Kochie’s 4 Week Money Makeover empowers people to make better financial decisions.
The course teaches simple but important financial skills like budgeting and making your money go further, all the way through to ditching debt, managing insurance, super and even your financial relationship.
During the Money Makeover, we give participants the opportunity to get their questions answered by a team of financial gurus.
Our experts are all leaders in their field, with unique insights into everyday financial problems. Today we’ll introduce you to Ben Nash, financial adviser and founder of Pivot Wealth.
Ben’s passionate about educating his clients about money, and guiding them to make the right decisions to set themselves up for the future. We recently caught up with him to hear about his approach to advice.
KMM: Thanks for coming in today Ben. When did you first realise you wanted to become a financial adviser?
“What got me started on the path was a book I was given by my Grandma about personal finance. I’d never really thought about it when I was at high school, but that started my interest.
So I decided to do formal study in the area, studied commerce and really enjoyed it. Ended up getting a graduate position at one of the bigger privately licensed advice businesses. I haven’t looked back since then. I always found money interesting but confusing, so reading that book was a real eye opener.”
KMM: What do you love about the job?
“I really enjoy helping people work through their financial issues, and I also really enjoy the education element to financial advice. It’s interesting work because no two people are the same, so there are always challenges to keep you on your toes.
And especially now working with Pivot where I’m mainly working with younger people, I really enjoy helping them tick things off their bucket list, it’s a great feeling when someone is able to buy a house, for example.”
KMM: Tell us a bit about your company Pivot Wealth.
“Pivot Wealth focuses on helping younger professionals set up their financial strategy and build wealth for the future.
What I’ve found with young people in particular is they’re quite overwhelmed with their finances. Information is everywhere but they don’t have a reliable source, and don’t know who to trust.
So when I started Pivot I built the service offering around the challenges that I saw young people facing. And being a young professional myself I’m personally very aware of the issues.”
KMM: What is the philosophy behind the advice you provide?
“We’ve found there are five steps young professionals need to go through to confidently find that balance between their lifestyle and their money. They first need to clarify their situation. Then it’s a matter of educating them and helping them understand their finances. Step three is to plan and set their strategy. Four is automate their strategy to make it as easy as possible because everyone is time poor. And step five is to regularly review. Things change all the time, but people get this inertia when it comes to money, and it’s not always to their benefit.”
KMM: What about fees, how do you charge for your services?
“Pivot only charges and accepts fees directly from our clients. We don’t receive commissions or kickbacks from product providers, even on insurance.
This isn’t the only way to do things, I just think it’s the best way. When you give someone financial advice they need to have confidence in their strategy or they won’t be as committed to it.
Removing conflict, or even perceived conflict, is a big step in the right direction.
In particular, I find younger people are pretty switched on when it comes to fees, and so having that transparency is really important.”
KMM: Young people are not a traditional market for financial advisers, how do you think young people can benefit from seeking advice?
“People think you need the money to get the advice. It can often be the other way around; you need the advice to get the money.
I’ve seen a lot of people who have made mistakes early on in their financial journey. Our advice is designed to help them to avoid that and make smarter decisions.
Making the right decisions sooner has huge benefits over your lifetime… I think all young people should speak to an adviser before they make big decisions.
I’m passionate about financial advice as you can probably tell. I see the difference we make to the people we help… I’d say any younger person could chat to somebody just to see what’s possible.”
Ben Nash is the founder of Pivot Wealth. You can follow him on LinkedIn.