Transcriber: Aaryaman Agarwal Reviewer: Eunice Tan
Good morning! How are we all?
So,
I'm here today to talk you about something that I'm very, very passionate about.
But it's not about me,
it's about the people that I come across in my day-to-day job.
And I'd like to tell you a story about a lady called Catherine.
So Catherine was very much like many women that I come across.
She was in her 50s
and around 10 to 15 years away from retirement.
She spent a long time in her career working very hard doing two jobs
and looking after her young child,
who at that time was now 23.
Imagine you'd worked that hard
and then the bank was writing to you,
telling you you had to sell your home
and you had to move out
within the next year.
You put it off, and you put it off,
and that date just got closer and closer.
The home that you'd lovingly built
and put all your beautiful possessions around
and painted the walls and decorated as you wished -
you were being told it was no longer your home
and you had to sell it and you had to move out,
and you didn't know where you were going to go.
It's a pretty scary situation, I think you'd agree,
and it's not something I certainly would want
for me or my family or anyone that I know.
But it's a situation that I see a lot of women come across.
So this leaves me to ask the question 'Why?'
Why are we in that sort of situation where this is happening quite a lot?
So I started to do a little bit of research.
Men in their 30s are 60% more likely to have savings than women.
Women in their 50s -
70% of them are actually not feeling that they're ready for retirement at all.
And women in their 20s -
54% of them
feel they don't even know where to start when it comes to getting financial advice.
And that really resonated with me
and really shone through
from the examples that I see in my day-to-day life.
So is this because women are a little bit stupid
or not that clever?
Uh...
no, I would totally not agree with that.
And actual fact,
women,
or young ladies,
are 10% more likely to get GCSE levels
higher than boys.
Sorry, boys.
And at university level,
(Clears throat)
ladies are 11% more likely to go to university.
(Coughs) Excuse me, I've got a very British cold coming on.
(Laughter)
So we're certainly, you know,
we're all equal opportunities, we're all in the same boat,
so why is this happening?
So it led me to look at the education system itself,
and maybe that was going to give me a few answers.
And after many years of campaigning,
the national curriculum, in 2016,
put into place at secondary school level
budgeting.
It's not quite a compulsory section of the curriculum,
but it's something that all the children would start now going through.
But budgeting is not really enough
to explain how things should really be in this world.
Does it explain compound interest
or how to buy your first home
or how credit card interest rates are calculated
or how you save and how you put money aside?
No, not really.
It doesn't really do enough.
We cannot rely on such a system to educate our children.
Now let's think back when I was at school
and what that education looked like when it came to maths.
We all remember that questionnaire that said,
'Mary has two pound and goes into the farmer shop.
(Laughter)
Apples cost 20p each, and Mary wants to buy three apples.
How much change does she get?'
Like that really helps you with your money
and explains how you're meant to save and spend your money.
Like, seriously.
(Laughter)
So,
I stand here today
as an independent financial adviser
and the principal of my own independent financial adviser firm,
which is something I'm very proud of.
I'm a multi-award winning business owner,
and I have exams in advanced financial planning.
However, I didn't go to university.
I left school at 15.
And let's just say I wasn't one of the clever ones at school.
That's probably the polite way of putting it.
And in actual fact -
(Whispering) don't tell anyone -
(Quietly) I got an F in maths.
(Laughter)
It's very true.
However,
if I can achieve such amazing things,
that doesn't dictate our story.
Our journeys and our stories,
where we start and where we are today,
is not necessarily what dictates where we should be in the future.
I had to really dig deep to change my story
and make a difference for myself and my family's future.
And I know that everyone in this room and anyone in this world
can do exactly the same thing.
So if the education system isn't really what can give us all the answers,
what else should I look at?
Let's talk about salaries and money.
So 52% of women work part-time compared to 13% of men.
We all pretty much know that, don't we?
That's sort of a bit of a given.
Now, when it comes to salaries,
men and women in their 20s earn about equal,
earn around about the same amount.
But as they start to get older,
women in their 30s earn 13% less,
and by the time they're in their 50s, they earn 16% less than men.
Now, there are big strides, things happening with that,
and there are massive things that are happening
all over the world and globally around this,
but it's still, unfortunately, the case as we are today.
So,
when it comes to getting financial advice,
women have more or a bigger reason to get financial advice.
We have bigger gaps in our employment,
we have bigger gaps in our pensions and our savings,
and that's not even mentioning separating and having a divorce,
which has a massive detrimental effect on women as well.
I've got an eight-month-old baby,
so I will share with you that whilst I was on maternity leave,
I had to take a step back from my pension contributions.
That's something that I had to do
because I couldn't afford to run my business,
pay my bills,
and pay myself enough money,
and pay into my pension contribution.
Now, that was only a short period of time.
But even myself being as I am and the qualifications that I had,
I had to really think that through,
and I really had to make a positive decision around those elements.
Having said all of this,
only 7% of women
will be more likely to go and get financial advice for their retirement,
even though we have a more justified reason to need to go and get it.
So that led me to think about the financial services industry in itself,
which I've been part of for 18 years.
Now, the government has done some great things,
and they put in place the mortgagor, so the Money Advice Bureau,
which is a massive wealth of information.
And there's many websites out there
where people can go to get financial advice.
But most of them, when it comes to getting more specific advice
to really what my needs are or how does that apply to me,
you're directed to an independent financial adviser.
Now, because of regulation,
there's something called RDR, which is a Retail Distribution Review,
which was put in place by the regulators of Financial Conduct Authority.
And they dictated how those financial advisors charged clients.
Now, that meant that, unfortunately,
a lot of independent financial advisers -
because there's only so many hours in a day -
they're looking for the money that's going to make them the most money.
Okay?
It's a fact of life.
Now, what that does mean
is that they're all after the same type of clients,
and it means that everyday people that actually earn quite well
are getting overlooked
and they're not getting the advice that they need.
So this is all sort of very much compounded in many different ways.
In the recession in 2008,
1.3 million people were made unemployed.
And that was at a time where our recession was at the highest,
and it was a point where the UK debt levels were at its highest as well.
So if we look at all these sort of massive compounding issues,
what is the solution?
How can we sort of change this cycle and really make a difference?
Now, I believe that women are the answer.
Now, that doesn't mean that they should spend less
and spend less on shoes,
because, obviously, I like my shoes.
However, it is about making the right financial decisions
at the right time for them.
And with more women looking after the household finances,
now is the time for those women to step forward
and really make a difference -
not only for their future but their children's future.
Because I truly believe
that the more women that make empowered and educated financial decisions
and see the positive effect of that -
so they're creating their own wealth and they're growing their own legacy -
that they will then share that with their children
and their children will share that with their children's children.
And that, actually, the wealth of society will be more spread
and that wealth won't necessarily be just with the wealthy.
So shall I tell you a little bit what happened to Catherine?
Yeah?
So Catherine was in a situation
where she potentially was having to move out of her house
and really go into retirement with no assets, no money in the bank.
Because with the rent levels, if she moved out and rented,
that pot of money that she had left over would dwindle really, really quickly,
which is not a great situation to be in when you're coming to retirement,
because you've got the rent to pay
and you don't necessarily want to work enough
to have to pay that large amount of rent.
Thankfully,
what happened with Catherine is she went through a really great process
and it was a huge learning curve for her.
But she didn't sell her home,
but she did move out.
She moved out,
and she rented it to another couple,
and somebody else paid her mortgage for her.
She remortgaged, paying off the old bank,
and borrowed a little bit more to buy a second property.
That second property she also rented out,
and both assets gave her an income that paid her rent.
So when she went into retirement,
she was then in a position -
actually, she had an income
or she had options with her assets
that she could either sell
or move into one of them, sell one of them.
It gave her options.
And wealth and money isn't necessarily about 'financial planning' -
it's actually about giving you financial options in life.
3.6 billion people
have the same wealth as eight men.
I've got the right fingers up, haven't I?
Good.
That was always a panic moment.
I'm just going to say that again:
3.6 billion people in this world
have the same wealth as eight men.
That's half of the world, basically.
Imagine if those eight men
were eight women.
What type of world or society would we live in?
I feel that, possibly,
that, actually, the world's wealth would be more spread and more even,
and in actual fact
that the world's wealth wouldn't just lie with eight men or eight people -
it'd be with all kinds of people from all kinds of work backgrounds,
different ethnic backgrounds, different places in society,
and different points in life.
I truly believe that being wealthy isn't for just those who have wealth,
and in actual fact, being wealthy is for all of us.
I encourage you all,
if you are very empowered with your money already
and you've got your thing together,
that you reach out to those that need help and help them along on their journey.
And equally,
if you feel that you need help, that you reach out for that help as well.
Because together, I really feel that we all can make a difference.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)