I was lucky enough to meet Christina recently, hear her story and also motivations behind Verve Super. Learn about her background, motivations for starting Verve – tips on how to best prepare for retirement from the expert herself and more!
Over the past 10 years, I’ve had the opportunity to live in some of the world’s hot spots working for the United Nations supporting women and children in countries like Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Somalia and Kenya. Today I’m passionate about how we can grow the capital of women and use our wealth to change the world! A wealthy life for me is one with lots of time exploring the outdoors, swimming in waterfalls and climbing or ski touring big mountains.
The Co-founders of Verve are women who have spent much of their careers working to build the financial power of women. Given the significant retirement savings gap -women are retiring with 47% less savings than men- we felt it was time for a women’s focused super fund focused purely on building the wealth and financial power of women.
We ultimate want to ensure that within our lifetimes, we achieve an economic system that is fair for women and ensures that no woman (or man) retires in poverty. So our vision is a fund that supports women in every way to close the retirement savings gap.
Through: free financial education, fee breaks for members on parental leave, investment in ethical companies building the world women want, and through political and corporate advocacy.
Verve invests ethically, of course everyones idea of what is and isn’t ethical varies, so we divest from the industries and companies that aren’t building a positive future for women and the world the average Australian woman wants.
As an example, we don’t invest in: gambling, tobacco, animal cruelty, pornography, companies that primarily produce junk food, weapons, and fossil fuel companies.
We proactively seek investment in health care, education, and sustainable energy production. We are Australia’s first superfund to divest from companies that won’t put a woman on their board.
So many women hate to think about retirement planning – retirement can often seem a long way away and immediate urgent cash needs take precedent over future needs.
But every woman needs a retirement plan, even small and regular additional contributions to Super now can lead to big gains down the track – so it’s worth investing a Sunday afternoon to getting your super sorted.
Take some time to find the right superfund for you, and consider consolidating all your balances into one account – don’t get caught paying multiple fees unless you have a good reason. Check the fees, services and ethics of varying super funds and make an informed decision about the best fund for you.
My top tips include: