Know Your Worth
Financial Advice for women and their families; elevating your financial future.
Worth can refer to so many things - from your bank balance right through to the intangible value you place on yourself as a person.
Even that can vary wildly - from how we judge ourselves as mothers or wives, to the value we place on ourselves as employees or employers, or to how we measure up as a friend, or a daughter. The list of roles we play and how we judge our worth in each one is unending.
So, your worth is clearly not able to be reduced to a number, nor is it tangible, static or objective.
The only real constant in all of this is the tendency we have to underestimate our own worth.
Why Advice for Women?
When I tell people that I provide Financial Advice for women, there is always the question of why, or whether, women need their own financial advice.
Isn’t good advice good for everyone?
I’ve been answering this for a while now, and the short answer is that women have significantly different lived experiences and therefore need advice that reflects those. Almost every aspect of the world we live in has been designed by men, for men, based on men’s experiences of the world.
(because we can only ever really make decisions based on our own experiences in life)
The Financial Services Industry is no exeption. Most financial advisers are male, most investment committees are male, and the advice is almost always based on a hypothetical male client because historically that was the client base.
It’s time for a change, with more women joining the industry and definitely more women looking for advice that meets their needs there is a gap to fill.
It is my sincere hope that Know Your Worth provides one stepping stone for our industry in bridging that gap.
Elizabeth Moloney-Geany
Financial Adviser
A bit about me…
This is the section I always look for on a website - the bit that shows me who I’m actually going to be working with! So here we go:
The important stuff - I’ve been in the Financial Services industry for around 7 years now, starting out in a call centre while gaining my Level 5 Qualifications and then moving through the roles until becoming an adviser, practicing across the areas of Insurances, Investments and Financial Planning.
The more important stuff - In my past life, before I retrained as an adviser, I was a Nurse and worked in the Neonatal Unit looking after premature babies. Then in 2016 my first baby came along 2 months early, and I felt it was time for a change. Luckily my talents for assessment and analysis, caring for families during stressful times and teaching complicated concepts (without all the jargon!) were very handy in my new industry.
The most important stuff - I have a wonderful husband who is (annoyingly) almost always right, and two gorgeous kids who definitely think they are always right, so I’m very used to having my views challenged! My ideal way to spend free time is in the sunshine, with a good book and a cold drink; iced mocha for preference.
I’m trying to turn my black thumbs into green ones so that we can create more of a garden at home and I love to cook, and to eat out in Wellington’s many great cafes and restaurants. When creating my own financial plan, travel is a key part, I’ve been fortunate to travel quite a bit so far and I’m itching to plan my next adventures in a few years’ time.
Here are some things I know to be true about women:
Women live longer but retire with less financial security and lower retirement savings
Women earn less, (especially if they become mothers) and invest less, but their investments perform better!
Women’s career trajectories are wildly different to men’s.
Women still perform more childcare and housekeeping than men (in hetero relationships) even when the woman is the main earner
Women are still responsible for most of the mental load
Women have unique health concerns and needs
Women are more likely to have their symptoms dismissed by a medical professional, and it takes on average four years longer to diagnose the same condition in a women as it does for a man.