“Stop banging on about products and talk to people about their lives”
Holly Mackay, CEO of independent consumer website Boring Money, is the perfect first guest to welcome to the Campfire, and comes bearing the best kind of gift — direct and plain-spoken advice.
People can find making life saving plans boring. Why should they be excited about it?
Saving is made boring because too many people focus on the products rather the outcomes. But we don’t have to find an obsessive interest in what lies under the bonnet of investment products to benefit from them — and actually excessive tinkering can be a very bad idea. As George Soros said, “If you find investing exciting, you’re probably not very good at it.”
The basics can actually be easy enough to grasp and the meaningful bit is knowing that with interest rates at historic lows, for example, your invested money is not just sitting in a weak pot for 30 years but actually working away and hopefully growing. The exciting bit is making the most of what we have.
What do you think are the biggest barriers to people taking control of their own finances?
I think we’re still in a parent-child relationship with our money and just assume we’re bad at it and wait to be told what to do.
If we can get rid of the gremlins — the ‘I’m so bad at Maths’, the ‘I’m not rich enough’, the ‘I don’t own a bowler hat-type negative thoughts’, and actually take bite-sized steps, just tackling one thing at a time, I think we can shut the gremlins up and realise that this IS for us and we ARE capable!
And what are the biggest changes businesses could make to help break these barriers down?
Stop banging on about products and talk to people about their lives.
You’re not keen on ‘gobbledygook’ at Boring Money. Does the financial world still have a big jargon problem and do you see any sign of it improving?
Yes. And no. We need fresh eyes and new voices and more respect for creatives and marketeers. At the moment it’s like watching a fashion chain run by geeks, or getting an Audi engineer to create their latest TV ad — the scientists are not always the best people to tell the story!
We also need to wean ourselves off the comfort blanket that is blaming the Financial Conduct Authority and saying that the regulator ‘won’t like it’ if we try different things and different language. There’s not enough innovation in financial communication.
Are there particular groups in society that deserve more focus and more support when it comes to engaging them with their money?
I think there are many that deserve it.
From a practical perspective the industry will, of course, focus on those with sufficient savings to be clients. So — avoiding the obvious issue that vulnerable customers need lots of help — I think we should do more to help people in the 10-year run-up to retirement and also finally bite the bullet and acknowledge that we are failing to engage women, and to take this more seriously than doing a quick Harriet Harman pink bus approach.
Is there any piece of technology that’s helped you and your finances?
Monzo — for spending abroad. My Hargreaves Lansdown app for trading. And Go Henry for the kids’ pocket money.
What are the common pitfalls for businesses when they set out to make a new financial product?
They make what the clever people are excited to make and not what people actually want.
Is there any one thing that would make saving for your own future easier?
More time! Marrying Brad Pitt. But seeing as those two look like quite distant possibilities, I would like to see everything from bank accounts and insurance, to ISAs and pensions in one place. If we know what the entire picture looks like, it’s easier to plan.
Any one piece of advice to help Choices help our customers?
Think very carefully about what questions people really have and what they want to know. And how this differs at life stage.
We want help building the future of life savings. If you have someone you think would be good for us to talk to, why not let us know at simon_lyle@standardlife.com. Sign up to early access here
