Unlock your inner money guru, increase your income, fall in love with your bank account & live your best life

Welcome Money Magician, I look forward to having you in our tribe so you too can see the magic in healing.

My name is Vangile Makwakwa and I'm the founder of Wealthy Money. I'm passionate about helping people heal their ancestral money trauma so they can unlock their inner money guru and thrive.

Why does Wealthy Money focus on healing ancestral money trauma and teaching practical money skills, instead of just teaching money management or mindset?

Let me explain by sharing my money story.

 My Story

I became debt free in 2014; it took me 5 years to pay off US$60,000 (R1, 000,000) in debt, including student loans.

I’ve since become a homeowner, published a book, gotten a yoga teaching certificate, been featured in various media and embarked on a new journey as a nomadic entrepreneur.

I've been traveling for 15 years and have lived in over 7 countries (USA, South Africa, the UK, South Korea, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka) and travelled to way more countries in recent years as I built my company (all without a credit card).

In 2019, I lived and visited 8 countries and spent a month or more in each place, without incurring any debt.

Some cool thing I’ve done, that I am proud of:

✔️ I hosted 4 international retreats in Sri Lanka and Thailand and am still alive to tell the tale 😁

✔️ Renovated my mom's house in the village and turned it into a retreat center and hosted 2 retreats in that house

✔️ Paid my mother for the use of her house and helped her create an extra stream of income using the property

✔️ Renovated my apartment in Cape Town every square inch and paid for everything in cash even though it cost Un UNEXPECTED US$10,000/ZAR140,000

✔️ I increased the rental price on said apartment by 75%

✔️ Launched the Property Magicians Podcast, a real estate podcast, and a real estate stokvel (collective real estate investment scheme) with Mizo (my co-host)

✔️ I discovered 5 hour massages and my life has never been the same 😂😂😊

✔️ Gifted my mom with a dream for 3 weeks vacation to Sri Lanka (1 week) and Thailand (2 weeks) where she got daily 5 hour massages

✔️ Gifted my sister with trips to Vietnam and Sri Lanka

✔️ Bought properties cash

I'm not sharing this to brag but to share how much my relationship with money has changed because of the very work I teach.

HOW I WENT FROM HAVING PANIC ATTACKS ABOUT TOUCHING MONEY OR LOOKING AT MY BANK BALANCE TO UNLOCKING MY INNER MONEY GURU

I spent the first quarter of my life following the path everyone told me was necessary for success and I believed them.

I got a finance degree from the University of Cape Town and an MBA from the Simmons School of Management in Boston, MA.

So you can only imagine my shock when I found myself well educated, unemployed and heavily in debt long before turning 30!

I had poor spending habits, a failing start-up company and was alienated from family and friends because I was too ashamed that they would find out about my unhealthy relationship with money and judge me.

I was internationally educated with a masters and a finance degree, so how could I be in debt and earning way less than most undergraduates?

The shame and anxiety was overwhelming!

I'd spent years working hard to advance my education and move up the career ladder, but instead of fulfilment, it left me broke, sick, miserable, desperate, and feeling very alone.

I tried positive thinking and affirmations, but often found myself frustrated and angry because I couldn't control all my thoughts, which left me feeling like there was something wrong with me.

One day, things got so bad, I had a panic attack on the way to the bank. I couldn't face my bank account and didn't want to deal with money, so I ended up sitting on the pavement, in Boston, MA, struggling to breathe.

That was my breaking point - I knew I couldn't live like this; I decided to change my life and go on my own personal finance journey.

I threw out the rule book and started meditating, did yoga, went vegan, hired tantra coaches, hired life and business coaches, got weekly massages, started weekly acupuncture sessions, did breathwork meditation, went on international retreats, read behavioural finance theses and read psychology books about trauma.

In the process I learned that I was in a relationship with money, that I carried my emotions in my body and that my traumas about money were affecting my financial behaviour.

I started to understand that to change my thoughts and feelings about money I needed to start healing my money stories, beliefs and traumas.

The more I healed my money trauma, the calmer I was when managing money, no matter the bank balance, which made it easier for me to change my financial behavior.

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY

When we work with money trauma, we focus on healing the root cause of the trauma, which often has no links to money but is affecting our finances.

When we heal financial trauma, we go into the body to feel the physical sensations and our emotions, and in doing so start to calm our nervous system, complete the trauma cycle and change the way we feel about money, which changes the way we react to different financial situations and our finances.

We've been taught to work on our financial behaviours - increase savings/investments, decrease debt etc, which is great, but our financial behavior is a symptom of our money trauma, so we end up treating the symptom and not the cause.

And if life has taught us anything it's that treating a symptom is a temporary fix, if we want a permanent change, we have to treat the cause.

We have a different cause (story, belief etc) for each symptom (income, savings etc).

We may be great at earning money but not good at saving it, because we have different vows or beliefs about saving money versus earning money.

This is why curbing spending may not necessarily lead to increased savings, because the spending was just a way for your mind to get rid of money and once you resolve that, your mind will find another way to get rid of money.

This is why we require a long term holistic approach to changing your finances so we treat all the many different causes relating to our emotions and financial behaviour.

This is why I created the #MoneyMagic course, which has lifetime access and is focused on healing ancestral and childhood trauma.

Every person has their own unique money stories, vows, belief etc. because we all have different families, ancestors, childhoods and ways of processing trauma.

At this point, you're probably thinking, "Vangile I do affirmations, I pray like a million times a day and I write daily gratitude pages. Isn't that working on my thoughts and emotions and treating the underlying cause? Why am I still just surviving and not thriving?"

Yes you’re working on your thoughts!

But I want you to think of all the thoughts, memories, emotions and beliefs that cause us financial pain as wounds to our psyche, and these wounds are stored in our bodies.

As you do all your positive thoughts and will yourself to feel grateful (when you feel like hell) you're putting a bandage on a dirty wound and you can't possibly affirm every uncomfortable thought.

And the deeper the wound/trauma, the less effective the bandage will be. The bandage can work on a scar, no problem, but it won't work as well on deep wounds.

Unfortunately, most of us carry deep wounds around money because of our ancestral lineage and our family histories.

What you have to do is focus on cleaning the wound and then putting on the bandage.

If you’re ready to start truly healing, then I invite you to take the first step in your healing journey - try out the guided breathwork meditation and join the Wealthy Money tribe:

Sign up now and you could experience what these Wealthy Money subscribers are saying...

I look forward to connecting with you on your money journey!