If women ruled the world... | Rebecca Robertson | TEDxFolkestone

Imagine a world where everyone had the same money in the bank. Imagine a world where men and women were paid the same and they had the same financial opportunities. Imagine all children were given all the financial education they need to make the perfect financial decisions...

Rebecca Robertson is the award-winning founder of Evolution for Women, a website dedicated to giving women professional financial advice. She is a regular media commentator on financial planning, appearing on BBC Radio Kent, in The Independent's ‘Women in Finance’, and is a Huffington Post contributor. Rebecca is passionate about putting women firmly in control of their finances.

Evolution for Women was set up by Rebecca as her many years in financial services continually highlighted the gap between men and women when it came to understanding and managing finances.

Rebecca is also empowering women to take the lead in financial services, which is hugely male dominated, with all-female financial advisers growing and building their own successful businesses under the Evolution for Women brand.

In addition, Rebecca is also developing a suite of tools and online programmes designed for women to self-manage their finances competently and successfully.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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)