Betsy Westcott - Financial Wellness

Women, love, finance and freedom - Betsy is passionate about all of them all. She also wants to share her knowledge and help people to become financially literate and comfortable. It was a pleasure catching up with Betsy again to talk about money, relationships and a little bit about her own investing.

"My greatest wish is that every Australian be financially literate. I believe that the better the skills and knowledge we have about money the better choices we make with our financial resources to live an independent, happy life. That’s why I’ve dedicated my career to helping people understand and make the most out of their money."

"I really feel like women are coming into their own right now, and there's more and more women looking to create financial independence and abundance for themselves. Women represent 47% of the workforce here in Australia. We make 80% of the purchasing decisions, we contribute 5 trillion globally to the global wealth pool every year that's according to Boston Consulting Group, which is actually outpacing the growth of any other segment in the world.

MAKE MONEY

KEEP MONEY

MULTIPLY MONEY

And what's interesting is that in the next two decades, women will inherit 70% of the world's global wealth. Right now here in Australia, women control 33% of the nation's wealth which is about $1.5 trillion and you can see that millennial women in particular, are taking a more active interest in their money. Again from Boston Consulting Group they did some research recently around women taking the lead on financial decisions in a relationship. They found that millennial women who are married, 66% of them will take the lead on financial decisions, versus 29% in women of the boomer generation.

Women are the most underserved cohort in financial services and companies that don't seek to better engage and service the needs of women are missing out on a $700 billion opportunity per annum globally. So women are a force to be reckoned with. They are up and coming they're more interested and I really want to see more financial services and developing more inclusive products and services."

"Women's financial lives are actually far more complex than men's. They don't just start work at 18 and keep going through till they're 65. Women face a number of hurdles when it comes to financial well being and have a much more complex journey financially. First of all, we've got the gender pay gap, which in Australia I think is still at a pesky 14% and super annoying. But also, women are more likely to take career breaks. And so what this means is that they're earning less. They've got interrupted careers, so therefore they retire with less money, which is problematic because they live longer. Studies show that for women, they typically take a career break at age 33, and the compounded impact of that career break on their superannuation balance is about $160,000 in retirement lost because of that break, and you can't avoid them, particularly if you want to, you know, care for others, children, parents, but what you can do is be proactive in planning for that break, putting money aside, trying to contribute to your super if you can while you're on that break or maybe if you've got a spouse, doing some co-contributions to offset the financial impact on your retirement 

Rant over. Can you tell I'm passionate about this subject?"

WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED THAT SHOES AT THE TOP OF THIS LIST?

BETSY ON THE SOCIALS

Instagram: @msbetsywestcott (https://www.instagram.com/msbetsywestcott/?hl=en)

Twitter: @betsywestcott (https://mobile.twitter.com/betsywestcott?lang=en)

Website: www.Betsywestcott.com

LinkedIn: @betsywestcott (https://au.linkedin.com/in/betsywestcott)

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT (UNEDITED)

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Shares for Beginners is for information and educational purposes only. It isn’t financial advice, and you shouldn’t buy or sell any investments based on what you’ve heard here. Any opinion or commentary is the view of the speaker only not Shares for Beginners. This podcast doesn’t replace professional advice regarding your personal financial needs, circumstances or current situation.

Thanks to Christopher Soulos for music production out of Garlic Breath Studio https://www.facebook.com/GarlicBreathStudio. Remember music flows when the money don’t.