FOR personal finance content creator He Ruiming, easing people into the world of money was something he never expected to do for a living.
He was 29 when he and his co-founder Wei Choon Goh started the webcomic The Woke Salaryman in 2019, putting their visual marketing skills to good use. Through short narratives and tidbits of money-related advice taking the form of monochromatic comics, the two combine principles of economics, sociology, and psychology to build financial know-how.
Now in their mid-thirties, with The Woke Salaryman page garnering over 500,000 followers on Facebook and nearly 480,000 on Instagram, the two have released a book compiling the best and most insightful of their comics.
Woke Salaryman: Crash Course on Capitalism & Money is essentially Personal Finance 101 for the youth, and it is now available outside of Mr. He and Mr. Wei’s home country of Singapore.
“Six months into it, we realized there’s a global reach. People were taking the comics and translating it into their native language, be it Vietnamese or Filipino. I thought, ‘wow, there’s universal appeal’,” Mr. He told BusinessWorld in an interview on July 28 following the book’s launch in Manila.
“It goes to show that what Singaporeans face is not a country-specific problem. It’s a big city problem, and there are many young people living in big cities around Southeast Asia that struggle with expensive rent and burnout and the like,” he said.
A BETTER RELATIONSHIP WITH MONEYThe Woke Salaryman comics tackle a wide range of topics, from the historical reality behind the privilege of work-life balance to the practical ways young people can deal with their parents’ growing health problems.
It was the latter that kickstarted personal finance as a lifelong passion for Mr. He — his mother suffered a stroke in 2014 and lost much of the money she earned over the years in the medical aftermath.
“I wanted to pursue this thing called FIRE, meaning ‘Financially Independent, Retire Early.’ I basically practiced the lifestyle for like seven years, so along the way, I learned personal finance,” he said.
He and Mr. Wei bonded over the desire to have a better relationship with money, and The Woke Salaryman was born.
BEYOND THE TRENDSThe book has sold 10,000 copies so far since its launch in Singapore in May. Its ongoing book tour in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines has brought a wide variety of fans out from the woodwork.
“Our core audience was Singaporeans ages 25 to 35. Now it’s obviously beyond that,” said Mr. He. “It’s not about whether you’re Millennial or Gen Z. It calls to people of whatever age that they start to care about money.”
He added that reaching a large following was definitely not a product of following online trends. While The Woke Salaryman makes money through brand sponsorships, the two founders still carefully choose what to make.
“I think people have this weird expectation that social media pages must echo their every opinion. But if we were forced to echo popular opinions then we wouldn’t enjoy what we’re doing, and we wouldn’t be making anything of importance.”
Today, the webcomics — and now the book — are a source of comfort and advice for disillusioned youth who feel that the odds are stacked against their favor and somehow want to turn the tide.
Woke Salaryman: Crash Course on Capitalism & Money is available in the Philippines through Fully Booked. — Brontë H. Lacsamana
