Adrienne Rush, financial planner and representative of Bendigo Financial Planning, talks about the importance of women standing on their own two feet financially.
Tell us about the Wealthy Wise Women movement
Through a networking forum I belong to I work very closely with one of my referral partners – a business coach. This is all outside of Bendigo Bank. And we both shared the same passion to look at increasing awareness and security amongst women. So we agreed that we’d run an event called Wealthy Wise Businesswomen – I play around with the title now.
We ran an event back in July, focusing on small businesswomen initially. She talked to them about how to increase your bottom line, and talked about the business coaching side. And I talked about financial security, the importance of ‘a man is not a plan’ and making sure you can stand on your own two feet.
It’s all about increasing financial literacy, education, etc. amongst women. It was very intimate, it was women only and we shared a great night. And from there it’s amazing how this network increased.
To give you an example, two women from that event who didn’t know each other ran another event together. They invited me to that, and then I met somebody else. And that somebody else is going to be a speaker at my next event.
So my next event, I decided ‘that’s it, I’m focusing on this, and I’ve decided to drive this thing’. So I’ve decided to run this three times a year.
The next event’s called Wealthy Wise Stylish Women. I’ve got the same business coach who’s going to talk about goals and the importance of having some direction in your life; I’ll be talking about how to be a ‘superwoman’ – super as in superannuation – how to build your nest egg and your financial security; and then I’ve got an image consultant coming in to talk to women about how to dress for success.
The registration fee is split and goes to two charities. One of the charities is Fitted for Work, so I’m also doing a drive to collect business attire on the night as well – so encouraging women to spring clean their wardrobes.
The other one is Women’s Health West. I started speaking to them over a year ago and told them I’d be interested in helping them out with a bit of pro bono work. So we raise money for that, and I’ve specifically said that I wanted it to go to a financial literacy program. That’s partially government funded, and there are tough times at the moment.
To give you an example, I ran a workshop for women from the Congo. And the workshop was around buying a home in Australia. I took them through the process, and used a case study and told stories about why we do it, and how we can do it.
At the end of the event, the interpreter made a beautiful African lunch for us. That was a great event, and they got a lot out of it.
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