Ollie Smith: We were on the ground today at Morningstar Investment Conference UK 2022, and I asked my panelists about the future of financial advice. Joining me is a real money advisor and real life TikToker, Alex Stedman.
Alex, can you talk to me a little bit about going viral on social media and be specific, TikTok?
Alex Stedman: Yes. So there is a lot of noise on the Internet that can be classified into two types of noise, good noise and bad noise. You can find a lot of people making videos, giving bad advice, bad leads, telling you to put all your money into this particular library, for pieces. Nothing like it. And there are some really good tips out there, but they can’t just be put together to get the viewer there.
So I think there are a couple of examples of this where I wanted to illustrate the concept of community growth, and I said in terms of perspective from a child pension, a SIP of a child you can arrange, a junior. SIP, and you can deposit up to £ 2,880 a year before the government goes up. And if you take that for the first 10 years of a child’s life and put him or her in a standard fundraiser that has a historical average of about 7% per annum, then in time That child grows up and rests, worth more than £ 1 million. It was compiled by several websites and a government newspaper. So I think that person was able to cut back on the basics because it showed how to become rich, and people wanted to know how to invest and make money.
One thing I did was talk about pencils with live ISAs. So he asked me – who is better? And I’ve seen people go on the whiteboard and point out the difference and write down the basics and the tax breaks and everything. But I approached it in the form of real value. So what’s the difference on the bottom line of your salary? What’s the difference there? And it seems to be related to people. And so that was cut, and I got some comments from people saying that they would review their pension and start arranging things for it, which made me very happy.
OS: Yes, of course. And as for what you are saying on the field about readiness, financial readiness, you have described yourself as a thinker. And given so much noise, good and bad on the internet, why do you think financial literacy, in general, will go up rather than fall?
US: I think there has been a lot of knowledge around it over the last ten years. I think someone like Martin Lewis at MoneySavingExpert is very important to people. He no longer talks about money management; he worked hard in financial education. He encouraged financial education in the schools. So now, we see that education, even though it’s wrapped up in math lessons, is still going on there. And the ability to walk on your phone and have the whole world of information at your fingertips too. People are well aware – I see a lot of young people asking some very smart questions. They are thinking about the economy. They are thinking about growing up at a very young age before I know it. And they are asking those questions, and they are looking for the answers for them online. And when you gather all of that, I often see an increase in financial knowledge, and an increase in financial literacy.
OS: That is a serious case. I think, I believe in you. For more information on financial intelligence and the results of our analysis at Morningstar Investment Conference UK 2022 today, check out Morningstar.co.uk. Until next time, I was Ollie Smith for Morningstar.
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