Asian Money Matters: Part 4 - Balancing Wealth with Wellness
Welcome to the Fourth edition
Hello, and welcome to the fourth edition of Asian Money Matters! These articles focus on our relationship with money, with an emphasis on awareness as we journey through each of life’s key stages. Below is a summary of articles that have been explored, and to be explored:
This issue: Money matters during mid-adulthood years
Next issue: Money matters during retirement years
Each edition concludes with my personal reflections from experiences I have had, and a reflective exercise.
In Issue 3, the Spending Triangle (Physical, Emotional and Logical) was introduced, and how our emotional spending triggers play a dominant role in our financial decisions during earlier stages. In this issue, I will build upon this theme by exploring how Asian women navigate mid-adulthood with an emphasis on the impacts of wealth and wellness.
Wealth
Economic Empowerment
According to an article by Oxfam, Women’s economic empowerment is not solely about economic growth. To achieve meaningful economic empowerment requires transformative and systemic change across social, political and economic domains.
Societal barriers and expectations of women continue to impact our wealth and growth. Women’s salaries are still lower than men. According to the Office for National Statistics, women in the UK do 50% more unpaid domestic and care work than men. Although his work is critical for society, it comes at a heavy cost to women’s own wealth, earnings, career progression, and financial independence.
Women in most cases measure their economic growth by their level of personal savings. A healthy saving routine is vital to support financial security. UK women on average save £6,869.84, which is alarming compared to the average man, who saves twice as much.
As women, we continue to face complex barriers as we struggle to gain financial stability. A recent report by the Women’s Budget Group (WBG) highlighted a lack of progress, showing a 13% drop in Black and Asian Women’s Living Standards. The poorest of women experience the greatest reduction in their living standards than men. The report provides a clear correlation between income level, gender with the decline in economic standards.
Research indicates that ethnic minority women, have less avenues of support, fewer opportunities, and encounter “concrete ceilings” when pushing for career advancement, compared to the “glass ceilings” that white women reach to shatter.
Despite the barriers, and lack of real wealth increase in UK Asian women, women’s global investment wealth is expanding per a recent McKinsey’s report. The report surveyed 13,000 US and European investors which highlighted women as being increasingly recognised as the new face of wealth, but did not indicate what % of these women were Asian, and what % were from the UK. The authors of the study were women from US, Canada, and parts of Europe, but not the UK. The study noted how male wealth managers are failing to connect with female investors, and especially young women. The findings noted women’s expanding control over investable assets is transforming the landscape of European and US financial markets. In Europe, assets controlled by women grew from $4.6 trillion in 2018 to $6.6 trillion in 2023. McKinsey estimates that female-controlled assets will reach $11.4 trillion and 47 percent of all EU assets by 2030. These findings indicate that women on average are self-managing their financial investment portfolios, whilst men continue to pay wealth managers to manage their accounts.
The report found a the below combination of social, economic, demographic, and cultural trends to drive this rise of female-controlled wealth:
The social trend is an ongoing decline in marriage rates coupled with persistently high divorce rates. Women are more likely to marry later in life, less likely to marry at all, and more likely to divorce if they do marry, with the result that a growing share of single women have full financial autonomy.
The economic trend is the continued growth of women’s average earnings. As women continue to outpace men in educational attainment and access an increasing share of high-paying jobs, they are more likely to accrue and possess investable assets, regardless of marital status.
The demographic trend is the concentration of wealth among baby boomers combined with the lower average age of female spouses and women’s longer average life spans. These factors are contributing to a rapid increase in the number of affluent widows.
Finally, the cultural trend is a broad shift in attitudes about the role of women in managing their finances, both as individuals and jointly with their spouses. This trend is especially pronounced among women themselves, with the percentage of women who express confidence in their ability to make financial decisions increasing dramatically in recent years.
Women demonstrate unique financial behaviors and preferences, and these features are consistent over time:
Women value in-person financial advice
Women prefer stable investments with a focus on the long game
Women overall in the UK lag behind men by ~35% in wealth. This increases to ~42% by ages 45 to 64. A HSBC report found that in the UK, high-net-work women are often working as entrepreneurs - not as employees.
Global evolving attitudes point to women of all ages experiencing a remarkable rise in financial confidence. In Europe, the percentage of women who feel somewhat comfortable or totally comfortable making financial decisions rose from approximately 45 percent in 2018 to 67 percent in 2023 with millennial women driving the trend.
The Property Ladder
Historically a house was considered an asset for the purpose of providing a place for rest, eat and sleep. Unlike our parents, today’s generation is not satisfied with purchasing a house for life, but switching from house to house to keep up with the Jones’s - establishing a sense of achievement, and a level of prestige. Purchasing a house is no longer driven by practical requirements based on size and location, but also by lifestyle emotional needs such as look and feel.
Although traditionally houses were purchased by individuals, today more and more houses are purchased by investment companies, companies like Arrived.com that compete with individuals driving up prices and creating a new normal of corporate landlords. Companies driven by profit, and in return offering shares as a passive means to invest in the housing market. This points to the importance of parents educating their children to invest early in order to obtain a property. Shared properties by friends is also becoming more commonplace. Having said this, future generations are not as drawn to the property latter as they are with investing in other areas for investing.
Gov.UK reports the Indian ethnic group represent 68% of householders, and the largest householder group being White British at 70%.
Uswitch reports that the Sikh’s own most properties with mortgages, and Christian’s own most properties that are not mortgaged.
According to a report by Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparity people from ethnic minority backgrounds are more likely to live in households with persistent low income.
ONS reports that by the age of 34, around 2% of women are still living with their parents, compared to 11% of men.
On average a third of home buyers in 2022-23 were aged between 35 and 44 and almost two thirds of first time buyers received deposit support from family or friends. It has become, and continues to become increasingly difficult to save for a down payment without support of family and friends.
The Daily Mail reported that the average house is over eight times the average income.
Despite challenges women face, an article in Linkedin highlighted that the UK property market is witnessing a significant shift, with independent women becoming a growing segment of first-time home buyers. This demographic change reflects increasing economic independence and social evolution, as more women achieve higher levels of education and career success. As trends continue to grow, it is essential for policymakers, property developers, and financial institutions to recognize the unique needs of independent female buyers and provide them with the necessary resources and opportunities to succeed in the UK housing market.
Diversification
Asian women in the UK lack the confidence in exploring meaningful methods to build real wealth, and tend to tilt towards owning property as the main source to gaining wealth. With online financial tools, creating a balanced financial portfolio with a mix of investment products is much more accessible to all genders and income groups today than it was a generation ago, but as women, we still lack the confidence to use new investment techniques. Time spent exploring new tools and techniques can often feel overwhelming in an already stretched environment.
According to Aberdeen – a Global Investment company, retail exposure to equities among UK adults, excluding pensions, is the lowest across the G7 nations. Only 8% of wealth held by UK adults is in equities and mutual funds, four times lower than in the US. UK adults tend to be more comfortable to invest in property (50%) and cash (15%), rather than in investments. Building true wealth means diversification in areas other than property and cash.
Although ISA’s (Investment Savings Account) provide a good option to generate wealth, little has been done by the UK Government to educate women on how to effectively maximize the benefits. Programs like The British Asian Trust and The UK Government funded ASEAN Girls Education and Skills Programme are great initiatives in offering education to Asian women abroad, but yet little is done in the UK to aid Asian women in the UK. As women, it’s vital to learn and understand that the future of investing is reliant on self-empowerment, diversification, and researching all options diligently ensures money is invested in reputable and regulated exchanges.
Check out the exercise at the end of this article, which includes a link to broaden your understanding on a financial products.
Wellness
Going it Alone
Economic set-backs impact women more often than men. For example, COVID-19 worsened the financial equality for South Asian women in the UK, leading to an increase in health disparities. A quote noted “The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on the ways in which inequalities have been built into our system and how ‘race’ and class impact on outcomes, affecting people from cradle to grave.”
When it comes to separations and divorces, more often women are left to deal with these devastating effects alone, not just in dealing with family consequences, but also with the financial outcome. Unlike prior generations, divorce today is no longer defined by shame or family loyalty. Today the decisions to separate are often based on career ambitions, children and money. A BBC article reported that UK divorce rates were amongst the highest in the world, although more recently the overall rates are decreasing, but the Asian communities statistics divorce rates are climbing. The financial impacts of a divorce can leave Asian women both isolated and financially vulnerable - be it arranged or love marriages, divorce from South Asian communities continues to increase with 34% due to Differences and Intolerance between the couple, 27% due to In-Laws and Family Problems, 19% due to Affairs, 12% due to Arranged Marriages and 8% due to Work and Money Pressures.
Livingston (2014) found that 57% of divorced adults were women. Men are more likely to remarry than are women, and two-thirds of divorces are initiated by women (AARP, 2009). Divorce at midlife is more stressful for women. In the AARP (2009) survey, 44% of middle-aged women mentioned financial problems after divorcing their spouse, in comparison to only 11% of men reporting financial difficulties.
Single mothers face complex financial challenges and are at a higher risk of being left out of the workforce population. Lack of adequate access to affordable childcare, and flexible work arrangement, compounds financial challenges. In 2020, 14.7% of families in the UK were lone parent families.
Despite statistics, Asian divorced and single women represent a symbol of hope and optimism for future generations by persevering through barriers, and enabling positive changes to their own lives, as well as inspiring the transformation to the cultures they reside in.
Balancing Priorities
Faced with competing priorities, we often struggle to maintain family obligations, navigating work, and social priorities, which can result in placing our personal and financial welfare on the back-burner, or outsourcing it to others as we busy ourselves nurturing and supporting the needs of those around.
As we lean into our adult years, our spending shifts from external appearance (how we dress and look), to the needs of everyday realities of paying bills, careers, and providing for our families. To generate balance we resort to scheduling “social experiences” to balance our hectic schedules. And when financially stretched, we revert back to family and friends for guidance rather than taking small steps to learn new financial techniques - which requires a change in mindset.
Change starts with awareness of our patterns, and at first feels overwhelming, but over time change leads to growth, confidence, agility and independence.
My Personal Reflections
The emotional echoes of childhood
As I reflect on my adulthood experiences, I realise that many of my core decisions have been influenced by deep-rooted emotions shaped by my upbringing. In this section, I share two pivotal experiences: a career shift shaped by unresolved emotional needs, and a lesson learned in investing rooted in misplaced trust and a lack of tailored advice.
A career move sparked by insecurity
In my mid-30s, I left a comfortable 9-to-5 office job to join a high-paced global management consulting firm—a Fortune 500 company. The move wasn’t driven by money, but rather the allure of international travel and, more significantly, a passing comment from a friend about my perceived lack of career ambition. That single remark stirred emotions I hadn’t confronted, prompting a major life change.
The unexpected loss
A year after accepting the new job, I received a call from my sister that my mother was ill. Within the week I had arrived to the UK, and within days I experienced the passing of my mother. Losing my mother left a void and caused me to question my sense of purpose in life - the impact had a knock on effect on both my career and well-being.
Upon returning to Canada, I continued my work at the same company, but shortly after switched from employee to becoming a contractor. At the time, I did not fully understand the ramifications, my sense of needing validation overrode my insights relating to practical, financial, and emotional well-being. I soon began working obsessively under oppressive conditions to feel valued, and to provide myself a sense of purpose, a purpose I had lost with the passing of my mother.
Finding closure amid workplace injustice
Often we allow our sense of purpose to be defined by those around us. By sacrificing my well-being, working eventually become unmanageable.
At the end of my rope, I finally turned to both a friend and colleague whom encouraged me to take action. With the aid of legal support, I documented a complaint which I submitted at the height of the Me Too movement. The experience I had endured for almost two decades resulted in a career suppression, financial stagnation, and mental suffering. I was offered a non disclosure agreement to conclude the matter. The closure left me with a loss of identity and purpose, but by then I was beginning to realise that to find true purpose, I would need to search within. Through closure I was able to forge a new path, a path that meant reliance on myself alone for validation, a path I walk each day.
Reclaiming purpose from within
Reflecting back, what could I have done differently? Perhaps reaching out to more than one work colleague for guidance may have helped me understand objectively all the pro’s and con’s - but when emotions are raw they eventually find a pathway to disrupt what otherwise would be logical actions and rational decision-making process. Networking and researching is vital to support objectivity from a place of balance, rather than a place of emotion. The experience of my mother’s passing decreased the natural resilience that I had taken for granted during my earlier years, and since this experience my ability to effortlessly manage life’s ups and downs has required more awareness.
This journey taught me that true purpose cannot be externally defined. Through this painful process, I began to rely solely on myself for validation. I now walk a path rooted in self-worth, not external approval.
Cultural pressures and the need to please
Driven by the need for acceptance, and the avoidance of confrontation, as Asian women, each day we sacrifice our right to take ownership of our choices, our heath, and our emotional well-being in order to appease those around us. By speaking up, I redefined my worth as an Asian woman working amidst a landscape dominated by alpha white men, reclaiming my voice in an environment not built for women like me.
Investing lessons: a misguided start.
This second example relates to an experience on investing. Although I had initially considered investing in equities, but after reading a wealth management book written by a prominent female investment author, I opted to invest instead in low risk mutual funds and fixed-term products, which offered safe and predictable annual returns. Looking back, this approach might have been more suited for someone in a later cycle of life. Investment products are often re-evaluated once invested to diversify based on individual risk, and circumstances. Having said this, as women we tend to lean towards less risky investments than men.
A smarter, more informed strategy.
I have since diversified my portfolio, and only invest in what I feel will provide a return within the time-line I require access to my funds. But no matter how well we plan, and how solid an investment looks, in today’s global market we often are faced with turbulence, which requires a patient approach. When Covid-19 hit, and the day the Ukraine war broke the markets sank, panic can cause the untrained mind to sell, but true investing requires one to ride out volatility, and with diversification allows for cash on hand to re-invest when your ideal investment are trading at discounts. Of course, nothing is for certain - this is where risk tolerance and diversification are required - one should only invest in high risk products if prepared to accept a decline in value, or even possibly a complete loss.
Self Reflection Exercise
Next we explore a self-reflective exercise. You will need a quiet comfortable space, a journal, and a candle. The focus of this exercise is to awaken within you, your awareness, and inspire within you, your natural sense of empowerment. This exercise is focused on building your awareness of different investment types and tools.
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Embark in a 30 day challenge to build your understanding of various types of investing products, and how they can aid to supporting your journey of financial independence.
· With Gratitude, honour your ability to embark on this journey towards empowering yourself with awareness in taking small steps towards deepening your understanding.
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Sit quietly and close your eyes. When ready, with Awareness, bring open to one or two key experiences or triggers that you experienced relating to your investment strategy, and how this may have changed from your early adulthood years.
Write these experiences in your journal.
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Light a candle and sit silently for five minutes watching the flame burn.
Like a Window opens for fresh air, open your heart allowing the light of the candle to nourish you.
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Breath In: I am in Acceptance with all that is.
Pause.
Breath out: I let go of all that no longer serves me.
Repeat seven times.
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Feel unconditional Kindness towards each part of your body, thanking it for its support.
Feel unconditional Kindness towards your brain for its efforts to support you in navigating your day with clarity and wisdom.
Pause as you feel your emotions, accept them with Kindness, no matter how and when they arise, knowing that they appear and disappear without warning. Accept them, yet know that you have the ability to observe your emotions, and to navigate outside them to create a new pattern that serves you.
With your eyes closed, acknowledge with gratitude, knowing that it is truly you, not your body, not your brain, nor your emotions, that is the true navigator of your life journey.
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Place your feet on the ground and Engage, feeling the grounding aspects of mother earth.
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Journal your insights with curiosity, love and acceptance.
As women, we struggle to gain equal opportunities within our place of work, our homes and communities, and the broader systems in which we reside - but mainly within ourselves. Our definition of wealth continues to evolve as we persevere through life’s journey. With awareness and understanding, we can better equip ourselves to make informed choices driven not by emotion, but by our gift of insightful wisdom. Learning from those that stood before us, and teaching future generations, we can ensure that together we are able to thrive and navigate with confidence as we break through each barrier and generate our rightful treasure of wealth and wellness.
The following is a quote by Ghandi:
“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.”
Your feedback on the Asian Money Matters series is welcomed at support@ambercommunity.net
References:
https://www.raisin.co.uk/newsroom/better-saving-money/
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/the-new-face-of-wealth-the-rise-of-the-female-investor
https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/housing/owning-and-renting/home-ownership/latest/
https://www.uswitch.com/mortgages/first-time-buyer-statistics/
https://www.aberdeenplc.com/en-gb/news/all-news/tell-sid-report-press-release
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4669284.stm
https://www.desiblitz.com/content/soaring-rate-of-british-asian-divorce
