Swiss finance is home to a burgeoning group of female bloggers. Ex-banker Carolina Newton introduces five of the key «finfluencers» every banker should be following.
Behind the banking scene, a fast-growing community of Swiss-based women are attempting a financial revolution on social media. The discrepancy between the genders in terms of financial education was laid bare in a recent paper by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD.
The role of finance bloggers shouldn't be underestimated: they help banks and financial service providers to increase their customer basis and point out what is missing in the world of finance in order to cater to women.
That's why every banker (male or female) should know about the following five Swiss female finance bloggers, follow them, and probably even learn from them:
1. Finelles.com
Instagram @finellescom
Offers a free blog, a paid e-book, the course «The Money Makeover Class»
Clara Creitz is the founder of Finelles, a learning platform and community for female investors. She has been working in the financial industry for almost ten years in various roles for companies such as UBS, Julius Baer, PwC, and HDI. In 2018 she realized through a discussion with colleagues that despite working for a bank many of them – men or women – did not take care of their personal finances.
After conducting a survey of 120 women Clara found out: «Most of the surveyed women were doing fine with budgeting and basic banking products, but they were completely clueless about investing.» Furthermore, she found out that even though these women knew nothing about investing, they were indeed interested in learning about it. As a result, she founded Finelles in order to offer what these women were looking for.
2. Investlikeaysha.com
Instagram @ayshavandepaer
Offers a free blog, e-mail course, book club, and a paid program «invest at REST» in English
Aysha van de Paer has over a decade of professional experience in private equity and real estate investing with firms such as Aventicum Capital Management, Bowfonds Investment Management as well as EY andPwC. «In early 2017, I lost my husband Karl in a road accident while expecting our second child,» she says. «The new financial reality that followed inspired me to share my personal story and knowledge about investing to help women achieve financial security over the long term.»
Showing women how to compensate for the financial disadvantages they face and become confident investors became her mission. She offers several free resources to start learning about investing, including a free email course available on her blog, a book club on personal finance and investing with over 1,200 members, and a paid program «Invest at REST».
3. Liebefinanzen.ch
Instagram @liebefinanzen.ch
Offers free content in German
Helga is an experienced travel blogger and normally travels non-stop. The pandemic put her travel lifestyle on an immediate hold, and she started to rethink her personal financial situation. Her comprehension and knowledge of the stock market, ETFs, and investing in general is entirely self-taught: she has neither a background in finance nor a college degree.
Her personal investment journey is available for free on liebefinanzen.ch: «My blog is addressed to stock market beginners. My goal is to reduce inhibitions and take away fears of contact
with the world of finance. I do not believe in trading and speculation on the stock market which is why I write about long-term investments and wealth creation,» says Helga. Her goal is to retire at 50 and having the choice to work as much or as little as she would like.
4. Loveandfinance.ch
Instagram @loveandfinance
Offers a free blog, paid e-book, money mentoring, and more in English
Elsie's blog is about how to start investing, her own wealth updates as well as about her financial failures (such as never creating a prenuptial agreement). «I've become inspired by others and hope to be an inspiration as well to those who have experienced similar setbacks in love and finance,» explains the 30-something divorcee, who worked in finance for a long time. She never applied what she learned on the job to her personal finance but decided to change that in order to become financially independent. In addition to her blog, she offers an e-book which helps people get on the path of financial independence with a particular focus on Europeans and Swiss.
5. Missfinance.ch
Instagram @missfinance.ch
Offers free content in German
Angela Mygind currently works as an executive assistant and spent several years in the tourism industry before that. «I observed when talking to my female friends that they wanted to take care of their finances, but their lack of knowledge prevented them from doing so. After many books, blogs, articles, and Youtube videos, I realized that investing is not as hard as it looked.»
Finding the right information and ideas was the hardest part about her financial education journey, which is why she decided to share her experience. Her blog offers free educational content about topics such as the Swiss pension system (Pillar 3a), stock market investments, ETFs, and the respective investment platform.
Carolina Newton is the operating chief and a board member of Swissfintechladies, a network for women in the finance and tech industry. She believes income inequality can be more adequately addressed by a wider participation in financial markets. Educating women about investing is one aspect to solving the problem. Newton, who began her career as a forex broker, has more than ten years experience in banking and finance.
