Financial Changemakers, Series 2 - Class, Wealth & Social Deprivation

Welcome to the Financial Changemakers podcast with Gretchen Betts – Managing Director at Magenta Financial Planning and Olivia Parnell – Coach, New Horizons, Voluntary Norfolk

This podcast series is for you if you are interested in learning about diversity and inclusion and are keen to embrace and make positive change in your life, business, management style or company ethos.

In this seventh episode, hosts Gretchen and Olivia, discuss Class Wealth and Social Deprivation with their guests

·        Steve Chatterton - Head of Relationships at Citywire

·        Laurie Frankland - New Horizons Project

There is a deep societal problem. A tacit agreement that continues to be an approach that it’s ok to have those who have and those who have nots. This needs to change. It’s wrapped up in the historical narrative of our country. Opportunities are not equal, but they should be, shouldn’t they?

We don’t inspire potential in the young people. There’s no American Dream in this country. We’re just happy to let young people work it out for themselves. And that is NOT ok.

Young people need to be educated to know that no one is going to do it for you. But you can do anything that you put your mind to in this world.

Social Mobility is in decline in this country, we are ranked 21st globally, and we are the lowest performing country in the G7 Nations.

Culturally we don’t talk about money. Many people are not able to take advantage of financial planning opportunities. People perceive it as elitist, something for rich people, to make them richer. Talking to people about debt can be emotional and an extremely vulnerable conversation to have. There needs to be a level of trust.

There needs to be a better understanding of low incomes meaning high outgoings. The less you have, the more things cost. If you can’t afford to live where you work, you must pay for travel, and extra childcare to allow for travel times. You can’t take advantage of online deals if you don’t have access to the internet – of which many people don’t.

If you are financially secure you can invest, save, and insure, making yourself more financially secure.

There is an opportunity in the financial world to mentor young children, to educate them and inspire them about money and be the male role model, of which many may not have had.

There are resources out there which can help. Citizens Advice are extremely helpful and have a section on their website in relation to Financial Planning. There’s also a government scheme called Money Helper. There may be opportunities for the financial profession to work alongside these organisations, which have already developed trust within society. 

The profession should look to become allies with third sector support that already exist. When organisations get together, it can lead to innovation and problem solving, through combining expertise.

There’s so much potential to do more.

Key Take Aways from this episode

It is easier to build strong children, than it is to repair broken men. Find out more about reasons why people are in low-income situation. Raise awareness of initiatives which can help. If we don’t give people and young people, the skills they need to address the situations that they are in (that they didn’t choose) then how can we expect them to get out of it? We should all ask ourselves, can we do more, individually? If you’re listening to this podcast, get involved! Reach out to your local schools and see how you may be able to help. When we look back on our lives, do we want to say that we were on the right side of our own personal history?

Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Don’t be complicit. If you see something is wrong, say something.

This podcast series is about creating a safe place for discussion and ultimately enabling you, our listener, to be a Changemaker.

Let’s listen. Let’s Discuss. Let’s Learn. Let’s Implement Positive Change.