I didn’t want to rely on anyone else again

Originally published on Law News NZ >

It was around the family kitchen table in Palmerston North where Tanya Osborne got her first lessons about money.

Her dad was a vet with his own clinic and on Thursdays he would bring home the week’s banking for sorting.

“I’d help him count out the money and he would take it to the bank the next day, so I pretended to be a banker,” she says.

“There was something about the whole money thing that was driving me.”

Another experience while growing up in the 1980s was more difficult – watching the impact of the 1987 share market crash on her parents.

“Dad liked to invest in shares and I saw the impact that had with my parents losing money and remember them having conversations about this, which I didn’t understand, but it had an impact on me,” Osborne says.

“Thankfully, we had a successful vet practice. But I always had this thought about needing to be financially independent.”

And that’s a motivation that has stayed with her through 10 years as an investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners.

Why financial independence matters

The importance of being financially secure in your own right is something Osborne talks to her female clients about, particularly as they face major changes in their lives.

Some have been widowed. Others are learning to make financial decisions after leaving marriages where their husband took responsibility for investments.

She encourages women to understand and have some control over the household finances, even when they are in a partnership.

“I’m not saying in a couple the female should be the one who drives the decisions, but just be aware of the finances, so if something does happen and you have to take on that responsibility, at least you have some knowledge.

“That’s the key. It gives you that choice.”

Girls can do anything

Osborne grew up in a male-heavy household with with two brothers and plenty of talk about sport.

But going to an all-girls high school exposed her to the “girls can do anything” message of 1980s New Zealand.

“I really had no doubt I could do whatever I wanted to do.”

She headed to the University of Otago to study law and commerce and loved the intellectual aspects of law, but realised by the fourth year of her double degree that private practice wasn’t where she saw herself working.

Instead, her first job was in a legal role at the stock exchange in Wellington, dealing with new listings in the late 1990s.

Then an OE called and she spent the following years in legal and compliance roles in London investment banking.

Coming back to New Zealand in 2008, with a three-month-old daughter, she stayed in compliance with a job at Goldman Sachs JBWere before moving to BNZ and a senior compliance role in its wealth division.

By her late 30s, having spent 14 years in compliance, she knew she wanted a change of career.

Change came in her personal life too. Her marriage of 11 years ended around the same time she was establishing a new career, first in private banking and then wealth management with Craigs Investment Partners.

Starting again

Separation gave her the chance to decide what she wanted her own financial future to look like.

While Osborne says she could have bought another house when she found herself single again, she chose to invest her money instead.

She remembers that time as being emotional, but also a season that gave her a new sense of control.

“It can be quite empowering because you set your own goals about what you want to do.”

For her, that meant focusing on a new career and building a nest egg.

“I had in my mind at 40 that I didn’t want to rely on anyone else again.”

Osborne is comfortable talking about the experience because she now advises women going through similar seasons.

“I’m always open about the fact I’ve been divorced and been through it.

“A lot of our role is broader than investment advice. You end up being a bit of a life coach.”

Women and the confidence gap

Osborne sees a common pattern among couples she works with. Often the husband takes responsibility for investments and leads meetings with advisers.

But she thinks it’s important that both partners are part of those conversations. Otherwise there’s a knowledge gap if the relationship ends or a partner dies.

She thinks it’s confidence, rather than ability, that can be a barrier to women engaging with investments.

“Part of our job is educating our clients. Explaining things in ways they understand. Not using too much jargon.”

There’s one lesson from the economics she studied years ago that’s stayed with her: the power of compounding returns and the advantage of starting early.

It is something she now talks about with her 18-year-old daughter and her daughter’s friends.

Starting early can be particularly important for women, who tend to live longer and may spend time out of the workforce raising children, which reduces their KiwiSaver contributions.

Talking about money in a new relationship

Osborne has been with her current partner for five years and says entering a new relationship reinforced another lesson: talk about money.

“A lot of people feel that talking about money is a taboo subject, but actually it’s not.”

It means talking about spending, saving and retirement and, for blended families, how assets and children will be protected.

She says she and her partner have different approaches to money.

“Even though I’m an investment adviser, I’m a spender, because you also need to be able to enjoy life, in a way that’s not racking up a lot of debt,” she says.

Both have children from previous relationships and have put a contracting-out agreement in place.

“Hopefully we never have to use it, but at least I know everything I’ve worked for, and my partner has worked for, is protected.”

She encourages people to have difficult conversations about money while things are going well and make sure both people understand where they stand.

“You don’t want to think about if it all goes wrong, but you have to be prepared.

“And the more you talk about it, the more it becomes the norm.”

Investments give you choice

After years of asking her clients what they want their retirement to look like, Osborne, in her early fifties, is starting to ask herself the same questions:

When does she want to stop working? Does retirement mean travel? And how much will she need?

Those questions surface the things that are really the whole point of investing in the first place.

“I always say that having money and investments just gives you choice,” she says.

That might mean retiring earlier, coping with a health setback or just having a buffer for the unexpected.

One of her favourite parts of her job is helping people to achieve a life they want.

“I love finding out about people and hearing their stories. And I go on the journey with a lot of these clients. Investment is a long-term strategy.”

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