There is no shortage of financial advice out there. Much of it, however, is targeted at those in their 30s through to retirees, detailing anything from how to manage their mortgage through to how to make the most of their super.
Genuinely helpful financial advice for millennials, on the other hand, is a little harder to come by. Money advice for millennials is typically some variation of, live with your parents until you’re 40 and never buy anything remotely fun (ahem, avocado toast) and you will be able to afford a property.
Aiming to fill the gap is serial entrepreneur and financial advisor Sarah Riegelhuth, whose Gen Y-focused financial advisory firm Wealth Enhancers has expanded into online education with the launch of Wealth Creation for Gen Y, a course aimed at – as the name suggests – helping Gen Y out with their finances.
As Riegelhuth explained it, “It is essentially everything you need to know to manage your money, and create a basic financial plan. It’s everything we should have been taught at school, but weren’t.”
With Wealth Enhancers becoming a B Corp in 2015, the four week course, available free, is part of the company’s social responsibility program.
The idea to turn the firm’s work into an online course came, Riegelhuth said, as she and cofounder Finn Kelly realised they had to go beyond the company’s current operations in order to scale.
“[Finn] and I started Wealth Enhancers a few years ago now and our purpose was and remains to turn our generation, Gen Y, into the first financially free generation in Australian history. That’s a huge goal and we realised there was no way we could reach every single Gen Y just through our physical business and membership,” Riegelhuth explained.
Beyond the limitations of the physical scope of the business, Riegelhuth explained Wealth Enhancers is targeted at a very specific part of the millennial mark – “high-achieving, high-potential professionals, entrepreneurs, and sports and entertainment professionals” – and is in turn cost-prohibitive to many.
“We know this. We do what we do well, and provide a lot of value to our ideal target market, however we want to be able to make a far bigger impact than just our membership base,” she said.
The framework of the course is based on Riegelhuth’s book Get Rich Slow, focused on getting one’s finances in order and under control.
“Gen Y are given a hard rap for their financial responsibility. They spend too much on avo toasties, don’t move out of home, will never buy their own property, have credit card debt, and don’t stay in one job for more than a year,” Riegelhuth said.
“But while that may represent some, it certainly doesn’t take note of the savvy Gen Ys who want to achieve financial independence and create wealth, but perhaps just feel too overwhelmed with their current situation and don’t know where to start.”
To supplement the video course, the team has created a Facebook group to bring participants together and enable them to share their learnings with each other, ask questions, and as Riegelhuth put it, “generally discuss money, something that has traditionally been such a taboo subject”.
The launch of the course comes as the online learning market continues to grow: incorporating the technologies that power online learning, a recent report estimated the global e-learning market will grow to US$325 billion by 2025.
Wealth Enhancers will look to leverage this growth, with its aim to get 10,000 participants through the course before looking to expand its online education.
Image: Sarah Riegelhuth. Source: Supplied.
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