☀️☕️ IWD24 - Be the person happy to talk about money

Happy International Women’s Day 2024!

📝 Focus

• IWD24 - Be the person happy to talk about money

📊 In the Markets

• Global markets hit new highs; Powell doesn’t exactly say June; Kroger and Costco beat; Europe happy to slow; Japan wage hike;

• Empowering Women Through Financial Literacy

📖 MoneyFitt Explains

• 🎓 A Soft Landing

💸 Personal Finance Corner

• Empowering Women Through Financial Literacy and Personal Wellness in Singapore

📝 Focus

Today is International Women’s Day 2024. Should such a day even be necessary? We would argue not, but unfortunately it is, and has been since the first one 113 years ago when a million women and men rallied in Europe in support of women's rights, such as the right to vote, to fight against sex discrimination in the workplace and to hold public office. Our guest writer looks at this year’s theme of “Inspiring Inclusion.”

Transforming Culture, One Conversation at a Time: The Role of Money Talk in #InspiringInclusion

What’s the most powerful thing you can do this International Women’s Day to be a true agent for change?

Make talking about money easier.

Invisible barriers to information, such as limited access to pay information and financial literacy, perpetuate the gender and ethnicity pay gaps that we see in various countries around the world. The ‘ask-gap’ is part of this problem – where women and minorities tend to ask for lower salaries or fail to negotiate their salaries. But even when women do drum up the courage to ask for more, they risk being perceived as unfeminine for going against entrenched cultural norms.

Furthermore, employees are often prohibited from discussing their salary through pay secrecy clauses in their contracts. Such clauses entrench a culture of secrecy and exclusion and discourage open and inclusive discussions around money and remuneration. Fortunately, the US, UK, European Union and Australia have passed laws either, making these secrecy clauses illegal or unenforceable. But there is a long way to go before the secrecy around compensation is eliminated worldwide.

Whilst cultural change comes from the top – there are actions that you can take as an individual to make a real difference, and normalise money conversations.

Many of my money-coaching clients are managers and ask how they can talk about money at work. They want to be able to support their direct reports, people who they can see are struggling with financial insecurity. My advice is to approach a money conversation as if you were having a chat about someone’s mental or physical health challenges: with care, confidentiality and non-judgement.

It may seem counterintuitive to stress the need for confidentiality when I advocate normalising money conversations. But confidentiality and trust are key to having constructive conversations that bring real change. It takes courage to break a taboo. But as discussions about mental health can show us, being open to listening to others’ experiences can make a real difference.

A simple conversation does more than an article or even a book to change people’s perception of what is possible in the world.

This is why the most powerful thing that you can do this International Women’s Day is to be a person who is happy to talk about money.

Guest Writer: Fleur Iannazzo, MSc CFA ACC is the founder of WTF Money, helping professionals overcome the behavioural gap to transform their relationship with money. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds an MSc in Coaching and Behavioural Change from Henley Business School. 

🇸🇬 Singapore: Let’s Get MoneyFitt!

📊 In the Markets

Wall Street surged on Thursday, with the S&P 500 climbing 1% to a record closing high and the Nasdaq composite rising 1.5%, narrowly missing its own record close, having touched an intraday high. 

Technology and growth stocks led the rally, and SOX, the Philadelphia Semiconductor index, soared 3.36% to a record high, driven by investor FOMO on chip companies benefiting from artificial intelligence demand. 

Megacap growth stocks drove gains, with Meta and Nvidia up 3.2% and 4.5%, together adding over half of the combined $200 billion that the Magnificent Seven added in market value today. 

Fed Chair Jay Powell's testimony to the US Senate Banking Committee bolstered hopes for a June rate cut. 

He said inflation is “not far” from where it needs to be for the central bank to start cutting interest rates, though he didn’t actually say June, adding that the cuts would be so the Fed doesn’t “drive the economy into recession.” Translation: Expect a Soft Landing🎓. 

While investors await further labour market insights from Friday's February nonfarm payrolls report (forecasters expect growth of 198,000 - down from January’s blowout 353,000 - and an unemployment rate of 3.7%,) job market data earlier this week showed slight signs of softening, supporting Powell's acknowledgement of possible rate cuts this year. 

Lingerie chain Victoria's Secret shares tumbled 30% on a weak forecast, while supermarket giant Kroger surged 9.9% on bullish sales and profit forecasts. [MFM: Mega-Supermarkets, Food Deserts and Pharmacy Deserts].

Giant wholesaler Costco’s earnings per share thumped expectations with strong e-commerce growth, but a revenue miss sent shares down 3-4% in aftermarket trading after closing at a new high.

ECB maintained interest rates at 4% but its forecasts of lower inflation and even weaker economic growth led European markets higher on Thursday, boosting confidence in a June rate cut.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed up 1.05% to 503.45 points, crossing the key psychological level of 500 for the first time. The ECB revised its 2024 inflation forecast to 2.3% from 2.7%, while Eurozone growth was slashed by a quarter to just 0.6% from 0.8%. Investors love this sort of thing.

Japan's largest industrial union said employers agreed to a 6.7% raise for full-time workers during closely watched annual wage discussions. Higher wages could stimulate consumer spending, potentially allowing the Bank of Japan to exit its ultra-loose monetary policy and raise interest rates in April. 

The popular benchmark Nikkei 225 initially hit a record high but closed 1.2% lower, closing just under 40,000, while the professional benchmark Topix index also closed weaker after reaching a record high during the session.

Empowering Women Through Financial Literacy in Singapore

• Women’s mental and physical health is affected by their financial well-being. Placing importance on financial literacy through empowering women to take control of their financial habits will benefit overall well-being for them and society at large. 

• One of the key hurdles that women face in their financial journey is the gender pay gap. Advocating for equal pay, developing the confidence to effectively negotiate salaries, building skills and acquiring knowledge are some ways to overcome this issue.

• Building confidence in making financial decisions, including investing for the long term, is absolutely crucial given the combination of the gender wage gap, Singapore’s unequal burden of caregiving (which can shorten the period of paid employment for women), the resulting retirement savings gap, and the widening longevity gap, with Singaporean women’s life expectancy at birth almost five years greater than that of men, but unfortunately in poorer health.  

For the full article, please see today’s 💸 Personal Finance Corner.