Financial Advice is an area few people actively choose as their career, but for me it was a very intentional choice, with a goal of helping as many women as possible get better financial outcomes.
Eight years ago, I was sitting on my little grey Kmart couch with my baby girl in my arms, considering what my future looked like. I was working as a Neonatal ICU nurse and life had thrown me a few curve balls – I had left my husband while three months pregnant, and then, sooner than expected, my baby girl had arrived – two months premature!
The idea of continuing to work 12-hour shifts, nights and weekends while staring down the barrel of being a single mum just didn’t seem practical, so the question became What could I do instead?
While working as a nurse, I had been studying Social Policy and was struck by the disproportionate impact that finances and financial policies had on quality of life. Whether it was housing, health, education… everything seemed to come back to opportunities, and opportunities came with financial security. I knew I wanted to be doing a job that helped people, and women in particular. I also knew that if women were more financially secure, it would have a flow on effect to their families and communities.
I started looking at how I could help women and their families to get into a better financial position, and decided to retrain as a Financial Adviser – a decision that has led me after several years in the industry to excitedly launch my own business, Know Your Worth.
We measure our own worth in so many arbitrary ways – our bank balance, clothes size, social media following, job title… but for many women, regardless of what metric they choose, they end up undervaluing themselves. What was noticeable to me as I talked to more people about money, was that if women didn’t recognise their own worth, they didn’t prioritise themselves financially. They didn’t pay themselves first and build up savings, or take the time to learn to invest, or protect themselves with insurances – they were always prioritising others, whether that was a partner, children or even charitable enterprises!
For women who want to find balance between caring for their families and taking charge of their financial future, I am able to help in a range of ways; I provide clarity to women and their families on what the future looks like through comprehensive financial plans, or provide advice on an individual area such as KiwiSaver, Managed Funds or Insurances.
Financial Advice is an industry that was set up – and has been dominated – by men, meaning women have been poorly served in the area of financial advice. In fact, up to 80% of women switch financial advisers when their husband dies, because they had no relationship with the adviser themselves! Sadly, in New Zealand, only around 28% of Financial Advisers are women, which means there are not enough qualified advisers who can genuinely relate to the experiences women go through and provide tailored advice in that context.
The gender disparities in New Zealand are a rabbit hole I could dive down indefinitely – but instead, I’ll simply say that the current situation gave me the confidence to start Know Your Worth, knowing that there are so many Kiwis in need of advice that looks different to the previous generation – advice that centres around changing the narrative that both men and women have received and reflects our changing lifestyles and priorities.
