When we think of Coco Chanel, and her eponymous fashion powerhouse, we think of haute couture, luxury, ostentatious spending, decadent lifestyles, and conspicuous consumption. Hardly the kind of stuff to be associated with a financial guru. Yet Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel, born in a poorhouse hospice into a stark, frugal life, firstly at home with many other siblings, none of who attended school, then at an orphanage, then becoming a seamstress, a waitress, and a hat designer, before making it big, probably knew more about money wisdom than most of us do!

For a start, she was rich. When she died in 1971, she was estimated to have a net worth of US$100 million, which would be around a billion dollars today. Along the way, she opened her fashion house, closed it due to World War II, and reopened it after the War. And also negotiated to be paid 2% of the