
So thank you again for comingonto the podcast.

SPEAKER_04 (06:26):
My pleasure.
Thank you for hosting me.

SPEAKER_03 (06:28):
When I think about single Muslims and when they are
looking to get married and justbegin that journey, of course,
like investing and savings andthinking about RSPs and all that
stuff, that's that's likenowhere near their mind, right?
Like the first thing they'reprobably thinking about is like,
I need to get a job, I need tobe financially stable so I can

(06:50):
just get married, because theyjust want to get married at that
point.
But that's also the one thingthat's probably hurting them at
that point, too, becausethinking long-term is also very
important, especially at thatstage in your early 20s.
So can you share a little bitabout the right mindset to have
uh when preparing for that bigstep of getting married uh from

(07:12):
a financial standpoint?

SPEAKER_04 (07:14):
Absolutely.
Firstly, thank you, Zayd andHebba, for inviting me to your
podcast.
It's an absolute uh honor to beuh part of your community.
And uh I wanted to give a quickdisclaimer that I'm here not as
a representative of my full-timeemployer, uh TELUS, but as a
personal representative uhadvocating for financial
literacy.
And uh one thing that uh youknow I'd like to share is that

(07:37):
you know, despite my backgroundcoming from you know
engineering, I studied you knowelectrical engineering and then
followed that up with amaster's.
And what I found was after 25years of education, nobody had
sat me down and actuallyexplained to me how personal
finances work, right?
And nobody had said to me, thisis how you do budgeting, this is
how if you end up in a situationwhere you have debt, this is how

(07:58):
you should manage your debt,this is how uh you know
investments work.
What are halal investments?
Nobody had had thoseconversations with me.
And I remember at uh Eptelus atthe end of the year, after a
year, years worth of based offof a year's worth of
performance, you get a bonus,um, a performance bonus.
And HR had explained to me, hey,like Arab, if you transfer this

(08:19):
bonus to your RRSP, then youwon't have to pay taxes up front
on uh on this income.
And I had sat there looking veryconfused, like, oh, what's an
RRSV?
Oh, um, taxes, how does thatwork?
What what amount of taxes wouldI normally have to pay?
And I looked at the options thatthey had shared about where I

(08:40):
could invest that money throughmy RRSV, and I remember sitting
very confused, like, am Iallowed to actually put my money
in there?
Are these even halal?
Does this make any sense?
I don't know if I'm allowed todo this or not.
Um, and that was really theturning point for me.
That's where I decided I wantedto educate myself more about
personal finances.
And as I as I embarked on thisjourney and I started learning

(09:00):
more and more about uh personalfinance, I realized that there
was such a gap within ourcommunity, the Muslim community,
when it comes to uh managingmoney and personal finances.
It's often seen as a tabootopic, right?
It's something that we see asyou know private and we
shouldn't share it with anyone,we shouldn't talk about it with
anyone.
Uh we have, we of course, asMuslims, have a belief that our

(09:21):
risk comes from Allah, but alongwith that, Allah SWT has made us
responsible for how we manageour resources as well.
And we often tend to forget, youknow, you know, what that means.
And you know, that's that'sreally where I would like to
begin when I think about yourquestion, Zayd.
Uh, for a young Muslim, uh,maybe in their early 20s, uh,

(09:43):
they're just learning aboutpersonal finances and they want
to know where to start.
There are three things that I Ithink are very fundamental that
they should they should knowabout.
Uh one, you know, if yourfinancial journey is kind of
like setting up a home.
You have different layers ofwhere you need to be thinking,
what you need to be thinkingabout.
But the first foundation ishaving an emergency fund in case

(10:03):
something were to happen, justlike my jet ski story, right?
Um, you want to be in a positionwhere if you, you know, if an
accident happens or you loseyour job, or you know, you
suddenly have a fridge thatisn't working anymore, and now
you have to buy a new fridge forthe home, you can actually pay
for this and not be set back.
And unfortunately, this is avery basic uh principle that
often gets ignored.

(10:24):
Um, you know, over half ofCanadians are living paycheck to
paycheck.
And if they were to uh get asudden expense that they
weren't, you know, uhanticipating due to some sort of
emergency, they would be, youknow, they would have to take a
loan to make it, you know, tomake ends meet.
Uh, and that's over half ofCanadians, despite living in one
of the richest countries in theworld, right?
Um, so the first thing I wouldrecommend is start building your

(10:47):
emergency fund before dreamingbig.
Most people jump straight intoinvesting.
What are the what are the beststocks that I can get?
What are the best funds that Ican get?
What's the highest ROI that, youknow, the returns that I can
get?
Um, you know, or they they thinkabout, oh, I have to buy a
house, so let me put some moneyaside so I can buy a house.
But before you think of any ofthose things, the most important
thing for you is let's establishyour foundation.

(11:08):
Let's make sure you're you cantake care of yourself in case
something were to happen.
You need to have an emergencyfund.
It protects your dignity, itprotects your mental health, and
it helps set you up for yourfuture goals as well.
And your 20s, especially foryoung Muslims, I must say this,
your 20s are full of risk.
You're going to encounter jobchanges, you're going to have
unexpected expenses come up,life transitions.

(11:29):
I had mentioned people lookingto get married, right?
Um, and having that safetycushion changes your entire
trajectory because now you'renot dependent on you know um
sudden things coming upcompletely ticking you off your
trajectory.
So I think that's one of thefoundational things that uh that
people need to do.
The other thing is, secondly, weare so willing to pay everyone

(11:50):
else.
We'll pay Starbucks, right, forcoffee, we'll pay Netflix, we'll
pay the utility bills, we'll payyou know our car insurance and
our gas bills and all of thosethings, but we don't pay
ourselves, right?
And there's a whole mindsetaround paying ourselves first.
When you get your income andit's deposited in the bank, it's
that's not 100% your money.
We need to change thisperspective.

(12:10):
Everyone thinks, oh, I've earnedthis income, now it's my money.
No, you have expenses, you havebills that you've incurred,
you've got to pay rent.
So that's gonna be deducted.
It's not, you can't think of itas your money.
You got to expense that, right?
You whatever, you know, whateveryou're left with at the end of
the day is what people tend tothink is their money.
And we got to flip that.
We have to start payingourselves first so that we can

(12:30):
live within our needs, notbeyond our means, and then just
say whatever is left.
So I know this sounds boring,but one of the best things that
I recommend is automating um,you know, your savings and your
bill payments.
You can make sure your billpayments happen on time if you
automate them.
Uh you don't have to rely onremembering them, you don't have
to rely on uh willpower.
Uh, and you can also automateyour investments as well.

(12:51):
So you could put money as soonas it hits your bank account on
a certain date, you can have ittransfer to your tax-free
savings account or an RRSP oranother, even just another
account where you're not goingto touch it and you know you're
not going to touch it, it's yoursavings.
And people who automate earlysave way more over their
lifetime.
Uh, in my story, I mentionedthat you know the second most

(13:12):
expensive mistake that I madewas that jet ski uh incident.
The first most expensive mistakeI made was not investing early
enough.
Had I just gotten startedinvesting at 18 or whenever I
got my first paycheck, right,the the say the amount that I
would have saved by then and howmuch it would have grown would
have, you know, would have justreally set me up, you know, at a

(13:35):
different position in my life atthis point.
So, you know, start early,invest early, and have an
emergency fund, automate um asmuch as you can so that it's not
dependent on your on yourwillpower and your ability to
remember that you have to paythe bills and you have to save
for yourself, pay yourselffirst, and you can start
investing with even tinyamounts.
These things compound quite alot.

(13:56):
Even if you're just settingaside$25,$50 a month, you know,
that amount actually compoundsover time.
It will grow over the course ofa year, two years, three years.
And when you look back at it,you'll realize that, oh, that
$50, because I was investing itevery month, um, instead of you
know getting, which is which isprobably you know equivalent to
getting a coffee every day,right?
You maybe skip out on thatcoffee, um, but it will set you

(14:20):
up in a different position inlife.
And then it will be easier foryou to make, you know, to pursue
marriage and to talk aboutweddings, wedding-related
expenses, and you know, buying ahome later on because you've set
yourself for success earlyenough.

SPEAKER_01 (14:33):
Okay, so we'll get inshallah into investment.
But um, first of all, what isthe best way to prepare your
emergency fund?
Like just regular savingsaccount or a TFSA?
What is a TFSA?
Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_04 (14:48):
Wow, okay, great questions.
So let's start with um the firstquestion there.
Uh, what is the best way toinvest in, or what is the best
way to set up your emergencyfund?
So everyone has a differentinvestment strategy.
The best thing that you need todo for yourself is determine
what are your what is yourincome coming in every month,

(15:09):
what are your expenses, what areyour nice to have that you know
that you can reduce, right?
Um, and how what amount of moneydo you have left over that can
be set aside?
Now, if you have a certainincome coming in and a certain
set of set expenses, you want tohave enough money saved uh saved
over in your emergency fund thatyou can take care of yourself

(15:30):
for at least three to six monthsif your income goes away.
For example, you are let's sayyou're earning you know$3,000 a
month and you're expending,you're spending, let's say,
$2,000 every single month,right?
Uh maybe you save that$1,000 sothat in case something were to
happen, you lose your job,right?
Um, you end up in a positionwhere you've saved enough that

(15:51):
you can take care of yourselffor three to six months while
you look for another job.
So that's that's typically thebest sort of approach towards um
towards setting up an emergencyfund.
And one other thing that I wouldrecommend is just, you know,
don't um like the the mindsetthat a lot of people have
nowadays is they they they spendeverything and then whatever is
left, they think about savingthat.

(16:12):
That's that's not how savingworks.
You got to pay yourself first.
Otherwise, we have somethingcalled um the the um the
standard of living inflation,which means that as your income
rises, your expenses also riseto match that.
Uh, and if you keep that up,then you will always be living
hand to mouth.
You will never have enough uhyou know ready to be saved so

(16:34):
that you can you can startbuilding your emergency funds.
So the first thing you have todo is you have to set aside
money for yourself, and then youyou decide what your expenses
are going to be to pay foreverything else.
So that's you know, that's uhone thing that I would I would
recommend.
Coming to your second questionabout a tax-free savings
account.
So this is a governmentfacility.
This is a um a uh like agovernment registered account

(16:57):
that uh the government of Canadaprovides.
And what it allows you to do isyou can you can invest in
different investments throughthis account.
It's called a TFSA or tax-freesaving account, and it allows
you to grow your investmenttax-free, right?
And you can withdraw this moneyat any time, but any time that
this this money grows, wheneveryou withdraw it, it won't be

(17:17):
taxed.
So let's say you invested like$10,000.
Um, if that grows to like$100,000, that entire$100,000 is
non-taxable.
You can withdraw it and it willnot be taxed.
And it's one of the best ways tostart preparing for weddings or
you know, marriage-relatedexpenses or buying a house, uh,
because you can withdraw thatmoney at any time.

SPEAKER_01 (17:37):
I bet most of our listeners didn't know about
this, like uh including us.
We just recently learned aboutthis and what it is and RRSP,
TFSA, and uh, I think youmentioned a few other types of
accounts.
So unfortunately, like growingup, we learn about so many
things, about uh the dean, whichis the most important thing in
our lives, of course.
We learn about health, we learnabout different types of

(17:59):
education, but we don't get uhany financial literacy
education.
And then we learn about it late.
Like you said, it was your uhbiggest mistake.
And um, I I bet you're not theonly one.

SPEAKER_04 (18:12):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think it has a lot to dowith the fact that um a lot of
people feel that you knowpersonal finances is very
personal, so they don't feelcomfortable sharing it with
other people, and there's thistaboo around talking about
finances, right?
And because of that, we don'tshare our knowledge with each
other either within ourcommunity.

(18:33):
And this is one of the thingsthat we have to we have to
change within our community, theMuslim community, because we
should be at the very forefrontof using our money wisely,
right?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala hasgiven us these resources as an
amanah for us to use wisely,right?
Um, and the better that we areable to use this this money, uh,
the more we can advocate for thecauses that we care about within

(18:54):
our community.
The the better we're in a in aspot and to to support our our
causes, the both the more youknow uh we'll be able to
advocate for the well-being ofthe Muslim community, right?
And it all comes down to ourfinances and how we think about
the resources that we have.

SPEAKER_01 (19:11):
Beautiful, beautiful.
Uh, do these types of accountsalso apply in the states, by the
way, or is it just a Canadianthing?

SPEAKER_04 (19:17):
The these accounts in particular are Canadian.
In the US, they have their owngovernment-registered accounts
called a Route IRA or a 401k.
Uh, both of these are verysimilar to our RRSP and uh TFSA
accounts.
Uh, and someone interested ininvesting in them should talk to
a financial advisor licensed inthe US to learn more about how

(19:39):
they can they can contribute tothat and how they can go about
setting one up.

SPEAKER_01 (19:43):
Okay, you mentioned RRSP.
What is that?

SPEAKER_04 (19:47):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So um just like how we spokeabout the TFSA, which is a
government registered account,um, which is a tax free savings
account, we the government hasalso created a government
registered account.
Registered investment vehicleand account called RRSP, a
registered retirement savingsplan.
And RRSP allows people, it'sbasically it incentivizes people

(20:09):
to save for their retirement.
This is a facility that thegovernment offers so that people
are more proactive, you know,when it comes to planning for
their retirement.
And you can put money into thisaccount.
When you put money into thisaccount, you won't be taxed in
that year for that income.
But whenever you withdraw thatmoney, either when you're
retired or when you know if youneed it at any point in your

(20:33):
life, whenever you withdraw thatmoney, you will be taxed at that
time.
Now, of course, the advantage isif you withdraw it when you're
retired, your income from willfrom your job will be no longer
there.
So your tax bracket will be alot less, right?
And so when you withdraw it, youcan withdraw it at a much lower
tax bracket.
And then of course, through theRRSP, they can invest in all

(20:54):
sorts of different investments,uh, stocks and uh you know ETFs
and mutual funds and things likethat.
So all of these things areaccounts and think of it like a
bucket, and what you choose toput inside that bucket is the
investment.
So you can open an accountthat's the RRSP, and then in
that you can make an investmentlike an like uh you know, like a
stock or buying a fund or thingslike that.

(21:16):
Um, and you know, another thingI should mention is that there
is a limit to how much money youcan put into your into your
RRSP, and it can also be usedfor other purposes uh as well.
So the government has set acontribution limit.
Anyone can check what theircontribution limit is by going
on the CRA website.
As soon as you log into the CRAwebsite, you will see how much
capacity you have left over foryour RRSP contribution.

(21:39):
Uh and it adds up every singleyear, and the the government is
always you know changing it andadding to it so that you know
people can plan for theirretirement appropriately.
Uh but another another you knowfew benefits that people should
know about their RRSP is that itdoesn't just have to be a
retirement savings account.
It can also be used for uhmaking uh a purchase of your

(22:01):
first home.
So you can withdraw that moneyand make a purchase of your
first home without having to payany taxes.
Uh or you know, alternatively,you can also uh withdraw up to
$20,000 to pay towards afull-time education, higher
higher post-secondary educationas well.
So if you're doing a master'sdegree uh and you want to pay
for that tuition, you can payfor it using money from your

(22:23):
RRSP account as well withouthaving to pay taxes on that.

SPEAKER_03 (22:26):
Um I want to zoom in on taxes.
Taxes is kind of like the theboogeyman in the room, you know,
it's like it just creeps up onyou, you get your first
paycheck, and all of a suddenit's just there.
And so you mentioned uh TFSA,RSP.
Are what are some other ways,halal ways, of course, that we

(22:47):
can reduce our tax burden?
Because it always seems likeit's one of those things that's
reserved for the wealthy people.
Wealthy people are alwaysgetting away with not paying
much tax.
But um, what are options forsingle people, young people who
are students, especially?

SPEAKER_04 (23:00):
Yeah, those that's a great question.
So you touched upon the mostcommon that will apply for most
people.
Uh, your tax-free savingsaccount is a great way for you
to grow your investment withouthaving to pay any taxes on the
growth of that.
If, for example, you were toinvest in something outside of
your tax-free savings account,whatever the growth of that is,
you would have to pay capitalgains tax on it, right?

(23:22):
Um, so that that tax appliesthere.
Uh similarly with your RRSP, ifyou're getting an income, you
can put that money into yourRRSP and you can save money that
way and not have to pay taxesimmediately.
So people can think about theirtax strategy uh in terms of
three buckets.
There's tax now, tax later, andtax advantaged.
Tax now are all the things thatyou do right now that will get

(23:43):
taxed immediately.
If you buy a stock through aregular bank account and the
stock grows and then you sellit, you're gonna have to pay
capital gains tax.
Or uh you're getting you knowyour income from your job, you
know, there's taxes immediatelyapplicable on that.
Or you buy something, you haveto pay taxes on that.
Uh tax later are you know thingslike your RRSP.

(24:04):
So you put money into your RRSPor you're investing through your
RRSV, you won't be taxed at thistime.
Whenever you decide to withdrawit, you will be taxed at that
time.
And then your taxed advantagedare the opportunities like your
tax-free savings account thatwill allow you to invest, grow
the money, and then wheneveryou're withdrawing it, it won't
be taxed because that growth hasuh is is from a tax-free

(24:25):
savings.
Uh, there's another uh optionthat uh young Muslims can look
into called the first homesavings account, FHSA.
And this is for people that arelooking to buy their first home.
It combines uh the advantages ofboth the RRSP and the TFSA.
So, for example, you cancontribute uh money in that in
that year and you won't have topay taxes in that year for that

(24:45):
money that you've put in.
And whenever whenever that moneyhas grown and you've decided to
take it out, you also won't betaxed on the growth of that
money either.
So that's an FHSA first homesavings account.
Um and you know, some peoplechoose not to buy a home later
on in their life.
They can still make use of thisbecause they can then transfer
your you know your the savingsthat you have in your FHSA to

(25:06):
your RRSP instead if they don'twant to buy, they choose not to
buy a home in the future.
So these are some strategiesthat people can use to reduce
their taxes and and try to andtry to optimize for how how they
do their their savings.

SPEAKER_01 (25:20):
So you said with first home uh buyer's account,
you don't pay tax on that year.
And you also when you withdrawit, you don't pay tax.

SPEAKER_04 (25:28):
That's exactly right.
Yes.
And first home savings savingsaccount, FH.

SPEAKER_01 (25:32):
And you can use it even like to buy something else,
not not a house.

SPEAKER_04 (25:36):
No, no.
So because it's a first homesavings account, you have to use
it to buy a house.
However, if you decide that youare not going to buy a house,
you can transfer it to yourRRSV.
If you withdraw it, if youwithdraw money from your FHSA at
any point and you're choosingnot to buy a home at that in
that year, you will have to paytaxes on that.

(25:56):
Because the purpose of thisaccount was to enable you to
purchase your first home.
If you don't use it for thatpurpose, then there will be uh a
taxes applicable.

SPEAKER_01 (26:05):
Okay, okay, okay.
Um, do you notice that uh peoplefrom other communities have more
financial literacy uh thanMuslims?

SPEAKER_04 (26:13):
I I think that this is a common problem because I
grew up here, right?
And I went through 25 years ofeducation, right?
All throughout my elementaryschool, high school, you know,
undergrad, and masters, it wasnever really emphasized to me
how important it is for me tothink about budgeting and
savings and investments and alland planning for my future,

(26:35):
planning for retirement, all ofsaving on taxes, how to file
taxes.
Nobody told me how to how toeven file my taxes in school,
right?
And this is something that we'reall legally required, it's
mandatory for us to do.
We have to file our taxes, butthey don't teach us how to file
our taxes in school.
So I think that this issomething that is a gap within
our education system.

(26:55):
I think that our educationsystem needs to uh you know, uh
needs to emphasize more theimportance of personal finances.
And I like I think one of thethings that is very interesting
is that we live in one of therichest countries in the world,
but half of the you know, allCanadians are living paycheck to
paycheck.
And it's not because they're notearning enough money, they're

(27:16):
they're learning like you know,they're earning a good amount of
money, but there's a lifestylecreep, right?
There is life, there's you know,standard of living inflation,
and they're not using you knowthe right uh financial
strategies to manage theirpersonal finances.
So if something were to happen,like I mentioned that stat that
over half the half of uhCanadians, if there was an

(27:37):
emergency that happens, youknow, they their car breaks down
and they need to pay for that,they would have to go get a loan
because they don't haveemergency funds to pay for that
immediately.

SPEAKER_01 (27:45):
Wow.
And also because we live in oneof the countries with highest
tax rates as well.

SPEAKER_04 (27:50):
Yes, absolutely.
And it's it's so interestingbecause I feel like the more we
are um the more we are ignorantabout how to manage our personal
finances, the more likely we areto go out and consume things,
right?
The more likely we are to go andpay for things without thinking
twice about how we're using ourmoney.
Um so I just think it'sinteresting that you know these,

(28:11):
you know, there's you know, thatthere's this gap within our
community, within our within ourpopulation, uh, and it's
probably something that thecorporations take advantage of
so that they can continue togrow their profits.

SPEAKER_01 (28:22):
SubhanAllah, you know, you mentioned before we
started recording that mashallahyou're doing an alamiyya course,
and you mentioned that one ofyour favorite uh courses or
classes is contemporary issues.
And this just makes me thinkabout like how in Arden, if like
we were living in a country thatwould actually follow the
Islamic code, then there are notaxes.

(28:43):
We wouldn't be paying any taxes.
And when people think aboutSharia and like Islam and stuff,
all they think about is justchopping off hands and whipping
people, and but they don't thinkabout other things, like all we
have to pay is 2.5% zakalah ifwe're able to, and if we're not
able to, it would be paid to us.

(29:03):
But subhanAllah, that's a partof our deen that's like very um,
I would say people don't knowabout, people don't appreciate.

SPEAKER_04 (29:12):
That's absolutely true.
And what's more interesting,what I find very interesting is
that the 2.5% is on your wealth.
There's no concept of an incometax, right?
This is a Western concept,right?
You're taxed when you earnmoney, and then you're taxed
when you spend money, and thenyou're taxed when you die as
well.
Um, all of these things, theycan really chip away at your

(29:34):
capacity.
So I I think that, you know, umthe fact that within within our
within Islam and within ourcommunity, it's really
emphasized that you know we'retaxing wealth, which is what you
are going to be, you know, whatyou're going to have left over,
the assets that you're going tohave left over after you've paid
for all of your expenses, itenables people to be you know

(29:55):
more sustainable in the longterm.
Uh, and another you knowinteresting concept related to
you know um the Islamicfinancial system is that we also
are not supposed to engage ininterest.
Interest is haram, right?
Uh I think that uh what a lot ofpeople often overlook is when
they leave their money in thebank, especially in Western

(30:16):
countries, um, they might feelsatisfied that they're not
earning any interest.
They've left it in theirchecking account, and their
checking account is theemergency fund there, right?
Um they might realize, okay,well, we're earning zero
interest, but the bank is whatwhat is what are they going to
do with that money?
They're going to they're goingto take it, and the bank is in
the business of loans.

(30:36):
They're going to give loans onthat.
They're going to give creditcard loans, they're going to
give line of credits, andthey're going to give mortgages
and car loans.
Uh, and all of these things haveinterest, and they're going to
be earning money off of your,they're going to be earning
interest off of your money.
So indirectly, we'll still besupporting an interest-based
system.
Uh, and the better thing for usas Muslims to do would be to

(30:56):
invest our money in equity-basedsystems in a halal way uh that
is not that is not involvingourselves into riba, right?
Keeping it pure from ribba or orenabling a system that is
earning ribba from our money,uh, and gives us the ability to
vote with our dollars.
We can support companies uh thatare doing good work in the
world, right?

(31:16):
Um, and have more control, haveour you know, a stronger voice
in how those companies arebuilding out their policies if
we have more uh Muslim-ledinvestors and investment groups.
And right now, the financialsystem in North America does not
cater to our growing Muslimpopulation and community.
Uh, but there's a but you know abig portion of a big reason

(31:38):
behind that is because wehaven't realized these
opportunities for us to use ourdollars productively when we
invest them.
If we started investing moremoney within uh the halal
economy, I think the financialsystem will realize, hey,
there's a need here, there's acommunity here that's willing to
invest, let's start catering tothem, let's create more Sharia
compliant programs and and fundsto support them.

SPEAKER_01 (31:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So the money that sits in the uhRRSP or TFSA accounts, it's
zakatable, right?

SPEAKER_04 (32:08):
That's right.
You are um you have, you know,that is part of your wealth.
You're accumulating wealth inthat, and you're not using that
uh as part of your expenses foranything uh on an ongoing basis,
so you should be paying zakat onthat, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 (32:22):
So you kind of alluded towards loans, but I
want to focus more on studentloans and debt, because chances
are if you're a single Muslim,you're in your mid-20s, you
probably have a ton of studentdebt.
So, what's the smartest way tostructure repayments so you know
young people aren't drowning andalso to kind of help them save

(32:44):
for marriage?

SPEAKER_04 (32:45):
Yes, all of these are great questions.
So a lot of people unfortunatelyare in positions where they have
multiple types of loans.
So they have student loans, andthen they might also have a car
and they have car loans, andthen they have their credit
card, they're spending money offof that, and they have those
loans.
One of the things that werecommend is let's let's take a
tiered approach.
Which uh which account is uheasy for us to pay off

(33:09):
immediately and has the mostinterest right now, right?
Um, let's pay that first.
So, for example, if you havecredit card debt, credit card
debt is typically around 21%,22% interest, and that's usually
the highest interest.
So let's let's clear all of thatas much as as much as we can,
right?
Um then we have like other typesof loans.
So, for example, if you havepurchased a car, uh you know,

(33:29):
the interest on that, dependingon what that is, maybe we tackle
that next.
And then we have student loans.
And then in Ontario, uh, ifyou've taken, for example, OSAP,
the Ontario Student AssistanceProgram, uh, then you've gotten
a loan from both the federalgovernment and the provincial
government.
Uh, they have pooled their moneyand given you a loan, and their
terms are different.
So the federal government uhloan portion is at 0% interest,

(33:54):
they're not charging anyinterest on that, but the
provincial government ischarging an interest, and that
interest starts, to the best ofmy knowledge, from what I what I
remember, um, is it startsaccruing as soon as you
graduate, and uh you don't haveto start making payments until
six months after, but it doesstart accruing interest as soon
as you graduate.
Um, so my recommendation wouldbe one of the things that

(34:14):
students can do is they canwrite a check uh to the um to
the uh OSAP administration forthe provincial portion of their
loan directly.
They haven't made this availablethrough the online portal, uh,
but they can actually write acheck directly to the uh Ontario
government for the Ontarioportion of their loans, and they
can pay that off immediately uhup front.

(34:36):
And then they can keep the prothe federal government loan and
pay it off in the installmentsthat are are are suggested.
There's no interest on that, sothat's okay.
Uh my recommendation would be tostart paying off loans uh where
you have a higher interest rate,like your credit card debt or
your you know, maybe car loansor things like that.
So that's one thing that I wouldI would recommend.

SPEAKER_01 (34:54):
Hey, if you have a story to tell, we'd love to have
you on.
Here you'll find a safe space oflisteners who can understand
what you're going through.
Just shoot us an email with asummary of your story at info at
halalmaj.ca.
Investments.
That's uh something youmentioned quite uh like many
times in our conversation.

(35:16):
Where should somebody start withinvestments?
We're talking to single Muslimswho are maybe in their mid to
late 20s, early 30s, and theyhave no idea about investments.

SPEAKER_04 (35:26):
Yeah, great question.
And before we even get intoinvestments, what we recommend
or what I recommend is doing ananalysis of what your goals are,
right?
Where do you want to be in thenext three to five years?
Are you saving for marriage,right?
Is that one of your goals?
How much are you planning onspending on your marriage,
right?
On your wedding?
Are you planning on buying a carin the short term?

(35:47):
Are you planning on taking avacation trip, right, to another
part of the world maybe?
Uh, do you have student loansthat you want to pay off in the
next in the short term?
So make a list of all of yourgoals.
Based off of what your goals arein the next three to five years,
to 10 years, to the next 30years, that's how we define your
financial strategy.
The, you know, it's not just a Iknow when we talk to a lot of

(36:09):
people, they often ask us, oh,what are the funds or the stocks
that will get me the highestreturns?
Right?
That's what everyone isinterested in.
How do we get the highestreturns, the best returns?
And that's not what personalfinance is about.
It's not about getting the bestreturns.
It's about getting the bestreturns for you based off of
your life circumstances, basedoff of your goals.
We want to help you achieve yourgoals.
Um, and you know, the best wayto do that is first writing down

(36:32):
what your goals are that you'retrying to achieve.
If you don't know what yourgoals are, uh then you're kind
of drifting in in the wind.
You could be saving, so you'llfollow some advice one day, and
then someone will tell you, oh,gold is going up, invest in
gold.
Um, and then another day youmight follow another advice, and
someone will say, Oh, no, like,look, these tech stocks are
doing really well, they'reoutpacing gold.
Please invest in these techstocks.

(36:53):
Um, and because you haven'twritten down and determined what
your goals are, you'll just be,you know, like airy fairy flying
in the wind, any which way,right?
Um, the first most importantthing is to identify your goals.
Figure out what your income is,what are you making every month,
what are you spending your moneyon, right?
And how much do you have leftover uh to do investments with

(37:16):
or to do savings with, to do theemergency fund with.
Uh, and then based off of that,we would recommend okay, set
aside a certain amount for youremergency fund, um, keep
long-term savings invested.
Uh, don't put them in like a,you know, like a low interest
savings account.
Uh, you won't get as manyreturns.
Also, you know, don't support uhinterest-based uh savings
either.

(37:36):
Um so we recognize that you knowcash loses value every year
because of inflation.
So you want to outgrow the paceof inflation in order to grow
your money.
So you want to have a strategythat diversifies your investment
to keep it safe, but also growsyour money beyond the inflation
uh rate.
Uh so you know, use all thebuckets that you have available
to you.

(37:56):
Use the TFSA for growth assets,you know.
Uh the tax-free compoundinghelps you outpace the inflation.
Try to keep your expenseslimited so that you can avoid
lifestyle creep.
You're trying to achieve goalshere.
There's a purpose towards themoney that you're earning.
Don't just use it for, you know,um for whatever you feel like
spending money on on a givenday.
Inflation hurts most whenspending rises faster than

(38:19):
income, right?
You let's say you have earned acertain amount of money and then
you get a promotion uh andyou're making more money, then
suddenly you'll feel like, oh, Ican go out and I can afford
dinners out every every weekend,right?
And that is not the beststrategy because we have to
remind ourselves we're trying toachieve a certain goal.
Does having dinners out make usfeel you know better, feel

(38:40):
better?
Or are is it more important forus to have dinners outside every
weekend, or is it more importantfor us to save towards achieving
our goals, whether that'smarriage or buying a car or
buying a home or things likethat?
So you have to keep that as yourreason for savings.
And then have a diversifiedstrategy.
So uh if you have thoseshort-term goals, don't invest

(39:01):
in aggressive funds that arevery volatile, even though it
looks like they have the highestROI in the long run.
Maybe at the time when you needthe money, when you're trying to
withdraw from those funds, youmight end up in a position where
the market is down and then youmight be uh withdrawing at a
loss, right?
And you don't want to be in thatposition.
So try to diversify based off ofyour goals uh so that you have a

(39:22):
staggered approach.
If you have a short-term uhgoal, uh take a more stable
investment.
And if you have a long-termgoal, that's where you can be
more aggressive with yourinvestments.
Because even though over overtime um the you know, even in
the short term, the investmentmight be volatile, but over time
they'll they'll have a higherROI.
So that's so that's what I wouldrecommend.

SPEAKER_01 (39:42):
Okay, I I hear this and I hear discipline.
I I mean this is sounds like agood way to teach you how to be
disciplined, even if you're notthe type.
But like you said, automating umjust forces you to be
disciplined.
But let's say I figured out mygoals, I calculated my income,
my expense.
Expenses.
I've opened an RRSP account.
I opened a TFSA account.

(40:03):
Now what do I do?
Do I pay someone to invest mymoney?
Do I go and choose one of thestocks?
What are funds?
What should I do?

SPEAKER_04 (40:12):
So you should talk to a financial advisor, a
financial expert, so that theycan give you the best advice for
your situation.
You can even talk to your bankrepresentative.
You can get a personal financialadvisor as well.
And they can help you decide onthe best strategy for yourself.
And then also nowadays we havelots of online resources that
people can tap into.

(40:33):
So for example, getsmartaboutmoney.ca is a really
great website that people can goto to learn about all of these
different investment vehicleslike RRSPs, TFSAs, how to
optimize for their taxes, all ofthat great stuff.
And then also look at uh look atwhat uh is happening in the
market right now.
Like are there uh are therecertain funds that are

(40:56):
performing really well?
What what's the reason behindthat?
Don't make your own assumption.
Try to talk to experts andunderstand you know their
perspective on this.
Um it's you know, there's a lotof like do-it-yourself work that
happens nowadays.
A lot of people download wealthsimple and then they can invest
in stocks, they can invest inETFs.
Uh, but the challenge with thatis that they don't have that

(41:17):
discipline or that habit builtin or that financial knowledge
uh to guide them when they'redoing these things themselves.
And so they feel empowered,like, oh, I can open my own TFSA
account and I can invest inthese ETFs through my TFSA
account, and that's that'sgreat.
If you have the if you'reinformed, if you have that
financial knowledge uh and youfeel like that's you know a
comfortable uh option for you,you know, why not go for it?

(41:40):
But if you are looking for youknow someone that can guide you,
support you, uh, and provide youthat personalized uh advice
based off of your your uhsituation and your needs and
actually sit down with you anddo like a regular assessment
with you, uh it's a good idea totalk to a personal financial
advisor and get that supportfrom them as well.
When we need support foranything else in our lives, we
like to consult people.

(42:01):
People go to you know a mechanicto ask about car-related advice.
They might go to a dentist foryou know their for their teeth
and you know for regularcheckups on how their you know
oral hygiene is just like that.
We have financial you knowadvice as well, and there's a
whole industry around that anduh that you know that you can
tap into experts and get supportfrom.

SPEAKER_01 (42:20):
And what is a fund?

SPEAKER_04 (42:22):
Great, okay.
So um what so before we get intofunds, what's important for us
to understand is what is a sh astock or a share.
Uh, these are synonymous, and ashare is just like the name
says, a share of ownershipwithin a company.
So let's say you have you knowan incorporation, you have a big
company, and the company wantsto raise money in order to

(42:45):
pursue a certain project.
They want to uh sell bananasfrom you know India and Canada,
and they want to go and theywant to buy all of these bananas
and they want to bring it overand sell them in Canada.
Uh, and to be able to buy these,you know, these bananas, they
want they need to have thecapital to do that.
So what um you know the companyowner will do is they will say,
Hey, I'm going to sell bits andpieces of my company.

(43:08):
I'm going to sell ownership overparts of my company, a share of
my company.
And when someone buys that, Iwill get the money and then I'll
be able to use that funding toyou know uh support my endeavor.
Um and you know, they'll sell,let's say, a thousand, they'll
create a thousand shares andthey'll sell you know different,
you know, shares to their uh ona stock exchange, right?

(43:28):
And you know, lots of peoplewill say, hey, like I think this
company is going to do reallywell.
I really like this idea aboutselling bananas in Canada.
So their stock is gonna go upbecause it seems like a really
legit business plan.
Let's go buy you know ownershipin this company, let's go buy a
share of this company.
So they'll go and they'll buy ashare of that company.
Um now they've become partpartial owners, they've they've

(43:51):
gotten a share of ownership inthat company.
If that company's value goes up,their the value of their share
of that company will also go up.
If that company's value goesdown, then their share of
ownership of that company willalso go down.
So that's a that's a share.
A fund is basically taking apool of money from lots of
different investors and buyinglots of different shares across

(44:15):
lots of different companies.
It could be companies in acertain industry, so across the
board, you could be investing inan in an industry-based fund or
a sector-specific fund.
It could be diversified, itcould be uh within a specific
region, or it could be global.
Uh, each fund has its ownstrategy on how it's investing
that money.
Uh, but the basic idea here isthat we're taking small uh own

(44:37):
bits and pieces and ownership oflots of different companies
across the board using the fundsthat or the money that people
have have invested.
So you can have, you know, um uhyou can have funds of different
sizes.
So the larger the fund is, youalso want to look at you know
what their investment strategyis.
Is this an aggressive portfolio?
Are they investing in companiesthat are uh that are more

(44:59):
volatile but their outlook is togrow very you know very fast?
Uh or is this a more stableportfolio?
Are they looking at investing incompanies that are going to be
returning more, you know, ummore average returns, but
they're you know they're goingto keep their value.
All of these things are providedin a document called fund facts.
So if you're going to invest ina fund, well, the most important

(45:22):
thing for you to do is to doyour research on what the
strategy is for that specificfund and if it's the right uh
investment for you.
And you can find those detailsin the fund facts document.
It will tell you which companiesthis fund is invested into, how
much you know of theirallocation is in different types
of companies, where thesecompanies are, are they you know
sp specific to a region orgeographic region?

(45:45):
Are they across the board?
Are they with within a specificsector?
Uh, and what's the investmentstyle of the portfolio manager
as well?

SPEAKER_01 (45:54):
Okay, and are there funds that are halal and others
that are haram?

SPEAKER_04 (45:59):
Yes, absolutely.
So just like any sort offinancial uh investment, funds
can also have to meet the samecriteria uh for them to be
considered halal.
Um so when we're looking athalal finance, there are certain
uh criteria that we have to meetin order to make sure that these
um where per it's permissiblefor Muslims to invest in them.

(46:20):
Firstly, we have to look at umthe industry that you know these
companies are, the the what thecompany actually does.
For example, is it doingsomething that is going to be
harmful for society, forhumanity, for our Muslim
community?
Uh for example, things likeweapons manufacturing, alcohol,
gambling, right?
Um, things like tobacco or uhcompanies that are producing um

(46:44):
uh you know products that aren'tuh you know that aren't uh
suitable for for humanconsumption, right?
All of these things, if they'redeemed harmful to society, uh
these are prohibited industries.
If this company operates in thisspace, that means it's earning
its income in a non-halal way.
And remember what I said aboutstocks or shares.

(47:04):
You're basically buyingownership into a small piece of
that company.
That means that you've if youinvest in a company that is in a
prohibited industry, you arebuying ownership in that
company.
You will also be accountable forhow that company is, you know,
is acting, right?
Uh, because you have ownershipin that.
So the first thing you have todo is you have to check if that

(47:26):
you know that company isproducing things that you know
meet these criteria.
They have to be, you know,industries that are that have
that you know that arepermissible for Muslims to
invest in.
The other thing is, and thereare lots of different uh
standards that are set by uhIslamic scholars.
So there's AOFI, there isIslamic Financial Advisory
Board, uh, so there's there arelots of different uh you know

(47:49):
committees and standards set bythese Sharia compliance boards.
Um you can see if that companyhas gotten a review done or has
met some sort of compliancerequirements uh to be you know
to be approved, to uh to beconsidered a sharia compliant uh
uh fund.
In Canada, this and you know, ingeneral, but in Western
countries, uh there aren't thatmany.

(48:09):
It's a growing industry.
There they are trying to caterto the Muslim community more.
Uh, but uh we as Muslims have toreally show that we are looking
for these sorts of products,we're looking for Sharia
compliant halal products for usto invest in.
Otherwise, if we don't vote withour dollars, then they won't
know that there is a need hereuh for them to for the financial
industry to meet.

(48:29):
So those are two things that Iwould recommend.
And then the third thing thatoften gets overlooked, but it's
extremely important, iscorporate social responsibility.
And that is, let's say like thecompany is you know selling like
coffee, right?
There's a certain company that'sselling coffee, and there's
nothing wrong with sellingcoffee and they're they're
earning their income fromselling coffee.

(48:50):
But even though they're earningtheir income in a halal way, if
they're spending that money toharm Muslims in a different part
of the world, like Gaza, forexample, that would be something
that we as Muslims cannotsupport, right?
And we're directly enabling thatby buying a piece of that
company and having ownership inthat company, and that is wrong
for us, right?
So we have to be very carefulbecause there will be

(49:12):
accountability on the day ofjudgment for us as Muslims, um,
on how we used our money and ifwe enabled or had ownership or a
share in the oppression that ishappening around the world.

SPEAKER_01 (49:22):
Absolutely.
I would stretch that a littlebit more, even uh if the company
is using that money to harmother communities, not
necessarily just Muslims.

SPEAKER_04 (49:30):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
If they're doing any sort of umharm upon humanity in general,
right?
Um and if they're if they'refacilitating you know uh harm on
any any human community anywherein the world, absolutely, we
should not be supporting that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (49:46):
Uh you mentioned um stock, you talked a little bit
about stock ownership andshares.
Um with that also, and correctme if I'm wrong, also comes the
possibility of getting paid withdividends.
Um so can you expand a littlebit about that, how that works,
and um, you know, and howinvesting in um halal companies

(50:07):
opens up that door?

SPEAKER_04 (50:08):
Yes, that's a great question.
So, what is a dividend?
A dividend is a payout of profitfrom a company.
So, for example, let's say thethree of us, you know, myself,
Hiba, and Zayd, we decide tostart a company and we're going
to sell bananas in Canada.
All right, so we have a thousandbananas and we sell these
bananas in Canada, and we make,let's say, ten thousand dollars

(50:31):
from these bananas.
Because we each own, let's say,a third of the shares of that
company, uh, we will each beentitled based off of what we
decide to do with that money.
For example, some companies liketo distribute the profits of
that um that they've earned totheir shareholders, and they'll
set like uh commitments as well.
So they'll have a policy.
They'll say, okay, if you have ashare in our company, we'll give

(50:54):
you X amount of profit from ourannual, you know, annual uh uh
review.
And so within our company willget like a third of the profits
each.
Some companies will say,actually, no, our policy is not
that we're gonna distribute theprofits, we're going to reinvest
all of those profits into thecompany for further RD, for

(51:16):
further sales and marketing, forfurther development.
We're just gonna invest all ofthat money into our business.
So you have to look into whatthe policy is of those
companies.
If they have a dividend-payingpolicy, uh, then that's great
because then you get an extraincome source just by having
ownership in a piece of thatcompany, you will be getting
paid a dividend from theprofits.

(51:37):
Uh, and that dividend you canuse to you know further reinvest
in your savings, in yourinvestments, or you can use that
yourself.
You can maybe that's somethingthat you want to use to pay for
your expenses instead.
You never take money out of yourprincipal, you just take the
dividends and you use thedividends to pay for your
expenses.
So that's also a strategy that alot of people do as well.

SPEAKER_01 (51:55):
Okay, cool.
Um, a lot of our clients mentionwhen we ask them what are what
are your goals for the next fiveyears, a lot of them mention uh
start a side hustle, sidehustle, start a side gig.
What are some tips you can giveuh single Muslims or not single,
but uh someone who's interestedin starting a side hustle?

SPEAKER_04 (52:15):
Oh gosh, that's a great question.
So I think there's a lot to besaid about entrepreneurship.
I think that uh there's a lot ofuh benefit for our community if
we have more people that arelooking for you know problems to
be solved and trying to addressissues in the community by and
filling those needs within thecommunity and and they're

(52:36):
getting paid for it.
That's fantastic, right?
They're delivering real value.
Uh, and so I would encourageeveryone to look into you know
pursuing some sort ofentrepreneurship.
Um, I think what a lot of peopleoften overlook is that it's
really hard to get establishedas an entrepreneur.
And people get very passionate,so they'll you know, leave their
full-time job and they'll godirectly into their

(52:58):
entrepreneurial you knowendeavor, their enterprise uh
and their idea, and they haven'tbuilt a clientele, they haven't
you know established aconsistent recurring source of
income, uh, they haven't spokento customers as an example to
actually see if there is a youknow that problem within the
community, or if there is aproblem uh that they can solve,
how much are people willing topay for it?

(53:20):
They haven't done the homework,they haven't done the background
research to be able to validatethat this is something that they
can sustain themselves on.
Uh so that's one thing that Iwould recommend.
Um, keep your full-time job,right?
And try to uh try to do youryour background homework, your
research, like build clientele,talk to customers, see if
they're willing to pay, how muchare they willing to pay for you

(53:41):
to solve that problem?
How much time does it take foryou to solve that problem for
them?
How much is it costing you?
Because there's a cost of goodssold or cost of uh value of you
know of services offered aswell, right?
Is it gonna cost you more?
It's gonna take you more time uhto be able to offer this service
for them and they're willing topay you, but at the end of the
day, your costs are higher thanwhat they're paying you, then

(54:02):
you're in the red at the end ofthe day, and you won't be able
to sustain that business.
So, all of these things I thinkpeople tend to overlook.
But uh, I think it's importantfor people to experiment with
entrepreneurship and try thingsout for themselves because it
can be a very fulfilling pathfor them.
Uh, it can really help them,especially in today's economy
where you know a lot of layoffsare happening, there's a lot of

(54:23):
volatility.
We now have AI.
AI is taking lots of people'sjobs, it's automating people's
jobs, and there's this anxietylike, oh, what are we going to
do now?
Like, if AI does my job, I Iwon't, you know, I'll be out
without an income.
It's important for people tohave you know other sources of
income, to have their financesin order, and then, you know,
and and you know, some some someother way for them to sustain

(54:45):
sustain themselves in casesomething were to happen with
their primary uh you knowemployment.
Um so I would always recommendthat, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (54:52):
Um so let's say a single Muslim came to you today,
uh, with zero dollars saved,zero invested, an average job,
and maybe even some debt.
What's the exact 90-day plan youwould put them on to transform
their their financial direction?

SPEAKER_04 (55:08):
That's a great question.
So I think the first thing thatI would do once again is let's
look at what your goals are.
What are you trying to achieve,right?
Let's take a look at yourexpenses, let's take a look at
your income.
Do you have any debt, right?
What are your assets?
And let's let's try to define astrategy that will help you
achieve your goal and let's seeif we can get you set up that
way.
For the first 30 days, I wouldrecommend as we do this is to

(55:30):
track every dollar.
Let's figure out where are youspending your money, right?
Is there certain behaviors thatyou have that is costing you a
lot of money?
Do you like to go for coffeeevery single day?
Um, do you, you know, do isthere, you know, are you going
out to eat a lot, right?
Is that something that you couldbe saving money on?
Are you, you know, buyingthings, you know, off of a whim

(55:51):
on Amazon when you see like asale, when you could be you know
potentially saving yourselfmoney there.
So let's track every dollar.
Then let's just build a$500starter emergency fund.
Let's just build a, or itdoesn't have to be$500, let's
just build an emergency fundthat is right for you, right?
Um, but just a certain amount ofmoney that if something were to
happen in the next you know fewdays, a few few weeks, few

(56:14):
months, uh, you can fall on fallback on this money and be able
to pay your rent, be able to payyour your utility bills, and
sustain yourself until you findpotentially another place um or
another another uh employer.
Play pay your debts.
Let's figure out your strategyon what sort of debt you owe,
which debt you should be youknow focusing on first.

(56:34):
Let's pay that off first.
Open a TFSA if you don't haveone, right?
It's all it's never too late tostart investing.
You don't have to start with awhole lot of money to get
started with investments.
You can start with somethingsmall.
So open a TFSA and automate yourinvestments.
So maybe$25 a month is the rightamount for you, but automate it
so that you don't have to thinkabout it.
You don't have to open youraccount every single month and

(56:56):
transfer that$25.
It will just happenautomatically for you and you
won't even know about it or youwon't even think about it.
Less you can rely on yourself todo your investing, the better
you'll be.
There's a saying that you knowthe best investors are dead
people because they leave theirmoney, right?
And their pension funds andtheir RRSPs, and they've passed
away and they haven't claimed itbecause they're pass they passed

(57:17):
away, but they're the value oftheir accounts just keeps
growing.
And I think there's a stat,don't quote me on this, um, but
I believe there's what two twotrillion dollars worth of um of
like pension funds and RRSPfunds that are just sitting
there that have gone unclaimed.

SPEAKER_01 (57:34):
No way.

SPEAKER_04 (57:34):
Yeah, it's a lot of money.
The reason for that is oftenbecause people switch jobs and
then they forget that they hadall of these contributions from
their previous employer.
So when it's time for them toretire, they might be like, oh,
I they they're not gonnaremember that you know, 25 years
ago or 30 years ago, they hadthis one RRSP with one employer
and they completely forgot aboutit.
Um, so and it just sits there,it's been growing for the last

(57:57):
30 years and it's goneunclaimed.
So there's a reason why deadpeople are the best investors,
they don't they don't touch themoney.

unknown (58:03):
I guess.

SPEAKER_01 (58:04):
Can I go claim it?

SPEAKER_04 (58:06):
No, we can't we can't claim it, unfortunately.
I'm just joking.
If there's a next of kin that isdiscovered, then that person
will claim it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But but the problem is the nextof kin doesn't know that this
person had this you know RRSPaccount from 30 years ago that
they need to claim now.
So, you know, someone has totell them.

SPEAKER_01 (58:27):
Uh rent or buy.
Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 (58:34):
You're asking the tough questions now.
So it's not it's not either oras a definitive answer.
It really just comes down to thecircumstances that you're in at
that time.
So a lot of people believe that,oh, if I rent and then whatever
extra money that I have that Iwouldn't what I've paid in my
mortgage or in my home expenses,I'll I'll invest that.

(58:55):
And if that investment growsfaster than you know uh a
house's appreciation, then Iwill have made more money by
renting and you know saving therest in investments.
Uh it's a perfectly goodstrategy.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Uh and you never know whatmarket you're going to be in.
The housing market doesn'tnecessarily always have to go
up.
In 2008, we had a financialmarket collapse, right?

(59:18):
And housing markets, you know,they also fluctuate.
House values can go up and down.
Um the other the other side ofit is people feel more secure
when they own a home.
You know, a landlord won't kickthem out just because they want
to increase the rent on aparticular day.
Um, rents increase, you know,periodically very quickly,

(59:39):
whereas your mortgage is set bythe bank.
So you have to make thosepayments.
You, you know, they're a littlebit more stable.
Uh, but then you know, houseshave their own expenses.
Whereas in a you know, in arental unit, you may not have to
pay for lots of differentservices uh that uh you won't
have to get the fridge repairedif something breaks or you know
your oven breaks.
Whereas in your own house, youhave to pay for all of these

(01:00:00):
expenses.
So it's not an either or.
It's more so about what are youwhat are you looking to get out
of your living situation.
Right.
A house is an investment aswell, but uh I think it says
more so about the lifestylechoice that you want to make.
Ultimately those I think thatyou know that will be the
deciding factor for you.

(01:00:22):
And a lot of people think thatum oh like home ownership is the
best way to build up equity andgenerational wealth for
ourselves.
That's not necessarily true,right?
It can be true, but it doesn'tmean that it has to be true 100%
of the time.
Like home house values go down.
You might have a mortgage andthen the you know you're paying
a lot more for your mortgagethan what the house is worth

(01:00:45):
right because of depreciationfor any factor that could be
outside of your control.
Right.
So all of these things happenand at the same time people feel
that oh if they are if they wantto raise a family they want to
be more rooted it's importantfor them to own a home in in a
neighborhood where they canraise their kids and be settled
for a longer period of time.

(01:01:05):
That's okay too you know otherpeople prefer a different
lifestyle.
Maybe they want to move around alittle bit more they prefer they
want to you know pursue otherjob opportunities that could pay
them you know more in the futureand so they just want to have
something temporary and they'llthey want to have the
flexibility to go somewhereelse.
So it just comes down to whatare you trying to achieve?
What are you trying to do withyour life?

(01:01:26):
What stage of life are you in?
And that will be the better wayto answer the question.
Purely from a financialperspective it could go either
way.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:33):
I was hoping for a definitive answer.
Just makes it easier for us.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:41):
Yeah I I'd say for us the the biggest question is
is that at the end of the day wecan't overlook the fact that
there is interest involved inbuying a house unless you have a
ton of cash.
And so yes I know scholars kindof have um their their arguments
and and they've made a case forcircumstances where it is

(01:02:02):
acceptable or hello to buy ahouse.
But for us I would say it reallycomes down to necessity.
Like can you get by withoutdealing with the gray area of
interest by just renting do youneed the large such a large
space and so and I'm not liketelling everybody who's
listening you know go startrenting but um but take these

(01:02:23):
things into consideration thatis it a necessity or do you
really want to be dealing withthat gray area of interest and
then make a decision accordinglyyeah and it's not a it's not a
great gray area.

SPEAKER_04 (01:02:35):
Let's not try to convince ourselves either way or
the other there's only one placein the Quran that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala has declaredwar on something.
Allah himself has declared andhis messenger and it's on Riba
right there's no other uh placein the Quran where there's such
strict verbiage being used rightum so I wouldn't even say that

(01:02:57):
this is a gray area it's veryexplicit.
Now you can make a case that ohlike it's out of necessity and
that's that's fine.
You know that is a personalchoice that people are are
making.
It doesn't make them any lessyou know of a person and it's a
personal choice that they'vemade but um I don't think it's
it's you know enough for us todeny that they're that this is a
gray area.

(01:03:18):
It's a very very importantaspect of deciding how to spend
your you know finances.

SPEAKER_01 (01:03:23):
Absolutely absolutely I think sometimes
when we want to do something wejust find ways to justify it.

SPEAKER_04 (01:03:28):
Yes.

SPEAKER_01 (01:03:29):
Yeah I think we uh lost Zayd Zayd's connection is
gone for some reason.
But um before we let you go howdo you work with people who are
looking for to hire financialadvice advisor what kind of
services do you offer and howcan people um contact you?

SPEAKER_04 (01:03:44):
Yeah absolutely people can find me at my email
address aribquaja1 at gmail.comyou can also message me on
LinkedIn I'm more than happy tohave a chat and listen to you
and and learn a little bit moreabout your financial situation.
We can work together to come upwith your you know financial
strategy for free completelywilling to do that and you don't
mean I won't charge for you knowany financial uh education that

(01:04:08):
I provide or any any um uh anyliteracy that I provide on
personal finances so I'm morethan willing to have have a chat
uh feel free to contact me uh myemail is aribquadja1 at
gmail.com or you can find me onLinkedIn as well.

SPEAKER_01 (01:04:22):
We can 100% testify to that because um all the
literate the financial literacyeducation we got from you it was
completely for free and we'revery appreciative because we
it's like opening a treasurebox.
We didn't know about any of thisand I'm so glad that we're able
to have this uh discussion toalso share this information with

(01:04:43):
other listeners.

SPEAKER_04 (01:04:44):
So thank you so much for that any advice you would
give uh for our single listenersso one piece of advice that I
would give going back to likethe single biggest mistake you
know expensive mistake not thebiggest mistake but the most
expensive mistake as Muslimsit's not enough for us to not do
anything right whether that isyou know for the social causes
that we care about about what'shappening in Gaza right or

(01:05:06):
whether it's our personalfinances and we just have our
money you know sitting in thebank uh it is not enough for us
to just not do anything it'simportant for us to have take to
be informed to get educated totake action and to use our
resources responsibly that's oneof the things that I want to
leave people with.
This is you know your risk andyour you know the the wealth
that you've been given is aamana it's a responsibility you

(01:05:29):
should use it in the best way toyou know to support yourself to
support your family to supportthose in need to support social
causes around the world that youknow are in need of our support
uh and we are only able to dothat if we educate ourselves on
our personal finances and if weuse our money wisely so start
now start saving start thinkingabout your financial strategy uh
you know you don't have to cometo me talk to a financial

(01:05:50):
advisor that you trust uh andyou know and and do something
about uh about planning for yourfuture and you know try to
achieve your financial goals Iknow it's a lot of times we as
Muslims you know believe in justhaving tawaqul in Allah and just
leaving it to Allah and to Qatarand Allah will you know provide
for us and these are all great.
But also the Prophet has saidyou know trust in Allah and tie

(01:06:12):
the camel tie your camel.
So it's important for us to takea proactive approach towards
achieving our goals beresponsible come up with your
own financial plan and and worktowards achieving it as well.
You do that with every otheraspect of your life right you
want to you know pursue a careerin engineering or medicine you
plan to go to you know collegeor university and you plan your
study routine and you plan onyou know how you're going to

(01:06:34):
pass exams so that you can goand pursue a career in that
field you should think the sameway about your personal finances
as well.

SPEAKER_00 (01:06:40):
Absolutely absolutely really appreciate you
mentioning that especiallystressing the ethical causes the
causes around the world that wehave obligation towards whether
it's Gaza whether it's Sudanwhether it's Congo everywhere
the world is suffering and wehave a responsibility.
Yeah our beautiful listeners wehope you enjoyed this episode
brother Arib here is offeringfree financial education he can

(01:07:02):
help you with building yourfinancial plan all free of
charge we took advantage of itand um very happy and uh we hope
to do the same.
Uh Arib thank you so much for umfor your time for sharing all
this valuable information foryour energy which allow our
listeners will see you on thenext one.