Aegon has launched a financial wellbeing tool for employers to help employees understand the role mindset and money play in their financial wellbeing.
The tool challenges users to consider key psychological factors that influence their attitude to money – asking them whether they have considered what gives them joy and purpose, whether they have a picture of their future self, how they compare themselves financially with others, whether they have a long term plan, and how financially literate they are. The tool also asks them about their income, savings, debt and assets.
Research from the provider found that more than 19 million people in the UK are struggling with their financial wellbeing and that just 16 per cent of the population, around 8.6 million people, combine healthy finances and a positive money mindset. This compares to 12 per cent, nearly 6.5 million people, who score poorly on both sets of factors. Aegon’s research found that around 5 in 6 of the population, 45 million people, could be taking action to improve financial wellbeing.
Aegon’s methodology places an equal weighting on money factors like income levels, budgeting skills, affordability of debt and also mindset factors like peoples’ willingness or ability to picture their future self, put in place a financial plan or think carefully about what really makes them happy. Aegon says it is often the mindset factors where most people have the biggest room for improvement.
Once the individual has responded to each of the questions a score is displayed, benchmarked against an average score and showing their current financial wellbeing strengths and areas for improvement and outlining the steps they need to consider to improve.
The tool will offers a range of links, resources, facts and information based on the elements they’ve scored lowest in to put them on the path to better financial wellbeing.
Aegon pensions director Steven Cameron says: “When it comes to financial wellbeing, and the ten building blocks to success, our research showed that no two people are alike. Financial wellbeing is a very personal topic and that’s why we’re launching our financial wellbeing tool. People like to know where their strengths and weaknesses lie and how they compare with others like them. They also like to track how they are progressing or improving. Our new tool does that and most importantly, provides people with tailored information and relevant material to change their behaviours and improve their financial wellbeing both now and in the future.
“What we’ve found is that for most people, the biggest improvement they could make to financial wellbeing is to reframe the way they think about money – their ‘mindset’. It’s not always possible to make quick changes to your level of income or savings but by thinking about what sort of future you’re working towards, and the steps you’ll need to get there or by making more realistic social comparisons, you can make big strides towards a better relationship with your money.”
“The new Aegon tool offers more than a score, it offers support to bring your personal financial wellbeing to life so it can be a practical priority, every day, for everyone.”
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