As a Qualified Financial Advisor, my area of focus is unusual - I am particularly interested in improving outcomes for women, by promoting understanding of the 'financial engine' that exists within each of our lives, and by signposting key pivot points (securing long-term housing, birth of 2nd child, relationship dissolution, menopause, caring for older relatives, retirement, widowhood) which impact the income of even the most ambitious, capable, professional women we know.
Yes, some of these pivot points exist for the chaps as well. But statistics have shown that they impact women in much greater numbers (e.g. Irish Life Gender pensions gap report, 2024). And, culturally, we women don't talk about money and economics, so we lose huge opportunities to learn from previous generations.
I have setup AllSkills Education CLG as a social enterprise (non profit extracting) to promote financial and digital literacy, particularly for women. Trying to make the learning very practical and bake it into the FLIT Financial Literacy platform.
I asked participants from the Gateway project whether they felt the programme had given them any practical help, here are some answers:
Understanding My Payslip
YES!! For the first time last week I received my payslip and I could actually understand the deductions. Because you covered this three times with us, including pensions auto-enrollment deductions, I actually understand what is being taken from my pay and how it will benefit me longer-term
Noticing small costs like bank charges
When we covered bank charges it was as if a lightbulb went off in my head. I straight away went out and took steps to cancel my high-fees bank account and committed to my low-charges existing account
Knowing your consumer rights
I went with my 86-year old mother to the bank and helped her access her money that was locked away in a low interest account and transfer it to her main account when she can access it when needed. There were three steps - obstacles to be overcome - before this could happen. Because we had the financial literacy training, I knew what her rights were and we were able to insist on appropriate customer service, and together we navigated the additional obstacles promptly.
Combatting Frauds and Scams
Every week I receive a different fraud text or email. Even last week I had the bank contact me - with reference to a loan application - from an employee's personal mobile number. I politely told them I would not provide confidential information over the phone - they seemed quite put out, but I ignored this and physically went into the bank to complete the transaction'
Contact me, Deirdre McCarthy, if you are interested in running a financial literacy workshop like 'Finances across a female lifetime', 'Family finances in Ireland' or a longer programme like the '6 weeks to Financial Literacy' programme