April the 28th, 2021 - One Croatian economics student, Dorian Antesic, has decided to see how interested he can get today's youth of Croatia interested in finances and money with his new podcast - Pricajmo o novcu (Let's talk about money).

As Ivan Tominac/Novac writes, blogs are typically the choice of many young people today, and the topics talked about on blogs are often contemporary and lifestyle related. They are also read by Dorian Antesic, who we recently interviewed, and who is also the first winner of the Croatian Smart Croatia competition in the Financier category.

In fact, by launching his Let's talk about money blog, he went one step further, and as he pointed out himself, he believes that this is a good format for sharing knowledge and learning. He has further enriched his blog with a podcast, and today he networks with colleagues and presents them to potential business partners.

Student Investment Fund

“I started the blog because I had something to say. I think it's a good format to express ourselves on some topics and to throw out some ideas that are going around in our heads. I started the podcast a little later than I did with the blog. I realised that talking to people suits me more than just writing things down, if I want to have some kind of constant content publishing.

I noticed that there aren't really many podcasts in Croatia, especially not one focused on finance and economics. There are smart people in Croatia in finance and economics and I wanted to talk to them. There are a lot of podcasts in the world specialised in finance and economics, but here in Croatia, Let's talk about money is the only one of its kind,'' began Dorian Antesic, a student at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Rijeka.

Dorian Antesic actually embarked on his path of popularising the topic of finance even earlier than this, and appearing within the project Hrvatska pamet Hrvatskoj, he presented his project STOK-student investment fund. He delighted the jury with his attitude and thoughts and thus entered the column of the first winner of the Financier category.

According to Antesic, the project consisted of two parts: the establishment of an investment fund that would be managed by students who would invest real money in the financial market and the publication of educational and informative content in the field of investment.

The competition was followed by a series of steps, one of which is investing and implementing a project idea in a slightly different form. From this idea, the Let's talk about money project was born.

"After winning the award, I thought about starting an association through which students couldd invest, then I decided that I wouldn't do that, but that I'd implement the project in a different way. Instead of starting an association and a fund, I decided to spend that investment part by creating my own personal investment portfolio.

I withdrew all my savings and started investing with the prize money from the competition. In addition, I started a blog, and later a podcast where I publish educational and informative talks and articles. So in the end, I implemented the project from the competition, I just did it in another form. This way gave me flexibility in my work and greater concentration, since I invested all my money and thus had a dog in the fight when it came to investing,'' added Dorian Antesic.

His personal mission, as he went on to explain is to create generational wealth. It is, he added, everything that one generation leaves to another, regardless of whether it is money, real estate or the mentality and system of thinking.

“Caring for generational wealth makes people think long-term. This makes it clearer to them what's more important to do and have in life, and what's merely superfluous. I run that mission through a podcast and a blog. With this podcast, I want to create value for financiers and people interested in the field. I talk to professionals and through these conversations I try to touch on some things that would be useful to financiers for their careers and business operations. A successful career and company is the initial condition for creating generational wealth,'' explained Antesic.

It can be said that the Let's talk about money blog is something that brings some new perspectives on financial reality closer to Croatia's younger generations. The blog's repertoire includes, of course, economic topics, and the desire is to use its content to help people advance their careers, improve their businesses and adapt to the future. The podcast is reserved for topics related to corporate finance, investment, personal finance, the state of the economy and economic education.

“We'll talk about the skills that financiers need for successful career growth, and then about the labour market trends for that group. Topics will also be related to the health of financiers - their physical and mental health, since it's a stressful job where people are under a lot of pressure,'' said Dorian Antesic, adding that he has had six guests on his podcast so far. The biggest impression was left by Pavao Pahljina, also the first guest, and the topic was bitcoin.

The Let's talk about money project and initiative is one way of bringing finance closer to Croatia's young and often not so interested people. This has been firmly proven by the amount of inquiries that the innovative Dorian Antesic receives on social media, and the advice such individuals seek is often in the domain of personal finances.

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As Lucija Spiljak/Ivan Tominac/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 17th of January, 2020, this year, for the first time, students in Croatia have competed in a new category - as financiers - with the aim of raising financial literacy among young people, and the winner was Dorian Antesic, a young Croat and a first year graduate student at the Faculty of Economics in Rijeka who was awarded 10,000 kuna.

The main sponsor of the financiers category is the well known AZ pension funds.

“If we want our young educated people to stay in Croatia then besides messages and wishes aimed at them, we must provide them with opportunities, projects and jobs that will really keep them here. In addition, it is crucial for young people to gain study experience so that they're more ready to engage in work processes as soon as they graduate and gain their first jobs,'' said Natasa Hrabar Kaštelan, Head of Marketing and Public Relations at AZ Pension Funds.

Dorian, the young Croat who created the platform, revealed that during his studies he was ambitious and had a curious and restless spirit, so in his fresh CV there are various things listed - from conference organisation to project management and teams within the AIESEC youth organisation in Rijeka, as well as having done a semiannual student exchange in Prague.

He learned about the Hrvatska pamet Hrvatskoj (Croatian talent for Croatia) project through the internet and when he read all the categories, he realised that he had the ideal project for the latest category - Financier.

“At the time, I was just writing a final paper on the topic of a Student Investment Fund and thinking that it would be great to launch something like that in Croatia. I'd already briefly made a plan for establishing such a fund in Croatia when I saw an advertisement for Hrvatska pamet Hrvatskoj and I immediately decided that I'd elaborate on this plan a little better and send it to the tender,'' explained the innovative young Croat.

The Stoik Student Investment Fund is a student-managed investment fund. It is designed as an organisation where students learn about investing and then invest real money in the financial market. Within the organisation, numerous workshops, lectures and courses on investing in the financial market will be set up, and the students, imitating the work of a real investment fund, will invest real money that they collect from sponsors.

This will give the students the knowledge of investing, but most importantly, they will have the confidence to start investing on their own with their own money. Dorian got the idea while researching the topic for his final paper.

"I came across a concept of learning through student investment funds that was started in the US, and I became interested immediately. An additional motive was that there is no literature on such funds in the Croatian language, so my final work under the name Student Investment Funds is the only one in our language so far,'' the student notes.

The categories have been refreshed with one new one, explained Hrabar Kaštelan. The Financier category is intended for students who share interests such as Dorian's, and through their engagement, they can become partners and advisors in the development of new business ideas.

“It seemed like a good idea to encourage students to think of ways to get their own population interested in topics in the areas of finance and the work of pension and other funds. We're pleased to see how young people think and how they can be partners and advisors in projects like this. I think, both in business and in working on new projects, it's a winning combination of experience on the one hand and ideas and freshness on the other. It would be great if some good ideas really came to fruition,'' added Hrabar Kaštelan.

Hrvatska pamet Hrvatskoj ended only a week ago, but this talented young Croat is already launching a larger project - Dorean Finance.

“The project will bring together students interested in finance and economics from around the world. I plan to incorporate Stoik within the project as well,'' announced the student, who has a lot of work to do, but at the same time, he is accompanied by enthusiasm and excitement.

“Since I needed to write a project plan to go to the second round, I've learned a lot; from strategic thinking, analysis and planning to rationality and 'going back down to earth' regarding some goals. Hrvatska pamet Hrvatskoj gives students a longer application period, which actually makes it easier for students to write in, in addition to their student responsibilities. I hope that more people will follow my example, especially my colleagues from the University of Rijeka,'' said Dorian Antesic.

This ambitious young Croat is interested in business, finance and investment, hopes to someday travel the world and work, but ultimately, he wants Croatia to be his home in which to grow his community.

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