Eggs, 39 million and investing with YouTube

It’s Tuesday…and here’s my weekly commentary. I'm trying to be disciplined, which supposedly is the root of all success although given Clint Eastwood said that "if I'd had good discipline, I might have gone into music", there's hope for me yet...!

I’m prepping for my Monthly Citisoft Breakfast this Thursday (yes, even in the midst of holidays, heatwaves and a supposed Covid wave?) and reminded of the fantastic debate we had last month. I’m going to shamelessly steal some words from my partner-in-crime Andy Reid who summarised in this way:

Interesting that on this past Thursday, conversation was less about the deep piping in the wealth space and all the issues with data, legal and AI, but instead a genuine chat about what’s in it for the actual customers. Specifically, an awareness that our (those around the table) relationship with ‘wealth’ and how to manage it, is very different to other mindsets, demographics and generations. This might sound obvious as I type this – but it was the first time I think the higher purpose of investment was discussed. I particularly liked the story telling moment of our first Griffin Savers accounts with the plastic piggy banks…And lovely that we all started to make connections between our emerging insights and perspectives to the current WAM operating model.

He mentioned 4 areas where ‘new & different’ can be injected into the mix:

1. Understand Customer
2. Insight-based ideas for the customer/wealth interface
3. Build the ‘new’ without reinventing the wheel
4. Use tech/AI and all the other stuff in parallel

So, bluntly, if you’re interested in any of this conversation (and take a peek at Andy’s picture in the comments too), drop me a line and join our Breakfasts!!

Would you turn to Reddit for investment ideas?

Topically enough, the FT covered some of the customer perspective last week too, in this brilliant little article by Claer Barrett : she led with the point that “It’s no surprise that social platforms are the go-to place when industry communications appear designed to obfuscate”. It cites research by Royal London in 20219 indicating that 39 million adults in the UK fall into the advice gap. 39 million!! That’s surely the vast majority of us – that’s a disgrace, isn’t it?

Furthermore, Damien Talks Money Damien Jordan delivers friendly, helpful videos on YouTube and he says that financial services firms “don’t want someone just starting out with ￡100 a month to invest. But that’s where I operate”. I’ve just watched one video on “17 pension mistakes everyone is making” and he’s a little genius. It’s not clickbait, it’s not rabble-rousing, he talks facts, clearly and intelligently. The #1 mistake is ‘sticking with defaults’ and he cites strong analysis from Decision Technology who talk about the benefits of moving from the most risk-averse (by understandable design) default funds so that predicted retirement income is over 50% greater.

All projections, yes, but smart thinking for everyone. And that’s just #1.

We want learning to manage your money to become as common as learning to ride a bicycle.

So, I think the message here is that there’s so much we can do to help that 39 million, the current WAM ecosystem is not serving them well enough and I’m all up for having those conversations to galvanise action. The article references the Financial Literacy & Inclusion Campaign (with their borrowed mission statement above!) and given my recent pleas for ‘education, education, education’, maybe that’s a great place to start?

Anyone care to join me, Claer Barrett & Damien Jordan for breakfast sometime soon?

Have fun out there!

Audere est facere.