Financial independence is not achieved just by making enough money. It starts much more simply: by understanding and being involved in household administration. Being aware of things like the mortgage or rent, gas and electricity, loans, benefits, insurance, taxes and other important financial documents. Knowing what bills are due. In an ideal world, partners would manage their household accounts together, but in practice, things are a little different. According to research by Nibud, in almost 70 percent of households, one of the two partners takes care of the entire financial administration. For people over 50, in a traditional relationship, this is predominantly the man.
In short, almost three-quarters of the Dutch population - not only women - need to make an effort to gain a more equal grip on family finances. However, the question of how to encourage such a thing is not easy to answer. And on top of that, Naima Azough says, people with a migration background and those educated in trades have extra difficulty with finance. “Finance, and anything else with documents often generates anxiety. Institutions like the government, banks and pension funds can feel intimidating.”
Naima Azough knows what she’s talking about: she grew up in a Moroccan-Dutch working-class family. She herself did go to college and subsequently worked as a program producer for the IKON, De Balie and the VPRO, among others. From 2002 to 2010 she was a member of the House of Representatives for GroenLinks. Today, Naima is an independent consultant and partner at Colourful People, an executive search, training and consulting firm specializing in diversity.
“I think we should not underestimate how challenging things like taxes, insurance and pensions are for many people,” she says. “How scary those things are for them. I see that with my own parents, too. And that is related partly to having a migration background, but much more so to education level and social status.”
New insights
So here is a task for all organizations involved in financial services. For example, by providing more help, more education. By reducing barriers.
Naima: “But when we talk about financial services, we usually look mostly at banking. And not enough at pension funds. Because in my experience, when we talk about pension funds at all, it’s either about whether or not ethical choices are being made in investments, or about pension benefits that are declining. I really enjoyed hearing more about collectivity, caring and mutual solidarity from you, Annette. Those are fundamental values. I think you can get a lot closer to people with those values alone. And certainly with people who have a lower income or are less educated. They want to have confidence. They are also looking for that.”
Annette: “I think that’s a great insight. I already knew that pension funds occupy a special position within financial services, of course, but thanks to you I am even more aware of that now. We have the right DNA, we do it for the collective, we come from solidarity. We have a lot of helpful and caring employees. And, unlike banks, we have a client contact center and the ability to maintain it. But I realize now that when we send a letter to a participant, from our perspective, we feel that we are sharing information. That we are involving someone. But in reality, some people are intimidated by a letter like that. They perceive it differently. So how can we better connect our DNA and our target groups? That’s an important question we need to ask ourselves.”
