I'd love to say I was the exception to the rule.

But I wasn't.

Technology Awareness + Investing = Arming Ourselves with Money

The above equation is the thesis behind Look Up and starting this week we are going to focus on just one part of the equation at a time. This will allow for deeper exploration and learning each week without overwhelming you or your inbox.

Kicking us off, here is the first issue of Look Up Money.

🔑 This Issue's Key Message: Beyond the Basics

Simply relying on your salary and home ownership isn't enough. Financial security comes from:

1. Women are starting from behind - We face systemic challenges and the world of ‘finance’ remains traditionally a male domain.
2. Start now - The power of compound interest is transformative.
3. Understanding the system - To gain financial security and influence we must invest time in understanding the financial world beyond our bank account.
4. Teaching our children - Especially girls, who need both awareness of systemic challenges AND the financial tools to overcome them.

💰 A reminder of why we MUST upskill on all things Money

Here is a (small) sample of what bounces around my brain when I think about women and money:

• Women live longer than men but typically have less retirement savings.
• The gender pay gap compounds into an even larger investing gap.
• Most women do not know or think about the ‘number’ they need to have saved to ensure a comfortable retirement.
• GenX women in particular were never taught about the power of investing. Instead, they received the memo that securing a well-paid job and buying a home was the ultimate goal—after which "all would be well." Research shows they're now the least likely of all generational groups to be actively investing AND the most worried about lacking retirement funds.
• To increase the number of women founded businesses getting funded (currently they receive around just 3% of the capital) we need more women investing in the venture asset class.
• We have invested time and money to push for gender equality in the STEM sector but maybe Finance would have been the more effective ‘lever’ to pull on. (I don’t mean accountants - counting other people’s money is an area we have relatively gender equality on.).
• We invest time learning about and sharing with each other all manner of topics - parenting, wellness, work, sex - why not Money?
• Same goes for the conversations we have with our daughters - we ‘prepare’ them for all the bad things but have we forgotten to give them information on one of the strongest ways to succeed?

I wish I could say I was an exception to the rule, but I wasn't. 🤦‍♀️

When I was young I was completely unaware of careers in finance, or dismissed them as options for "greedy" men people.

Despite having a job with a good salary, I mistakenly thought this justified spending more rather than investing.

I didn't even look at the stock market until two years ago. While I understood diversification conceptually, I failed to practice it, focusing solely on property as an investment class (tell me you live in New Zealand without telling me…).

This experience combined with ‘getting started’ has made me realise true financial security comes from understanding the system, starting early (or just starting), teaching our children (especially girls), and most importantly taking action.

👀The good news is,

It has never been easier to learn and "learn by doing" than it is now.

Learning: Whereas previously financial knowledge was locked behind university doors, today we have a wealth of information at our fingertips.

Doing: In the past, investing required intermediaries like stock brokers or fund managers. These options still exist, but new digital platforms allow us to access markets and opportunities directly, so we can learn from the markets and manage our own investments if we choose to.

If you gave just an hour a week, maybe spread over a podcast and a few newsletters and looking at the markets your knowledge would quickly expand. Remember, we do not need to be experts.

In future issues we'll dig into different aspects of the financial world and provide resources to help you curate that 'hour a week'. For example:

• Global macro economics
• The Stock market
• Venture investing
• Cryptocurrency

Alongside this I'll bring you general market updates so financial awareness becomes a natural part of your weekly reading routine.

I'm not a financial advisor or educator—just someone who's learning all the time and wants to share, like you would with a friend over coffee. These will be the conversations I wish someone had started with me years ago.

🎁Resources for this week

💶‘Know your number’ Homework challenge - If you are feeling brave you can ask Perplexity or an AI of choice to work this out:

If I want to retire at age [X] with [$X to spend per annum] how much do I need in savings.

This will give you the total and the logic behind it using standard growth rates etc. Once you have that number you can then ask:

If I invested [$X - put in your current available savings] assuming a 7% interest rate how much do I need to invest monthly to get to that total?

📖 Book - In this economy? Author: Kyla Scanlon

A fantastic easy to understand book which explains all aspects of ‘The Economy’. Highly recommend to read and then pass on to any young women you know.

📱Additions to your feed:

• The Wealth Chef - As I write this I am listening to a 90 minute investing webinar from her so I will let you know if it is worth checking out. So far she is the only woman over 40 making investing content. (Plenty teaching me all manner of other ways to ‘win at life’, but not the one that will actually pay my retirement bills!) I will continue looking but if you know anyone who posts on the topic please let me know.
• Kyla Scanlon (author of above book) on Instagram and Tik Tok. US centric, but relevant themes and insight for any market.
• Prof G Podcast - Conversations about the week of markets. Again US based, but as we can all easily invest in the US now it is still good and they discuss all aspects of market levers in an easy to understand way. (To get a two for one Kyla was recently on this podcast - See Feb 20 episode below).

Thanks for reading, I’d love you to share it if you know anyone who would find this conversation valuable.