\u201cThere are some complicated feelings around that when you don\u2019t want the brain drain to happen, but then you\u2019re also part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaur, who migrated to New Zealand from India at age 2, ditched a career in optometry and started running her financial education media company Friends That Invest (rebranded from Girls That Invest last year) in 2020. She made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2023, became Young New Zealander of the Year in 2024, reached the top 20 in the Deloitte Fast 50 with her business in 2025, and became \u201cwork optional\u201d (financially independent) four months ago.<\/p>\n
From the outside, these achievements are signs of a serious risk-taker. Kaur disagrees. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn my mind, because [the company] is an online brand \u2013 I got to do it without taking too much risk,\u201d she says, pointing out she saved costs after moving back in with her parents at one point. \u201cWhereas moving countries and setting up shop in a new country, that\u2019s just, oh, so scary.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a huge change for someone who likes a familial routine. Kaur and her husband, whom she married in March, like to have dinner or brunch with their parents once a week. For Kaur, replacing these intimate habits with connections that mattered will be the biggest adjustment.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking your own family in a new country and meeting new people and setting up that support system … I think that will be really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hard \u2013 but still a move Kaur says she always wanted to take. She\u2019s returned to The Big Apple every year since first visiting in 2022 \u2013 she says it \u201cblew my mind\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very busy city with a lot of movement, and you can very quickly feel like you\u2019re not doing enough and falling behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting uncomfortable is the point on a personal level. By her admission, Kaur lives in a \u201clittle cocoon\u201d in the suburb she\u2019s spent her whole life in. \u201cIt\u2019s really nice, but you don\u2019t really grow,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cEven if I don\u2019t achieve what I set out to, being able to tell myself [that] I set out to do something and get out of my comfort zone – that\u2019s a success even if the outcome isn\u2019t what I hope, as opposed to … keep safe and keep stable and don\u2019t really try to keep growing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move is a good decision for the business, she says. While the company will remain based in New Zealand, Kaur says she will expand it from the US by tapping into opportunities such as advertising partnerships and in-person events.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur largest portion of customers are podcast listeners and masterclass buyers … women based in New York and based in the US. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you live in New York, you\u2019re probably earning a higher salary, you probably have a bit more disposable income … it\u2019s also one of the financial capitals of the world, so people that live there may be more ready to start investing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week, Kaur shared a video on Instagram about the concerningly high cost of living in other countries, joking that she \u201cmight come out of retirement\u201d.<\/p>\n
You could hear the shock (and disgust) in her voice when asked about New York\u2019s prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t realise the rental prices of a one-bedroom small apartment in a safe area, like a semi-nice area … it\u2019s like US$4000, US$5000 a month,\u201d she says. \u201cThat is so much higher than the mortgage I pay on my house in New Zealand. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve brought out my budgeting template again and I\u2019m being a little bit more stringent just because you can\u2019t exactly be fast and loose with your money in a place like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
She declined to comment about US politics or immigration.<\/p>\n
The former Young New Zealander of the Year is looking forward to stepping outside of her comfort zone.<\/p>\n
Kaur says she has \u201clost a lot of friends\u201d to London, Melbourne and Sydney. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is really sad because you want your country to be a place where people want to stay and want to build their businesses. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I feel like I\u2019m on the opposite end where I\u2019ve built my business, created a lot of success, and now I\u2019m building it further.\u201d<\/p>\n
She describes herself as a \u201cbeliever in Team New Zealand\u201d. And while she believes the country is a \u201csafe and caring\u201d environment for raising families \u2013 some of her friends have returned from living abroad to have kids \u2013 she also believes it lacks in other areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be so much better if New Zealand created an environment where young people go, oh, the best opportunities are actually in the country and not outside.<\/p>\n
She takes quiet satisfaction in not moving abroad when she was younger. She\u2019s at a stage \u201cwhere I know myself and I know what I stand for and what I\u2019m there to do\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think if I went earlier in my life I probably would get quite easily swept up in like the hustle and bustle, and you meet all these cool people that are doing cool things and you\u2019re like, \u2018What am I doing? Oh my god, I\u2019m falling behind\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
While she is forthcoming about many personal aspects of her life on social media, she has decisively kept her relationship out of the public eye. <\/p>\n
Her husband, who is in \u201cfinance\u201d and is a \u201cprofessional\u201d, is joining Kaur of his own accord. Recently, he obtained the same visa.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s already gotten his, so it would have been a real shame if he got to go and I didn\u2019t,\u201d she jokes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I give so much of my financial life [on social media],\u201d she says. \u201cIn the past I\u2019ve shared like my salary and my investments and net worth and all those really kind of pervy pieces of information which I\u2019ve been so happy to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says some people analyse a couple after seeing social content, and they want to prevent the \u201cnoise of other people and opinions\u201d about their relationship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you talk about money online, you also just want to protect your privacy and safety … family life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Varsha Anjali is a journalist in the lifestyle team at the Herald. She is based in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThere are some complicated feelings around that when you don\u2019t want the brain drain to happen, but then…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1443,43755,51,138,282081,63701,1445,42,76369,24307,2845,6093,1446,3025,2683,117,43,69,90,193,384,19794,6102,28653,14907,301,1361,61,40,38,41,39,43754,14605,2173,2963],"class_list":["post-572375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-about","tag-anjali","tag-auckland","tag-business","tag-cocoon","tag-ditch","tag-friends","tag-headlines","tag-invests","tag-kaur","tag-leaving","tag-little","tag-making","tag-most","tag-move","tag-new","tag-news","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-other","tag-people","tag-planet","tag-side","tag-simran","tag-successful","tag-talks","tag-that","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-varsha","tag-whats","tag-york","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}