If you’ve ever wanted to understand your personal finances better, you won’t want to miss this episode! We were joined by Abigail Foster, an ACA Chartered Accountant, One Young World Ambassador and the Founder of Elent, to talk about financial education. We touched on topics like teaching children about money and building your own emergency fund.   

So why should you be listening in?  

You can hear Rob and Abigail discussing: 

• Elent’s founding story  

• Common financial misconceptions  

• Your impact on children’s view of money  

• The stigma around money and finances  

• Financially preparing for university  

Transcript

Robert Hanna 00:01 

Welcome to the legally speaking podcast. I’m your host Rob Hanna. This week I’m delighted to be joined by Abigail Foster. Abigail is an ACA chartered accountant and the founder of Ireland a financial education platform. She is also a One Young World ambassador. Abigail is passionate about educating individuals and the next generation on finances, described as having a mad obsession with people understanding their own personal finances. Abigail has appeared on LBC Sky News, Channel Five and ITV. Abigail has a weekly voice on the Sunday morning show on LBC, recapping news topics of the week and covering the importance of financial education. So a very big warm welcome Abigail. Hello, good to have you with us. And before we dive into all your amazing experiences and projects to date, we do have a customary icebreaker question here on the legally speaking podcast, which is on a scale of one to 1010 being very real. What would you rate the hit TV series suits in terms of its reality of the law? If you’ve seen it? 

Abigail Foster 01:11 

I have seen it I would have to say with absolutely no legal background. I want to put it at eight. Because do you know what? twofold one, the outfits that they all wear? I really like I just I’m really hoping that that’s what everyone is wearing. Everyone looks like killer every single day. And to the long hours. I do know for my friends that do work in law, a very reflective of what’s actually happening in real life. 

Robert Hanna 01:39 

And with that, you know, fair enough, you know, they always say real life and reality and other things are sometimes very different. We’re going to move swiftly on to talk all about you and your career. So would you mind telling our listeners a bit about your background and career journey?   

Abigail Foster 01:54 

Of course. So I going way back I studied accountancy at university. And then when I left uni, I went into practice as an accountant, so very much doing kind of Mr. And Mrs. Smith bookkeeping, then transferred into the world of industry within accountancy and worked for the glossy magazine world. So I started off at Conde Nast, which owns like house and garden and Vogue and GQ. Then I did a step to Hearst, which is identical really in terms of the branding. So Hearst have like Harper’s Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, etc. And I worked there as an accountant for years and loved my time in the glossy magazine industry, I qualified at Hearst ACA, and I realised that I wasn’t really using my accountancy for the way I wanted to, which is when I set up, Elon, yeah, and 

Robert Hanna 02:45 

We need to talk about that, because I’m a big fan of what you’re doing. And would you mind telling our listeners a bit about why you want it set up in more detail and explain what it is that you’re aiming to achieve? 

Abigail Foster 02:55 

So Elon is a financial education company that is the kind of umbrella and I set up Ellen to teach finance in schools, that was my one aim, I was going to fix all the inequality gaps we felt in society by teaching in schools, big game, but that was where I was going. And I started just teaching in sixth forms. Specifically, I was kind of aiming at females and trying to balance his like gender pay gap by teaching finance. So next generation, then slowly, but surely, we’ve added on from there. So we not only teach all schools, so I personally teach from year one to 13. So the whole year groups, and then we now deliver for corporates, because obviously it’s corporates that desperately need this for their employees and their well being because we all know that financial, mental health and our mental health go hand in hand, and supporting people’s financial well being is just so paramount. And then very, very recently, we have within Ireland built an app to facilitate both those things. So an app that is a financial education, kind of BESTie in your pocket, and it gives you all those, all the knowledge you wish you were taught at school directly to you as an adult, with the added benefit that it has a one for one model, eventually we hope to get this into schools all over the UK. Yeah. 

Robert Hanna 04:12 

And I have absolutely no doubt that you will you will achieve that ambition. I want to talk a little bit more about the workshops that you run, particularly at schools, universities and in the workplaces. Could you give a bit more insights into those sort of workshops you run and the types of topics and content you cover? I think it’ll be super beneficial for our listeners. 

Abigail Foster 04:33 

Of course. So when it comes to schools, we’ll start there and work our way up the age group. So as you can imagine, when you are teaching in junior schools, you’re very much covering the basics, but I think the really important basics like what a bank accounts, what is money? How does it all interlink and you’d be amazed the amount of young people especially once you start getting into, you know age 910 that can explain to you what inflation is. They might not understand the word but they know what’s happening and they under standard cost of living. And then by the senior school years and your final years in sixth form or college, everything in the kitchen saying I don’t leave anything of that curriculum. So we are talking payslips pensions, understanding how the jargon around investing comes about everything and then obviously building on from that workplace is again the same. It depends how long I have with the people I’m talking to you. But if we had a single session, I would be throwing how to read your own pace it understanding how the investing world works, and how it can work for you. And then basics, like saving and budgeting that are often kind of taboo and not really talks about. 

Robert Hanna 05:41 

Yeah, I love that. I think you’re right, in terms of particularly I look back to when I first started my career, I wish someone had sort of taught me through just the absolute basics, you know, in terms of, you know, some things that you know, if you start early can make a huge impact on your overall wealth. Particularly later on in life. I want to talk a bit about engagement, getting people really thoroughly engaged with these workshops, how do you go about doing that, particularly with the next generation in terms of really getting them to get to grasp with understanding their own and learning about their own personal finances? Or any tips or strategies you adopt? 

Abigail Foster 06:18 

Oh, make it relatable, always. So when it comes to To be honest, this isn’t just for schools. This is everyone. This is when I teach in adults as well, I have I have a question that I ask to the people I’m in front of and I say What celebrity worked with Uber a few years ago now, before I think they were even in Europe, and got paid for her work with Uber in shares versus cash. And spoiler alert, the answer is Beyonce. But the reason that becomes really like engaging is because everyone can relate to be honest, everyone knows who that is and how she fits into your life. But not often. Can we do that with investing? Because usually when I ask people to tell me key words or phrases around investing, you hear, you know, Warren Buffett, Tesla like footsie 100, and you never really hear celebrities or popular culture, so trying to bring in something interesting that they know into that world. And it just works the same with all finance, make it relatable, break it down. And my biggest pet peeve as well is jargon I cannot stand when someone says they are teaching finance and then continues to use just acronyms and jargon the entire time with Edwin without ever really explaining it. It’s a it’s a real frustration of mine because it puts people off and makes people feel like they aren’t able to learn which isn’t true. 

Robert Hanna 07:38 

No, it’s true. And you know, to my mentor said to me one, if you confuse people, you lose people. And I think if you’re going to use that sort of jargon, you’re absolutely going to lose people. And then the other point is, before you earn you must learn. So if you drop the L from earn its pounds, add the L to earn it spells learn, right, and it’s also true. So it is really important stuff because we work very hard. Lots of people work hard. And really understanding this is only going to complement the great work you’re doing hopefully give you a far better overall financial health and you know, well being and all the things that go attached with with money. And obviously financial education generally, let’s talk about educating individuals at different ages a little bit more. When do you think children should start learning about money? You know, is it if they’re ever too early age to start learning? And At what ages? Should individuals learn about different topics you’ve mentioned there, you give some sort of relatability? But what about sort of bank accounts, pensions, credit scores, you know, creating a financial plan, give us some sort of milestones in your your head?  

Abigail Foster 08:39 

Okay, I actually don’t think there’s a too young age because and I reason I say this, because I appreciate, you’re not going to be sitting with your six month old child talking about the Bank of England, I get that. But what you do need to be aware of with all of your young, the young people in your life is their thoughts, feelings and beliefs around money because they are picking those up from you. So if you are around someone that is under the age of seven, let’s say because apparently that is the age with which your money mindset is set. You are influencing the way they view money and the way they think about money. So when we use those kind of scarcity mindset, phrases, like money doesn’t grow on trees, or money is the root of all evil, which is a bit of a dramatic one. But you see where we’re going, you need to be really careful with who’s listening, because I have a niece and she’s two and a half and she’s wonderful. And she can recite back to you exactly what you’re saying she might not understand it. But the words coming out of her mouth, she will absorb. And so I would say it’s never too young to think about you might not be explaining the concepts, but just be aware of what you’re using, how you’re phrasing your words around those young people. And then building on that, like you said, when do you bring in understanding bank accounts, I would say bank account savings budgeting very much to be done in those junior years and I wish it was being taught in junior school because then when it comes to the six For most senior school years, all you need to do is do a building block on top of that prior knowledge. But what we often find is that because there’s no building blocks, we go years never talking about money or finance. When it comes to six forms, I have to go through all of that essential stuff to start, and it leaves me less time to go through the things that are about to impact them once they turn 18. So yeah, I would say, building blocks in those junior school years, I would love to see it as part of curriculum across the board. But who knows? And then adding on to that, I’d say pensions, you could probably start to bring that up or around 13 years old and start to explain the kind of future you concept. But I do get it like, you know, pensions and pay slips are quite dry. It’s very hard to make that. What’s the word make it interesting, but you just got to give it a go. And you’ve got to also weave in the interesting bits throughout the content for sure.  

Robert Hanna 10:54 

Yeah, the more people can relate to it. And I love that you talk about building blocks, because I talked about that from my sort of legal recruitment hat and people’s careers, you know, even if you’re a trainee lawyer or trainee solicitor and you’re thinking about trying to get into it, like what are some of the skills that you could occupy in certain jobs or roles that are kind of building blocks, that’s only going to enhance your overall employability, similar to what you’re saying in terms of equipping people with the tools and practical tips they’re going to need for financial well being, the more that you can learn early on and build on these and build them and stack them and stack them and stack them the far better off, you’re going to be in the long term. Okay, you’ve touched on your app, but I want to talk about it a little bit more. So it assists individuals with their financial well being tailored just for them. So it’s not just a generic thing. This is very, very personal, which I’m cutting gleaming from the conversations we’ve been having. So this includes daily financial insights, bite sized learning modules, live events, webinars, interactive quizzes. So tell us more about those areas, and just generally a little bit more about the app.  

Abigail Foster 11:51 

Yeah, this is exactly what I wanted to see when I was learning finance, and hilariously was the I did my ACA, but still got to the end of it. And I was like, Why did no one explain how to read a payslip, like this should surely should be like 101. But yeah, the app, we just wanted to make it really friendly. But also, you know, you can dive into the modules that you want to dive into, you know, for instance, if you’ve already got a very thorough knowledge on your budget, and you’ve got that tap down brilliant, you don’t need to necessarily take that module on. But there’ll be tonnes of modules in the app that you don’t quite understand. And you can work your way through those slowly. The webinars are there for that kind of one to one interaction effectively with me and understanding. And then the insights are, I saw, I love to do this thing on my social media, where I sum up the news of the day, often finances and make it in some way relatable to the people reading. And we’ve done that with the insights to kind of take one of those news topics and dive into a bit more. So for instance, you know, let’s just say the Bank of England base rate is about to come out tomorrow, I would tend to create an insight around that and say, Look, this bank of England base rates coming out, do you understand that these nine Monetary Policy Committee members actually impact your mortgage rates or your savings rates because the decisions they make have a direct impact on those rates. So it’s a way to, you know, take all of the finance education that we can get everywhere, and just consolidate it down into like, bite sized pieces, but hand deliver it to you, which is what I love, and we’re constantly building new features as well on the app, like open banking and having, you know, more interaction with our community. 

Robert Hanna 13:31 

And that’s the word isn’t it community, the power of community is so strong and I love the fact that you’re talking about you know, bite size digestible, so I believe that then reduces the, the overwhelm, you know, sometimes if people are getting all of this information, you know, it can be overwhelming, and then you get really confused, you get really stressed get really worried really panic, whereas we can break it down, so people can really understand it, they’re more likely to take action as well. Let’s talk more about your journey. If you’ve had a super impressive journey, you know, you are an ACCA chartered accountant, which is an easy thing to do. But how have your experiences shaped your approach to founding? And what does it stand for? Because I love it. 

Abigail Foster 14:10 

I love it. Oh, Ellen stands for elegant and intelligent is a combination of the two words and it was just something that meant a lot to me. I really wanted to create a business that was intelligent LED. So you know, intelligence comes at the core of everything we’re trying to do. We’re trying to level up everyone to understand more personal finance and commercial really, as well. But elegant, because actually, I’m not going to like steer away from the fact I’m very I’m quite feminine. I lean into it. And I love that and I think I think finance needs an elegant touch. I think there’s been too many years of aggressive FinTech and actually, we could do with some elegance to this and a better class. So my ACA was fifth Well, four years almost of the hardest exams I’ve ever done. And if you want to build resilience, definitely do the ACA because as it will beat you down, and especially when you’re someone that I didn’t pass them all first time, I definitely had a few retakes, and those retakes if you want to build resilience, like I said, try a accountancy retake because it is brutal. Then also from my career as an accountant working in practice, I got to work with some incredible women throughout my career, specifically, just incredible people in general and spirit more specifically at Hearst when I was there, they more specifically at Hearst, the team, were constantly asking us for more so my stakeholders, so I had stakeholders that worked in events, and digital and licencing. And these were all key stakeholders in the business that needed to speak to me about finance. But often there was this like barrier because it didn’t really know what they were asking for, or we weren’t very good explaining why we needed, you know, budget and why we needed to know the actuals and things. And so, when I was at Hearst, I realised even more prevalent was the lack of financial awareness between employees and the finance department. And actually, we should be bridging that as well. Like, we should be helping people within the business understand how they fit into the p&l, because obviously, we’re constantly asking managers and directors, you know, report your final figures to us, here’s your budget, almost telling them what to do. But actually, we need them to also understand how do they fit into the revenue line? How do they fit into the cost line? What did they do the impacts of business, because sometimes when businesses get so large, the employees within them lose sight of where they sit, and I think if you could explain to them how they fit in, you might see a nice, a nice change to your revenue line.  

Robert Hanna 16:46 

Yeah, and I love that approach as well. But it’s also allows people to see the direct value and impact that they’re having to the organisation. And I think that can also be a real motivator for people because, you know, it’s always good to say, you know, what gets measured gets done, right, so people can see like the metrics and what’s happening, I think, I think that’s a really nice way to, to empower and motivate people. Okay, let’s talk about misconceptions. Because there’s lots out there and we could do a whole separate podcast, I’m sure. On misconceptions, but what are some of the common ones when dealing with personal finances you see?  

Abigail Foster 17:20 

Okay, first one is that your pay slip is not your responsibility. That’s a real common misconception. People assume that their payslip is the responsibility of their payroll department or HR and that its responsibility is even above that of HMRC to get right, it’s not your payslip your responsibility. If you are not reading your piece of every month. I don’t even know I don’t even know how to start this and be like, please do please just read your piece it because it can be some of the most basic stuff on there that can go wrong. I’ve seen payslips with people on wrong tax codes all the time, people on wrong student loan plans, which has a huge impact that happens a lot to young people as well, because we have different student loan plans in the UK from plan one to five effectively. And if you are on the wrong one, it could determine you paying the wrong amount. And like I said tax codes being wrong means over under paying tax, you know and underpaying whilst it sounds great HMRC are going to find out and they are going to give you an ISIL bill, which we don’t love. And everything in between just understanding things like year to date meaning tax year today. Not a lot of people realise that tax year and calendar year are different. So yeah, I would say common misconception is that the pace it doesn’t need to be open don’t need to bother looking at it because it will be right when actually it’s not because if something’s wrong, for instance, your tax code, I talk about this a lot. If your tax code is wrong, it is your responsibility to contact HMRC you have to tell them it’s wrong and say why is it not? The standard 1257 l and for most people, if it is wrong, HMRC will come back to you and say we’re sorry, here’s a new one, we’ll sort this correct it. But for some obviously, you could go years being on the wrong tax code, and it ends up causing a bit of it causes a bit of an issue for yourself. But like I said, standard UK tax code is wanting five seven l big caveat here. Obviously, if you are a higher additional earner and you’re earning over 100,000, you start to lose your personal allowance. So that once you five, seven, the number element of the tax code will start to drop because the personal allowance gets reduced to if you are seeing a change to your tax code. Once you get into the 100,000 and above salary bracket. It’s not necessarily wrong. It’s just the change that’s happening. But for many, many people that are obviously starting off their career, you know, still under the 100,000 gross income, you should be seeing 1257 Owl as a standard tax code. And if you’re not, please get it checked.  

Robert Hanna 19:51 

There you have it folks. And you’re right and I think I say this on every episode that we record if it’s meant to be it’s up to me and it’s taken personal accountability like you So you can’t point the finger necessarily, if there is something wrong with your payslip, you’ve got to go on and sort it and be responsible for that. So you gave some really good insights into these things. Because you don’t want to be on the wrong tax code. You don’t want to be paying the wrong things. And you want to make sure it’s right. So yeah, really get that sort of self accountability. And be in groups like hobbies and getting communities like Abby’s if you’re not sure how to read these things, and get the education even more to ensure that you really understand what you need to be looking for, and all of that good stuff. Okay. Well, thanks for that super helpful. Let’s talk a little bit about taboos and stigmas, because some people might be embarrassed to talk about money, and finances. So how would you encourage a more positive open conversation on that particular topic? 

Abigail Foster 20:46 

I would start small and start talking about others. Because often what happens is we talk about, we’re worried about talking your own personal finance, because there has been that taboo for years that like it’s not appropriate to talk about your own personal finance, it’s definitely not appropriate to ask, like what salary someone’s on that kind of thing. But what can be a good bridge is, like I said, the like the comedy value of talking about how Beyonce got paid in shares versus cash, you know, there the ways we can start to talk about finance in light hearted, but still really important ways. Because you’re subconsciously going to think, oh, okay, well, if Beyonce can, you know, get paid in shares, I wonder if I can never get paid and shares and what that looks like, and you start to bridge the gap. And having those conversations with friends and family is really important. I am the first to ask people if they have any finance questions, but I am a bit of a weirdo when it comes to that. But that’s not the norm. But I wonder if we could see a trend and more people being like, oh, let’s add, you know, finance into the conversation as well as sport, you know, I’m, you know, I, for instance, like I’m into f1. And so when the Hamilton obviously Ferrari news broke, the first thing I did was look at my Ferrari shares, because I was like, they’re going up great. And I use it as a teaching method. So when I, you know, I taught a corporate workshop a few weeks ago about investing, and I said, like, what would make, like, shares and Ferrari go up, and everyone can tell me, everyone knew what was going on in the sporting world. And I was like, but that directly impacts the investing world as well. So don’t think of that as being something outside of your ability, you know, bring, bring those kinds of celebrities and sports and all that kind of into the mix and talk about it using that. 

Robert Hanna 22:31 

Exactly. And then it becomes hyper relatable. You know, you’re not going to get people sort of necessarily zoning out because it’s something topical, something interesting, something that’s happening, and they’re going to absorb the information and most likely take action on it. I love that. What tips do you have there might be parents of, you know, aspiring lawyers listening to the show that have got current students there might be students, legal, professional, legal students listening to this, what tips do you have specifically for university students regarding student loans, student debts? How can students better prepare themselves financially before going off to university and I think you can share with us around that.  

Abigail Foster 23:07 

So tips I would say is, for instance, if you are going to uni from this year onwards, something happened in 23, which was the new plan five to be aware of, so the student loans, so you have plan one, two, and five for undergrad loans. And plan five actually changed comparative to plan two in three ways. First, is the repayment years. So currently, for instance, you have a student loan, you might find if you’re on plan one or two, that your repayment years are 25 or 30 years, so after 30 years, the loan gets wiped for those going to uni From now onwards on Plan five is actually gone up to 40 years, so the repayment years are longer. Next is the threshold. So the student loan is often referred to as a debt, but actually it’s more of a tax. So it’s more of a kind of university tax as opposed to a debt because you actually only repay it once you earn a certain amount. And that amount for the new plan five is 25,000, which means that once you earn over 25,000, you start repaying the loan back at 9% over that. And then the third is the interest. This is a common misconception that there is no interest on the loan. That is the interest is RPI or retail price index, better known as inflation. And it’s really important that you’re aware of that because your loan does start to accumulate interest. I have been paying mine off for many years, and it is continuously growing and driving me slightly insane. But for something to be said obviously for lawyers, if you’re starting on those killer salaries once you come out the gate of university, just be aware that obviously, that 9% will start to make quite a large chunk of your salary, the more you earn, because like I said, it’s 9% of what you earn over 25,000 And what I see with a lot of friends, once they start hitting, you know, once they start getting further down their career, they realise actually that student loan is a large chunk coming out their paces Not to be looked at as a kind of easy debt. Because it might that, at that point become worth paying it off in chunks and getting rid of it early. But like I said, this is personal. This is all education and not advice. So obviously, always look to seek advice if you’re concerned about how much of a debt you’re paying off currently.  

Robert Hanna 25:18 

Yeah, absolutely. And I’d say we’re just using this for sort of education purposes. And just to sort of stress that point that, obviously you want to go and speak to people and to get sort of really sound advice if you’re thinking of taking action from a sort of investment saving whatever it might be. But I think you’ve given some really good tips and an education and food for thought as well. We must talk about life because life happens and there are emergencies. And in your recent article, how to make better financial decision choices, sorry, you discuss starting a fund for emergencies. Stating, having an emergency fund means you can be ready for whatever the world throws at you next, it’s not just about preparing for the worst. So how can we go about setting up an emergency fund? And what are the long term benefits of doing it?  

Abigail Foster 26:01 

So emergency fund pot? So yes, there is this kind of standardised rule that you have between three and six months of expenses in emergency fund pot. So that is an easy access savings, I do not mean in your investments. Because often what happens is people are very quick to put their money investing and don’t realise that you do need money that’s easily accessible. And investments aren’t easily accessible because you need to think about liquidity. So can you sell off those investments are you going to be selling them off at a loss, which is what you do not want. So when it comes to emergency fund part setting up three to six months of your expenses, or some people even go further than that, and say three to six months salary, but it depends on what you think might happen. Putting them into easy access accounts, like things like Premium Bonds, or general savings accounts that have like a easy accessibility so that what the idea behind them is is it stops you from entering into consumer debt or credit card debt quickly. Because when we’re in emergencies, you need the money right now, that’s what an emergency is, you know, whether that’s a new car, your car’s broken down, fridges broken, that kind of stuff, you need the money. And if you have to be forced to go into debt, because you don’t have liquid cash on you, it’s really dangerous and can really impact things like your credit score and your financial well being in the future. So if you have a kind of setup that’s like your debt to yourself, and you borrow from it, because you have to because you’ve got to replace the car, and then you put the money back and you move on. And that’s absolutely fine. You know, the other thing I want to always say with emergency funds, as well as emergencies are different to everyone. So please, obviously be cautious not to use your emergency fund pot because it’s Friday and you want to drink and that’s an emergency for you right now. But also to go to the other extreme. I have people I’ve spoken to where they’ve said, I desperately want to leave my job. And I say okay, well have you got savings to be able to do that. And I’m like, yeah, yeah, I have an emergency fund pot. But that’s for emergencies. I’m like, Well, this seems like an emergency in your life that actually you that’s what you need to use it for. So yeah, I would say, you know, be clear on what your boundaries are when it comes from our jerseys.  

Robert Hanna 28:07 

Yeah, absolutely. And have those boundaries like you say very front of mind and a very available to you to make sure that you make the right informed decisions. Let’s talk about social media cuz you’re huge on social media and you’ve done lots of collaborations you’ve been everywhere, using the platforms. I’m a big fan of the likes of LinkedIn, obviously you’re huge on tick tock to to educate people build your personal brand. How are you going about doing it? Any tips for others who might aspire to achieve what you’ve achieved already online? 

Abigail Foster 28:32 

Yeah, I’ve been very lucky last year, I had a video on payslips actually go viral on Instagram and yeah, we now see 140,000 in the community on Instagram alone, like you said very kindly. I also have started build a following on LinkedIn and Tik Tok as well, which we love and Instagram has very much given me the ability to do the things like you know, the radio show on LBC and the Sky News that I do in the morning and also getting to meet Rishi Sunak, which was obviously a big, big highlight of this year to be able to ask the Prime Minister some questions that I have wanted to ask for a while. Unfortunately, it was the downfall of Sanders. That was the video that I was on because whilst we were honestly asking him about personal finance, he chose to wear Adidas Amber’s in the conversation and the world just went mad and just could not fathom that the Prime Minister dare wear Sanders but it wasn’t like it was good for PR but obviously frustrating because my real question was, why have you frozen allowances? Why are you trying to reduce National Insurance What’s your idea with that? But that didn’t really seem to come out as well as understanding he was wearing Sanders but now we move on but my job for answer your question though my advice would be obviously to keep going because when it comes to creating a personal brand online, I think often you feel like you are consistently showing up but nothing It’s happening. And so after a week or two weeks or even a month, you give up and you’re like, I can’t be bothered. Whereas Actually, I did have a video that went mad. But what no one saw before that was me consistently showing up every single day. And I would do like finance Fridays with Foster. So every Friday, I’d show up and ask finance questions. I do a Sunday quiz, which actually is transferred into our app now. And we have like loads of quizzes on the app. And, you know, on in the mornings, I do morning stars where I, you know, recap the news, those sorts of things, keep me coming back to my community every day and consistently showing up and giving them what they’ve asked for. So yeah, I would say you’re building a personal brand, and like the legal space, financial space, wherever it’s about consistency, and also providing value. A lot of people think that social media is about boasting about yourself. If not, no one really cares. No one cares about you. All they care about is what you can teach them. And so everything you’ll ever see me do on social is about how I can educate others. And it’s, it’s why I think I’ve been lucky enough to be able to go and ask these questions of Rishi Sunak. And why I’ve worked with HMRC and continue to work with HMRC. And Bank of England this year is because I actually say, No, I’m not going to do the Instagram stuff. I want to do the education, what can you teach my audience?  

Robert Hanna 31:15 

Yeah, and it’s so true. And I always talk about if you want to be liked, create, you know, if you want to be sort of known, go educate. But if you want to be trusted, you really need to teach people that really key points that is going to give them value. And it isn’t necessarily every single post or everything you do is going to get that virality, but it compounds over time. So like you’re saying, if you’re continuously showing up and adding value and teaching, people are going to see you as a thought leader, people are going to trust you over time. And as a result of that your personal brand is going to build and you’re going to get more opportunities and grow your community and it’s a win win. For everyone. I think you’ve done a marvellous job of that it absolutely has to be said. And before we look to close, I want to ask a bit about some of your other roles, and in particular, your One Young World Ambassador role, what initiatives have you been part of and what is the role involved. 

Abigail Foster 32:09 

So as a one on one ambassador, I went to the Dublin One Young World event last year, and it was amazing. And I actually went because of my work within the gender inequality space. So the One Young World kind of tracks against the United Nations sustainability development goals. And I very much align myself with gender equality and education, which are two of those SDGs. And I went because of the work I do to promote female financial education and financial inclusion, because for instance, you know, in this space, as an entrepreneur, as a female, the odds are not in my favour. I’m thankfully someone that I haven’t actually had to raise yet, I am currently in a bootstrap position. But if I was to raise the, like I said, the odds are against me, you know, less than 2% of funding is going into women. And so I spend a lot of time teaching in schools and in corporate environments to women about financial education, and also commercial finance. And so what I’m continuing to do is obviously try and spread the word working with HM Treasury, for instance, this year on a Financial Inclusion Project, and who knows what’s next, I think I would like to, like I said, I’d love to do a TED talk about kind of finance, education and financial inclusion for women. They’re really like, kind of core message for me. But, you know, we teach everyone because it’s part everyone has to be involved if we’re going to fix any of these inequality gaps. 

Robert Hanna 33:35 

Well said, and we absolutely support that here on the legally speaking podcast. And so before we close, what would be your, I guess, one piece of advice, if you were to give one piece of advice for those looking to take the first steps to learn about their personal finances? 

Abigail Foster 33:50 

Oh, that’s a big question. I should have been prepared for. It write. Okay, my one piece of advice is to make it relatable, and make it fun. So relatable and fun went hand in hand. So if you’re going to teach it, make it interesting, try and bring in some culture or like pop culture, and also make it fun because finance has sat so long in the kind of board, like unexciting box, and actually we can bring it out and we can judge it up. We can make it elegant and try and rebrand it. 

Robert Hanna 34:26 

Yeah, I agree. And I think you’re doing a tremendous job of that. So if our listeners which I’m sure they will want to learn more about your career, Lenton, where can they go to find out more feel free to share any social media handles and websites will also share them with this episode for you too? 

Abigail Foster 34:41 

Of course, so on LinkedIn, please do find me it’s Abigail foster ACA, it should be easy to see me on that and then also with Instagram, Tik Tok, we are at all the social media platforms. It is ln, so elent_finance.  

Robert Hanna 34:56 

Simple as that folks. Well it’s been an absolute pleasure having you on the legal Speaking podcast Abby thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed this wishing you lots of continued success with your mission your success in terms of everything you’re doing with lent but from now from all of us on the show over and out.