Finance coach Ellie Austin-Williams: ‘Money is complex and emotional – that’s why we need to talk about it’
When she couldn’t find any money advice that was relevant for young people – much less women – Ellie Austin-Williams decided to retrain as a finance coach and set up a content channel of her own. Four years and many thousands of followers later, she tells us about her career epiphany, why money equals empowerment, and shares simple, effective ways to get more in control of yours
When it comes to money, finance coach, author and podcaster Ellie Austin-Williams is all about getting people to talk. In fact, her hugely successful site and social channel is called ‘This Girl Talks Money’ and via her relatable, practical and easy-to-understand content she’s “opening up the conversation around earning, spending, saving and managing money” and helping thousands of financially challenged young people in the process.
Talking to young people about money in a relevant, relatable way was a huge part of Ellie’s decision to set up her blog in the first place. She was living in London and in her first job as a trainee solicitor when she started to get interested in finance. “It was the first time after years of student living that I’d had a proper salary and I wanted to balance having fun with making good decisions for my future.” But when she started looking for guidance and advice, Ellie was frustrated by what she found.
“Everything seemed to be written for people my parent’s age, which wasn’t relatable,” she recalls. “The tone was very negative - everything seemed designed to make you feel bad about spending money – and bad about most money decisions,” she explains. Plus there wasn’t really any content that tackled the specific issues affecting young people. “There was no conversation about managing your own money and investing in the future early on in your career.”
Ellie also noticed a lot of sexism in the way women were presented in popular culture when it came to their finances. “Books like Confessions of a Shopaholic or the Carrie Bradshaw character in the Sex and the City series created unhelpful stereotypes – though actually research shows that men are just as likely as women to overspend. Conversely, male characters were presented as in control of and confident with money.”
Confused as to why the needs of women her age were being ignored, Ellie decided to take things into her own hands, training as a certified financial coach and setting up her site and social channel with an aim of becoming a ‘financial wing woman’ and ‘digging deep into all the financial adulting school forgot’.
Tackling financial inequity
