What are you looking forward to most about the IFW Conference taking place at the Bristol Hotel on 23rd May 2023? To help whet your appetite, I caught up with three more of your expert speakers.
Those speakers are IFW Founder Chris Budd, board member and Workplace Financial Wellbeing specialist Charlie Goodman and mental health trainer Kerry Seymour.
Buy your IFW Conference ticket with the special IFW member discount here.
Non-member tickets are available here.
Book your spot at the social & networking evening on 22nd May.
Chris Budd, the founder of the IFW and author of The Financial Wellbeing Book as well as the hotly anticipated ‘The Four Cornerstones of Financial Wellbeing’ is delivering the closing keynote, ‘Measuring The Impact Of Your Advice’, at the IFW Conference.
What are you looking forward to most about the IFW Conference 2023?
The party the night before!
How did your career lead you to launch the Initiative for Financial Wellbeing (as it was then) in 2019?
The realisation that without understanding the sources of joy, financial planning was not doing the complete job.
How would you summarise your passions, both in and out of work?
To make the world a happier place. whether that’s through the Institute for Financial Wellbeing, helping make a party happen through playing in a band, or making my wife laugh.
What’s your happiest memory?
CENSORED
What’s your understanding of financial wellbeing and why it matters?
The relationship between money and joy. because what is more important than joy?
What do you wish you’d been told about finance when you were 15?
That I should follow what i enjoy, not what will make a good career.
What is your favourite wellbeing book?
The Book of Joy by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama. because sometimes simple messages travel the deepest.
What are you doing to advance your own financial wellbeing?
Playing my guitar.
IFW Board Member and partner at Employee Benefits Collective LLP Charlie Goodman is running an IFW Conference breakout session on Workplace Financial Wellbeing.
What are you looking forward to most about the IFW Conference?
First and foremost a chance to see all my fellow fans of financial wellbeing face to face. It’s a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new ones, and have some really in-depth conversations about financial wellbeing.
What can delegates expect from your breakout session?
Working at the coal face of workplace financial wellbeing, I hope I can share some information and insight into what’s happening in the world of workplace financial wellbeing.
What led you to focus on Workplace Financial Wellbeing in your career?
For me it was the opportunity to reach a lot more people. I began my career as an IFA helping people plan for retirement, but I also looked after several corporate clients’ pension schemes.
For years I was asking the question why don’t people take up the opportunity of workplace pensions when they get good contributions and financial education sessions. With the work the Institute does, I feel we’re finally cracking that.
How would you summarise your passions, both in and out of work?
Obviously financial wellbeing is right up there, and I think as a consequence I’m generally interested in improving my overall wellbeing.
I’ve been working on my mental and physical wellbeing a lot, as anyone who sees my boring Peloton social media posts will know. For me the next steps in 2023 are very much to improve my social and community wellbeing too.
What’s your understanding of financial wellbeing and why it matters?
Simply, it’s about using money as a tool to improve your happiness. Of course, money and our feelings around it can be the cause of unhappiness too, so it’s important we reflect on that as much as the positive places it can take us.
I think it’s a really good opportunity for people to really focus on what makes them happy – something I don’t think we naturally do. Those questions can be surprisingly hard but once you find answers, they are ultimately life changing.
What are you doing to advance your own financial wellbeing?
I’m trying to be more aware of my money and putting aside regular time for my financial wellbeing, as I would going to the gym. It’s tough to form that new habit and also banish my old bad habits of burying my head into the sand when it comes to these things, but I’m definitely getting better.
Mental Health Trainer Kerry Seymour is running an IFW Conference breakout session on the impact of neuroscience on client meetings.
What are you looking forward to most about the IFW Conference?
I’m very excited to be attending the 2023 IFW Conference! I’m looking forward to meeting lots of new and interesting people. I’m particularly looking forward to the talks on happiness, money and mental health.
What can delegates expect from your breakout session?
During my breakout session I’ll be giving a whistle-stop tour of how our brain works, particularly looking at the intellectual and primitive part of our brain. We’ll look at how stress can impact our ability to think logically and to make decisions and how we can use this knowledge to better support clients.
How would you summarise your passions, both in and out of work?
Throughout my career my focus and passion has always been around mental wellbeing. I believe everyone has the potential for good mental wellbeing when they have the right knowledge, tools and support to enable them to be their best self. And linking work with one of my hobbies, I’m also passionate about promoting the benefits of crafting on our mental wellbeing – especially the yarny crafts!
What attracted you to neuroscience as a means of understanding and helping clients?
Ever since I was a child, I’ve loved knowing the science behind how things work. I think understanding how our brain works is fundamental to being able to optimise our mental wellbeing, to reduce the impact of our day-to-day stressors and to boost our resilience and overall happiness.
What’s your understanding of financial wellbeing and why it matters?
For me, financial wellbeing is about having the knowledge, tools and support to make my finances work for me. It’s making sure that I’m looking after my finances so that I can achieve the things I want in life – to be able to tick things off my bucket list. As a mum it also feels important to be able to create financial security for my family.
What is your favourite wellbeing podcast?
My favourite go to wellbeing podcast would have to be the Feel Better, Live More series by Dr Chatterjee. There are hundreds of episodes covering all aspects of our wellbeing. I particularly like the Top Tips at the end of each episode that make it easy to apply the knowledge to make small improvements in your own life.
Meet the speaker – Nick Elston.
Meet the speaker – Dr Thomas Mathar.
Meet the speaker – Martha Lawton.
Meet the speaker – Alex Whitson.
Meet the speaker – Clémence Chatelin.
Meet the speaker – Patrick Luong.
