Despite the differences in the backgrounds of the women that Pike and Yu serve through their respective organisations, there are similarities in what women want.

Enrich’s introductory financial literacy workshop first asks domestic workers to identify their goals, which usually range from wanting to set up a business to buying a house, travelling more or being able to stop worrying so much about money. “Every now and then we do this workshop with corporate partners,” says Pike, “and the goals are the same.

The difference is that domestic workers are not included in the financial systems, so once they start to work towards these goals, they have so many more barriers.” These can include the debt they take on to work overseas, a lack of access to financial services and extortionate fees for loans.

The financial world is certainly not built for domestic workers, but it’s not really built for women in any economic group either. Men have traditionally been the breadwinners at whom products and services have been targeted. “Women aren’t engaging in financial services,” says Yu. “The goal is [to] make the pathway more inclusive, more engaging.”

“I think it’s really time to have a world where financial services are designed by women for women,” adds Pike, who wants financial products and services to address every type of woman at their various life stages so they can plan and prepare for their futures.

Many of the women who both Yu and Pike work with express a wish to have gained a financial education earlier, particularly as a decision to address their financial knowledge often comes at a point where there’s an emergency or challenge. Many of those who come to Enrich, for example, are facing crippling debt or have been scammed and are looking for a way out, while Yu sees something similar in that there’s a crisis point—perhaps a chronic illness, divorce or partner’s death.

“How do we ensure that it’s a behaviour that’s throughout your life and not just at those trigger points?” asks Yu. “We want to have money as a constant engagement in a woman’s life, so it’s something we can manage with the right attitude, the right tools and the right financial literacy.” 

Pike adds, “And that’s why it can be empowering. Sometimes financial literacy is talked about in a very negative way because of [its association with] these crises, but actually financial literacy is the height of empowerment because then you get to decide how you want to live your life. With the knowledge and the skills, the woman who’s divorced can make those decisions; the woman in an abusive situation can be empowered to leave it; the woman in a job she doesn’t like who wants to go start a business is empowered to do that because she knows how to manage that money. For me, women’s empowerment is about being able to make your own choices. And I think financial literacy really enables women to be able to do that and create their own journeys.”

So, are there any financial literacy fundamentals that every woman should know, whatever their background or situation? “Pay yourself first,” says Yu. “Make sure your needs are met.”

Pike agrees. “You can’t talk about financial literacy without saying that. And it comes back to people discovering this too late, where they do all the other things first and pay themselves last.

“Invest in yourself, through education and learning,” she adds. “If you are empowered to make your own choices and decisions, you can keep learning. Financial literacy is not a static thing—the world is changing, and you have to keep up to date. And also, make it a habit. Automate your savings, for example; check in with yourself at different points in the year.”

“Wealth is built through doing those ‘boring’ things like automating,” says Yu. “And it’s built over time.” The sooner one starts both learning and executing, the better.

This story is part of our Front & Female In Conversation column, which appears monthly in the Tatler print magazine and is a series of discussions between women who are making an impact in their respective regions and fields.

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