Welcome to Emerge Everywhere. I’m Jennifer Tescher, journalist turned financial health champion. As founder and CEO of the Financial Health Network, I’ve spent my career connecting forward-thinking leaders to the growing fin health movement. Now I’m sharing these conversations with you. Discover how these visionaries are challenging the status quo and improving financial health for their customers, employees, and communities.
The goal of starting this podcast three years ago was to bring diverse voices together to explore how an integrated approach to financial health could create lasting change for all. My guests this year truly represented the embodiment of my vision.
With financial services leaders Holly O’Neill, Jeff Jones, Gigi Hyland, and Shamina Singh, we explored how embracing a financial health strategy can reinforce consumer satisfaction and business goals.
We explored innovation’s role in creating paths to financial resilience through the work of entrepreneurs Rachel Schneider, Ennie Lim, and Tom Spann.
Policymakers Michael Hsu and Her Majesty Queen Maxima of the Netherlands reflected on the distinct role governments can play in driving the well being of citizens.
We took a look at the intersection of physical, mental and financial health with Dr. Bechara Choucair and Dr. Tamarah Duperval-Brownlee, and how the healthcare industry is waking up to the reality of what financial stress and instability can do to our brains and bodies.
And finally, my friend John Hope Bryant – through his focus on reversing historic inequities – reminded us that hope for the future remains one of the most powerful tools for systems change.
I hope my conversations with these financial health leaders and champions have inspired you as much as they have inspired me, and have fueled your efforts to drive financial well-being for your customers, employees, and communities.
We are seeing tremendous momentum in the broader financial health ecosystem. The FDIC recently announced that nearly 96% of American households now have a bank account, meaning that 5 million households have entered the banking system since 2011. It took a combination of events and circumstances to get us here – a strong economy, a new technology, and bankable moments like natural disasters and the pandemic – and as a result, the financial services industry is more frequently putting the consumer at the center.
We’re seeing them dedicate real resources towards business initiatives that drive improvements in the financial health of their customers. They’re reducing overdraft fees. They’re helping consumers plan for both the short-term and the long-term. They’re hiring financial health experts to take on new critical business roles.
Likewise, employers are making the choice to invest in their employees’ financial health. Companies of all sizes are offering more comprehensive benefits and resources from emergency savings to financial advising and budgeting services to help ease their workers’ financial stress.
Financial health has also made it to the policy world – both domestically and internationally. Policymakers are coming to appreciate the fact that financial health is a driver of healthy economies and democracies.
Financial health even landed on Investopedia’s terms of the day in 2022, solidifying its place in the lexicon.
These moves are a testament to the inspiring embrace of consumer financial health that, if done correctly and with the right intentions, can power a genuine shift in America’s well-being.
I have been on this journey for nearly two decades now, as 2023 will mark the Financial Health Network’s 19th anniversary, and witnessing this momentum is both humbling and inspiring. It’s also happening at a critical moment. The Financial Health Pulse Trends report found that Americans’ financial health dropped for the first time in 2022 since we began measuring it five years ago. Consumer budgets are being stretched thin by inflation, and as the Federal Reserve attempts to rein it in and bring prices down, there is concern that raising interest rates will ultimately lead to a recession.
The time for action is now. We need to help people make the most of every dollar they have and help them manage expenses. We also need to cushion the landing for consumers before an economic downturn arrives.
As I said at our EMERGE conference this year, “Financial health is a journey, and a long one at that. You will get tired along the way, and at times, you may not feel like you can go on. But you must. We must. The stakes are too high. So in those moments of challenge, I remind you to just put one foot in front of the other and Lean Forward.”
It has been a remarkable year, and I wish all of you a moment of rest and reflection before we dive in again in 2023. Thank you for listening and for all the continued support.
Happy holidays.
President and Chief Executive OfficerFinancial Health Network