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Welcome to TMP. I am honoured and grateful that you are here.

TMP is a non-judgemental, safe virtual place where I help people in money trouble develop the confidence, knowledge, and skills to build sustainable wealth and never worry about money again.

Whether you are in debt, have a problem managing your money, feel intimidated by the thought of earning more or want to invest for the future, I am here for you.

 

Who is Maria Nedeva?

Meet the Creator of The Money Principle

 

I’m a happily married mother of three grown-up sons, a Business School professor, and have a PhD.

In late 2009, my husband and I had £100,000 in consumer debt. Oh, and my husband is also intelligent and educated.

Intelligent people can make stupid mistakes, and educated people can be ignorant about areas of life.

My area of ignorance was money.

I could have got depressed and angry. I did that for a couple of months. I could have played the blame game for the rest of my life.

Maria in Tenerife
Maria in Texas

But this is not the person I am – I was raised to see opportunities where others see impediments, and I never admit defeat before trying hard.

After grieving the loss of my money innocence, I knew that I could not, and will not, carry this debt into my fifties. I certainly was not going to limit our youngest son’s life because his parents got their eye off the ball.

I learned, researched, experimented, struggled with my feelings, and developed true grit.

We paid off £100,000 debt in three years. But I never saw this as the destination of our money journey; it was just a stop on the way. We invested and, in six years, flipped our money situation and went from £100,000 consumer debt to £150,000 in new investments. We are still on this incredible journey of empowerment – we are building wealth slowly, with focus, dedication, and togetherness we didn’t have before. And we love our life.

Maria and John in Arbanassi
Suzi the dog

We work hard, make our money work hard, and play hard. We love to travel and experience new, different cultures. We like going to concerts and dance performances. We love the cinema.

I read, research, think and write – mostly, it is fun.

We walk and play with our lovely border collie, Suzi.

Here are some other things about me you may wish to know.

Is it true that you are a Business School professor?Yes, I am a Professor of Science and Innovation Dynamics and Policy at a high ranking British Business School. It has nothing to do with money and finance, which incidentally makes me an exciting money maverick, not a stuffy money expert. My job is to comprehend the workings of contemporary science and how it changes, and my focus is on physics (so far).

How about the PhD?

Oh, yes. I have a PhD in science policy. When our youngest son was about four years old, he told people his mum is a doctor who cannot make people better, which sums it up.

Dr Maria in her Manchester PhD gown
John dreaming on Skiathos

Why did you become a money blogger instead of sticking with highbrow academia?

Ah, that is something even border guards ask me when I travel for blogging.

Look, I learned a lot when I dealt with our money situation, and it seems wasteful and selfish not to share all that with others.

I am a savvy money maverick, and my knowledge of money is not bookish; my comprehension of personal finance comes from research, testing and ingenuity.

Also, money is far too serious to leave to experts.

 

How TMP began

(Money) Success Was My Only Option; Failure Was Not

We were standing at the gates of financial ruin, looking at a pit of despair.

How do you think I felt?

I needed a platform to help manage my insecurities, test my ideas, and create my global wealth-building beehive.

That is how TMP began.

Never bet on Red - the book“This book is unlike any other book on debt I’ve read – Maria approaches debt-freedom from the angle of a complete mindset transformation. Even though I’ve been debt free for a while now, this book still taught me a lot about my relationship with money (and how I could fix it!).

Scott Nelson”

TMP was born in March 2011, when I published my first post. Over the last decade, the site has changed, my writing has developed, and many have followed the TMP approach to building wealth. One constant is my commitment to inspire, educate, and entertain you without judgment and condescension.

Working on TMP, I developed novel approaches to personal finance. We also created a handy monthly budget planner and pension calculator.

And I wrote a book about it all!

 

Why and how we exist

TMP Mission, Vision and Values

Mission

TMP exist to help you develop the confidence, knowledge, and skills to build sustainable wealth and never worry about money again.

Vision

We support our mission by providing inspirational, educational, and informational articles on the four pillars of personal finance: dealing with debt, money management, making money, and investing. We have also developed our own personal finance tools and reviewed existing ones. You will also find the results of testing online personal finance platforms and apps and our reviews of personal finance and development books.

All we do is for information and aims to help you make sensible money decisions. We do not offer advice.

Values

Our values are the passionate beliefs that provide a compass for TMP. Here are our core values:

Honesty and directness

We have a reputation for telling it as it is. You can join the TMP community with assurances that you will not get lame platitudes. Another side is that you must be prepared to face hard truths and make difficult decisions.

Redemption without judgement

You can do it (we are rooting for you all the way)

You can do it! TMP is not a site for entitled tight middle-class people (only).

Research, test and only after that share

We never publish anything that we have not researched carefully and tested. Call me Prof!

You can have anything, but not everything

Make it easy, make it fun

 

How we help

TMP Is About You, Not Me

 

  • Change your money mindset and transform your negative feelings, beliefs, and attitudes.
  • Learn about personal finance and money management so you can make informed decisions.
  • Take specific steps to change your money situation and adapt these to your circumstances. Sometimes, these steps will lead you further and may prompt you to transform your life, e.g., get an education, learn to negotiate, increase your creativity, etc.

More importantly, TMP will take you from being broke and fearful to being a confident wealth builder.

Our latest project is the Movement for Prosperity Empowerment, which aims to help and inspire you on your way from financial fragility to prosperity.

I walked this road, and you can do it too. I am here to help.