Why can’t we listen to our mate down the pub? 🤔
I’ve been attending the ICAEW Personal Financial Planning Conference today and the themes have got me thinking about trust, reflecting on wealth norms and questioning EVERYTHING and its fascination through the lens of Trauma of Money 💡🔥
Because we’re often told that financial and accounting advice should only come from experts - the ones with the titles and polished offices.
We say: Don’t listen to your mate down the pub - what do they know? 👀
But the truth is, the most meaningful conversations about money and business originate amoung the people we trust the most - perhaps that’s those who share our lived experience, our culture, and our local knowledge.
Whether it’s a friend, family member, or someone in your community, their perspective can resonate more deeply than advice from someone who doesn’t know you - because they get it and they’ve been there.
And these conversations can often contain highly relevant and valid wisdom, experience and ideas!
They plant the seed and take us in a new and brighter direction🌱
Let’s not forget that throughout history, people have been let down by institutions and rouges that don’t have their best interests at heart - large systems often prioritise profit to distant beneficiaries over doing the right thing.
They’re also inherently vulnerable to failure (hello boom and bust) and only available to those who meet the ‘right’ criteria.
Communities, time and time again, have shown incredible resilience by self-organising when institutions failed or excluded by taking care of their people.
Whether it was forming mutual aid societies, credit unions, or informal savings groups, communities have always found ways to build collective strength when institutions fall short.
Of course, to take the next steps, you do likely need to involve a professional - in the UK, a Chartered Accountant or IFA to build a solid strategy and help you go smoothly, sustainably with safeguards.
But there is a real danger when we scoff at talking finance with ‘your mate down the pub’. As we disregard incredibly valuable and eye opening initial conversations.
Bypassing the real power and wisdom inherent in collective knowledge.
Imagine if financial professionals became true partners, respecting and synchronising with community wisdom and providing expert guidance - without the layers of gatekeeping, fear and jargon?
It’s really about being more approachable and open with how clients have come to where they are, and striving to be more holistic, human and collaborative through those next steps.
If we embraced lived experience, the power of local knowledge, and honouring culture as much as following the rules and norms - that’s where the real change can happen 💫
📣Let’s open up the conversation and embrace ‘where’ the money conversations are talking place 🍻
(Photo of last nights aurora over Somerset)
Senior Vice President, Financial Control & Regulatory Reporting at Dallas Capital Bank
2moCongratulations on your 2-year work anniversary!