Independent financial planner Claire Mackay discusses women and finance on SBS TV program The Feed.

1 in 5 women yet to retire has no super. On average, women retire with half as much super as men. On average, women earn $700,000 less than men over a lifetime.

Transcript of interview
Speaker 1: If I could go back to my younger self, what would I tell myself about this? I would say at the age of 18 I would have valued someone coming to college, where I was then, and giving a presentation or a speech about financial advice.

Speaker 2: Now? Oh my golly. What I would do differently is to make goals. Make goals and to have different goals along the way.

Independent financial planner Claire Mackay: I speak to a lot of the children of my clients. So, in their 20s when they’ve first started working or maybe when they’re a bit older and they’re looking to enter into a long term relationship and the key things I say to them is make sure you know where your money is.

Independent financial planner Claire Mackay: People hate the word budget as much as I hate the word diet and that’s… The reality is that it’s very similar to having a sensible eating plan and regular exercise. There is no magic bullet for losing weight and there is no silver bullet for setting your finances in order. It is hard work and it’s regular and you start with baby steps.

Independent financial planner Claire Mackay: It is important that we’re having discussions around gender equality when it comes to pay. Recognition that superannuation balances, there is a discrepancy there between men and women who have worked for the same amount of time. Having these discussions and actually working with some real facts is really important in terms of furthering the debate around policy decisions.

Senator The Honourable, Michaelia Cash: Well, certainly, there are not enough women in parliament and the prime minister commissioned myself along with senator Linda Reynolds to put together a report to provide to our federal council to look at strategies that the liberal party can put in place to increase female representation.

Speaker 2: Being in affordable housing, having an affordable rent meant that I could save money and I could be part of the population in a normal way, in a respectful way. As soon as I was given this unit, it was like I was… My home became my haven and it’s a place where I could just be me.

Speaker 3: I think given that we’re talking about women who have, in fact, raised the next generation, you have given back to the communities, volunteered in their communities. I think we actually need to do a bit better by them.

Speaker 1: I was informed that I would probably be over 65 before I would receive any form of public housing and that was breathtakingly shocking. Basically, I don’t live… I don’t live my life with despair or despondency but I basically live it from day to day or week to week.