This is part of a series of articles that we’re calling “How I got here.” We are talking to McGill alums in their twenties and thirties about their careers and how their experiences at McGill played a role in what they’re doing today.
For most of her time at McGill, Meera Raman, BA’21, hadn’t considered journalism as a career. Shortly after graduating, though, she was doing a master’s degree in journalism at Boston University, drawing from her McGill undergraduate degree in gender, sexuality, feminist and social justice studies (GSFS) to report on feminist businesses in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Now she’s a retirement and financial planning reporter for The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business – a seemingly odd beat for such a young journalist, but one she has tackled head-on, adding her own unique energy to what might seem at first like a stodgy topic. Her weekly newsletter, Retire Rich, has more than 30,000 subscribers. As she explains it, personal finance reporting is about much more than simply dollars and cents.
“A lot of my best stories come out of mining my friends and family for ideas, and really hearing what people are frustrated about. If one person is dealing with this, odds are that thousands of people are.”
Meera Raman, retirement and financial planning reporter for The Globe and Mail
What led you to McGill in the first place?
When I was applying for schools, I knew I was the first one in my family to be getting a Bachelor of Arts. Both my older sisters, they’re like geniuses – they did math and kinesiology. And I remember my mom being like, ‘You know, we’re going to support you doing a Bachelor of Arts, but if you’re going to do it, you’ve got to go to one of the best schools in the country.’
We visited the McGill campus. No one in my school was going there. I was thinking, ‘I don’t know about this.’ But then we went and I fell in love with Montreal and the campus. It was funny, because my mom who had been pushing for it was then like, ‘Wait, this is really far from home.’ But I had fallen in love [with McGill] at that point.
You were busy at McGill. You did a double minor in English and political science in addition to your GSFS major, and you were involved with McGill Women in Leadership, you were on the Arts Undergraduate Society executive team… and the Quidditch team?
The Quidditch team at McGill is awesome. I’m a big Harry Potter fan. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a made-up game where you fold a stick between your legs and try to catch a snitch. Except we’re not flying, we’re running around. I always like to tell people I was a varsity athlete in my undergrad.
What sticks out most from all these extracurricular activities?
I’ve always been really interested in leadership roles and being able to collaborate with others. Before going to McGill, I didn’t necessarily have those skills. But I remember becoming president of FEARC [the first-year events, academic and representative council in the Faculty of Arts]. I was able to organise and run events. It gave me so much confidence to be able to take these kinds of roles into my own hands and make them part of my professional and personal life.
One of the few things you didn’t do at McGill was take part in any of the student newspapers. So, what led you into journalism?
I didn’t realize journalism was a potential career until I had almost graduated and got an internship at Social Justice Connection [a Montreal nonprofit now known as Educonnexion], and they have a magazine. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can talk to people and write about topics I care about for a career. This is amazing.’ So, from that experience, I knew I wanted to gain more technical skills in journalism, which led to me applying for a graduate degree in journalism.
What was that like?
I came in with a very low experience level. But I’m glad I did because it was like a blank slate and I got to be moulded by these profs that were so knowledgeable and were able to give me the correct skill set from the beginning.
One piece of advice I remember getting is that you can get a job, or a beat in journalism, that you aren’t super passionate about. But once you’re in a newsroom, you have the opportunity to work on passion projects on the side, you just have to put in the time to do it.
Is that how you first approached business journalism?
I got an internship at the Boston Business Journal. At the time, I was like, ‘What is business journalism?’ But once I got in that newsroom, and started reporting on different business stories, it really opened my eyes. Business journalism is about people – people and money. That was so interesting to me, because now I know my favourite type of reporting is narrative- and people-driven stories. And it may not look like it from the outside, but that’s what businesses are. So, I drank the Kool-Aid and haven’t left since.
Now you’re focused specifically on personal finance and retirement planning.
It’s reporting on people and money, but also having the direct motivation of helping consumers and readers with their day-to-day life decisions.
At the Globe and Mail, what kind of stories are you looking for as a personal finance reporter?
I find my stories in a lot of different ways, like how typical journalists do – we get pitched stories, we get data. But honestly, a lot of my best stories come out of mining my friends and family for ideas, like when we’re out for dinner or drinks in Toronto and really hearing what people are talking about and what they’re frustrated about. You know, how much it costs to go to their friend’s bachelorette or how much the car insurance costs. If one person is dealing with this, odds are that thousands of people are, so really digging into those stories makes people feel like they’re represented in the pages of The Globe and Mail. Especially young people.
Some people might find it odd that you’re writing about retirement and personal finance so early in your career, but does being young give you any advantages?
When I started, I didn’t realize how much of an advantage my perspective is – my perspective as a woman in her twenties, a woman of colour. We don’t see many of these journalists reporting on this topic. Canadians aren’t just one thing. We’re a very diverse country. So why aren’t we representing everything Canadians are going through? I tell young journalists getting into the industry now to take advantage of their unique perspective, because [other] people will not think of the story ideas that you will think of.
