Read the latest articles

You can read the latest articles and insights to help you understand the strategic uses of Education Bonds to provide the best financial advice to your clients.

Embark on a journey with Ann Grimwade, winner of Deakin University's 'Outstanding Achievement Prize' in Financial Planning and Economic Fundamentals, as she shares her dynamic career trajectory - from physiotherapy through academia and authorship, to her current triumphs in financial planning, showcasing her unwavering commitment to learning and professional growth.

Can you describe your educational and professional background?


I originally trained as a physiotherapist, working in intensive care and rehabilitation. But I have always been more an analysis and numbers person, so I changed careers and became a junior management consultant, specialising in productivity in financial institutions. After a few years, I did an MBA before heading overseas for what turned out to be 11 years in Hong Kong and Jakarta with my then boyfriend (now husband).

For a few years, I was a Programme Leader and Lecturer in Health Services Management at a University in Hong Kong, and then had time out of the workforce to have kids. When we moved back to Australia, I worked as a consultant again, this time mainly in local government. As my kids were getting older, I wasn’t sure that we had been successful in teaching them everything they needed to know about getting a job, managing their money, cooking, cleaning, and keeping healthy, and I figured this might be an issue for others as well. So, I wrote and published a book for young adults moving out of home (“Moving Out”) and its American sister (“Leaving Home”) which nine years later are surprisingly still in print!

I enjoyed the research so much that I did a Graduate Certificate in Educational Research in order to potentially start a PhD but this was made more difficult with Covid, so last year I (very happily) started studying my Masters of Financial Planning at Deakin.
 

What led you to financial planning as a career choice later in life?


I have always been interested in wealth management, starting with reading investment books when I was in early secondary school, investing in the stockmarket when I was 16 and then buying my first property when I was 24. I have spent many happy hours reading about, planning and managing investments, and building overly-complex (but for me thrilling!) spreadsheets. Consulting allowed me to work from home, and when my husband was retrenched during Covid, it gave us the opportunity to pull up stumps and start travelling, and we ended up in Darwin and have been there since mid-2021.

As our 60s were approaching, my husband and I went to see two financial planners. Both visits were with archetypal financial consultants - middle-aged males who wanted to take over our investments for a percentage fee whereas we were after advice and guidance. I felt that we hadn’t really been heard.

I came to two conclusions – one, that there was a lack of older, female financial advisors and this could potentially be an opportunity for me career-wise.

Secondly, on a more personal level, given that I had the interest and capacity to do further study, I felt I could become our own financial planner. So, I returned to study and so far, it has been a great decision and is proving immensely satisfying and useful.

My longer-term aim is to find a part-time paraplanner job while I finish my Masters, working from home so we can continue our digital nomad lifestyle, before moving into becoming a financial planner once I have completed the course and the necessary exams.
 

Given your passion for lifelong learning, what motivates and inspires you?

 

I’ve always been a curious person and enjoy an academic challenge.

I’ve had two strong role models when it comes to learning: my grandmother and my mother. My grandmother was one of very few women at Melbourne University back in the early 1920s, studying science. She loved and continued learning throughout her life, even taking up Sumi-e (Japanese ink painting) classes in her 80s just for fun.

My mother also embraces new challenges. She is now in her late 80s and when she’s not chairing the board of the local retirement village in rural Victoria, she’s tackling technology with gusto. She posts more to Instagram than me, and probably has more followers!

The other reason that I enjoy learning is that I like to do things for myself. If I can learn to do something myself, I like to try.

How have your life and professional experiences shaped your financial advising approach?

It’s helpful to have seen a number of economic cycles, including the 1987 crash, 9-11 and the Asian Monetary Crisis but the markets have recovered. That 19% interest rate I was paying when I bought my first house morphed into the low interest rate environment we have had for a number of years, but I’m not so shocked that it is moving up again. Being older means that you have lived experience of the range of peaks and troughs and gives you the ability to step back and be less reactive to market changes, a good thing in a financial planner.

Consulting showed me that with investigation and analysis, good solutions can be found to difficult problems. It also showed me that the world is not binary and there can be a number of different correct solutions for each problem. Good solutions require knowledge, application and creativity, which is similar to solutions in financial planning.

Consulting also showed me that however good a solution is, if implementation is poor, the result will also be poor. It is imperative to get ‘buy-in’ from the client and to carefully manage implementation. Furthermore, periodic checks and changes are required to maintain the effectiveness of a good solution.

As someone who embarked on a financial planning career at a later stage in life, what advice would you give to others who may be considering a similar transition?

My career so far in financial planning has largely revolved around study, so this advice will therefore relate mainly to going back to study and getting the required qualifications.

Firstly, if you think financial planning might be for you, then just jump in and do it, regardless of what others think or if you’re uncertain it’s the right decision. I think the key to life is to enthusiastically pursue your interests and to work hard at them. If you subsequently find you are heading in the wrong direction, then there is little stop you from changing to something else. Millennials seem to understand this implicitly, but Boomers and Gen X’s do not!

Don’t be daunted by studying with people younger than yourself – you’ll be surprised how much you know just from having lived and worked a few years longer than others. It can also be a bit surprising at the lack of a broad perspective that some younger students display. And you probably won’t be the oldest in every class!

Heading back to university can be expensive, so make sure you aim to get funding. There are lots of scholarships out there, including Federal Government grants for women in finance, and if you can keep your marks up then there are academic scholarships which make a large difference to the financial burden. If you get an academic scholarship, this also keeps you incentivised to achieve good marks, as you are required to maintain a certain WAM (Weighted Average Mark).

And finally, make sure you network with the other students as well as the tutors as appropriate. You might think this will be difficult, especially if classes are online, but it’s easier over Zoom to chat with someone than it is in lecture theatre. Make an effort to find study-buddies and don’t be afraid to approach others you don’t really know. Having someone to chat with about the course can help reduce your stress and improve the study journey of both of you.