Money Talks

Christine Yu, co-founder of financial education platform Sophia and non-profit Girls Just Wanna Have Fund$, which is focused on closing the gender investing gap, and Lucinda Pike, executive director of Enrich, which empowers migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong to achieve financial literacy and manage their resources for a better future, discuss the financial barriers women face and the potential financial education has to empower

- Rachel Duffell

"Financial literacy can be life-saving" says Lucinda Pike, executive director of award-winning economic empowerment NGO Enrich. "Think about a woman who is in an abusive relationship: if she has financial literacy and the knowledge of control and choice over her money, she can leave [that] relationship. At Enrich, I see the power of that for women, who are able to change the trajectory of their lives. Financial literacy is a life skill which women do not have enough access to."

Limited financial literacy is not the purview of only those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Christine Yu, the co-founder of financial education platform Sophia, spent more than a decade working in global banking, advising companies, hedge funds, asset managers and pension funds on money matters, yet that didn't mean she felt as comfortable and confident when it came to her own finances.

"There was this assumption that I didn't need to focus on my own education," says Yu. "The reality is, for a lot of women in finance, [there's a feeling of] 'I should know this stuff' and it's not the case, because it's a very different thing to be thinking about it for yourself."

"Across the wealth stratum, [financial literacy] is still not something that is perceived as essential. [But,] if you don't have this knowledge, you can't have a full, healthy life across all fronts," continues Yu. She ultimately wants to see the topic being taught in schools, and financial products and services that target a younger market, such as custodial accounts and children's savings bonds, made more widely available in Asia, so that individuals can begin their financial literacy journeys earlier.