A few months ago I accepted a new position that perfectly suits my nerdy, money-loving heart - one with the overarching aim of helping people get ahead financially.
Very early on, I got to attend a particularly enlightening conference (the video below comes from that) and also a community workshop in a lower socio-economic area of Auckland. Let's just say the challenge is huge. More than ever, I'm coming to understand the complexity of the issue: it's not just about individual efforts and bootstrapping, it's about human nature and psychology - and of course, the wider system.
In a country like New Zealand, where the cost of living is pretty astronomical, budgeting can only take you so far. Where housing costs are out of control, home ownership is spiralling out of reach, the rental market is squeezed and the condition of rentals is a public health issue. Where public transport is pretty abysmal, and low-income households often lack access to a vehicle, and therefore, supermarkets and healthy food options. Where certain cultural norms mean that family can either be a boost or a drag, holding individuals back from getting ahead. Where high burglary rates mean frequent setbacks, unless you can afford excellent insurance. Where people being locked out of the property market today is going to have huge ramifications when this generation reaches retirement.
True, some people don't have huge lofty goals and aren't particularly interested in 'getting ahead'. But we can't get away from the fact that we live in a capitalist society, and you need money to exist in it. Inflation is a fact of life; things are only ever going to get more expensive. We're already a low-wage economy, and if your income remains stagnant, you're going to wind up at the wrong end of the inequality gap - a yawning gap that's only growing. I for one don't want to wind up being a burden on society. So I was really happy to see a session on upskilling and increasing your earnings as part of that community programme, because spending is only half of the equation. It doesn't matter how good you are at budgeting, if you don't have enough money coming in, you'll never get ahead.
Sure, let's build financial capability so people are better equipped to deal with whatever circumstances life may throw at them. (Pretty much everyone can and should be doing better, to varying degrees.) But it's about more than that. Health, family, educational, church systems - all contribute to financial wellbeing. IMO so much hinges on those early years; if you start out behind it's a lot harder to catch up and overcome setbacks. And the worse that things are for you now, the harder it is to think about the future.
(For one of the best posts I've read on this topic, head over to Frugalwoods.)
I've been fortunate on the health, employment, family fronts. Not everyone has the luxury of that kind of head start. You need to be able to get ahead of yourself in the first place, to get ahead of your paycheck, build up a buffer, get a reliable vehicle, secure your housing situation.
And yet, I came on board at a personally tumultuous time, financially speaking. By the CFSI's reckoning, I was probably a bit closer to Financially Tenuous rather than my usual Financially Striving. It was so, so hard to come into work every day, think about personal finance, listen to coworkers' tales of buying houses, all while shit was falling apart in my own life. Despite that, I'm so happy to be doing what I'm doing. I feel like it's the perfect time to join the fray - financial capability is on the political agenda, recent legislative changes have improved consumer protection around credit and disclosure, and we've only just begun.