Talk Money Week: Meet The Money Talking Champions

Let’s face it, talking about money is often awkward and uncomfortable but in recent years, there’s been a wave of folks pioneering a more fluid conversation, whether it be by sharing their own financial experiences or educating their audience with tools to make it easier to start. As we kick of Talk Money Week - a week dedicated entirely to opening up those conversations, we wanted to give them a proper shout out!

Clare Seal, My Frugal Year 

Almost two years ago, Clare found herself in £27k of personal debt with no savings in sight. Her relationship with money hit breaking point and she came to the realisation that something had to be done about it. She started a (then) anonymous Instagram account, @myfrugalyear, to document her journey. A couple of years on, Clare has since amassed a following of over 67k who tune in to her incredibly personal account of how she’s beating her devilish debt. She broke through the £10k barrier back in September and has since gone on to write a book about her journey that shares the tips, tricks and tools that have helped her achieve her goals. 

Alex Holder, Journalist & Author 

Alex is a freelance writer and consultant, whose name features regularly in the likes of ELLE, Grazia, Refinery20 and The Guardian amongst many others. She launched a campaign about the gender pay gap that consequently went viral and went on help change an actual law. She regularly writes articles that address important money and finance discussions head on. She went on to write a bestselling book, Open Up: Why Talking About Money Will Change Your Life centered around what it means to be “bad” at money and addressing how spending, saving and investing are moments dominated by our own hang-ups, habits, anxiety and ambitions. As money features so heavily in our personal lives, Alex starts the discussion about how important it is that we start discussing it more freely. 

Alex Stedman, The Frugality

Freelance Fashion Stylist, Alex, started The Frugality to share her tips on sensible spending and how to save money more efficiently to spend on the things you really love. Through her incredible lifestyle photography, inspiring shopping edits and abundance of savvy spending tips, Alex has built an incredible platform of money talking mavericks. In 2019, she opened her platform to other female writers who share a similar ethos to her.

Ellie Austin Williams, This Girl Talks Money

Bored of the same old financial information written by old white men, Ellie founded This Girl Talks Money in 2019 to tackle the last taboo: money. Whether you have a little or a lot, TGTM wants to teach you all the things about adulting and money that school forgot.

​At TGTM, Ellie focuses on sharing insights, advice, motivation and knowledge to help millennial women to gain confidence and ownership of their own finances.

Davinia Tomlinson, RainChq

Having worked a marketing career for both mainstream and alternative investments, Davinia found herself questioning why there weren’t more women investing in these funds. Rainchq was born to provide financial education and stimulate confidence for women to make sound financial decisions themselves.

Abiola, Active Budgeter

Active Budgeter was founded by Abiola to build a community of Millennials and Gen Z’s who are on a mission to manage their money better. Through a digital platform, the community share experiences, offer support and interact with one another to help them reach their money goals. Abiola has created a platform dedicated to raising awareness of money management, removing the jargon from common FinTech topics and making it easier to understand and inspiring long term financial planning.

Emilie Bellet, Vestpod

Vestpod is one of the leaders in the talking money field. Emilie founded it with a mission to change the conversation about money and empower women financially. Through articles, newsletters and an ever-growing community, Vestpod helps folks build a healthier relationship with money. Having worked in private equity and tech, Emilie spent 10 years witnessing how women avoid the conversation of money and decided to do something about it. It’s a jargon-busting, real talking, independently operating platform centered around money education.

How to win £500 in your pension

To celebrate Talk Money Week, we’re giving away £500 to be placed into a lucky winner’s pension pot! And there are two ways to enter:

• Take our Talk Money Week pension quiz here. Get the answers right and you’ll be entered into our competition
• Already a Penfold member? Share your referral link far and wide with your community. For every referee that signs up to Penfold using your reference an extra entry will be added. The more referees you get, the higher your chances are to win!

(OR do both to increase your chance of winning ;))

We’ll also be hosting a webinar on Friday 13th November at 11am - Money Talks: Funding the Future. One of our Founders, Chris Eastwood, will be leading a panel discussion via Zoom between some of the UK’s most notable money-talking champions. The all self-employed panel will spend 45mins discussing their experiences to make their futures more financially secure:

• Clare Seal - My Frugal Year
• Lara Sheldrake - Found & Flourish
• Sian Meades Williams - Freelance Writing Jobs

Want to join us? Click here to sign up (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/money-talks-funding-the-future-tickets-128424185195)

#talkmoneyweek @getpenfold