A Simple Way to Create Financial Wellbeing in the Workplace
Financial wellbeing in the workplace starts with literacy. Andrew Craig explains how investing, compound interest, and mindset shape long-term employee wellbeing.
How to Own the World: Why Financial Literacy Is a Superpower for Wellbeing
Money and mental health are deeply connected. Financial stress fuels anxiety, conflict and burnout, while even a basic level of financial literacy can completely change someone’s life trajectory.
In this conversation, Sara Maude speaks with Andrew Craig, founder of Plain English Finance and author of How to Own the World and Live on Less, Invest the Rest, about why understanding money is far more important than having a high income, and how employers can play a pivotal role in financial wellbeing.
From “angry young man” to financial literacy mission
Andrew started his career as a stockbroker in the late 1990s with SBC Warburg, working on large capital raises for household‑name companies across Europe. Over the years he’s met more than a thousand chief executives and senior leaders.
What shocked him was this: even highly paid City professionals, “masters of the universe” on paper, were often hopeless with their own money. Many:
- Had no idea what was happening with their pension or ISA
- Were getting poor returns and leaving decisions entirely to advisers
- Spent everything they earned, assuming high income alone would secure their future
The same pattern shows up with professional athletes and celebrities. There are well‑publicised statistics on how many sportspeople go bankrupt within a few years of retiring, despite huge earnings, because they never learned how to invest and protect their wealth.
The painful conclusion Andrew reached, and the reason he wrote How to Own the World, is that wealth is much more about habits and knowledge than it is about income.
The UK’s financial literacy problem
Andrew shares some sobering numbers:
- Around 90% of British adults don’t have a stocks & shares ISA, meaning they’re not knowingly investing in the stock market.
- Surveys suggest that most adults can’t correctly explain compound interest, even though this is the mechanism that can turn hundreds of pounds into hundreds of thousands over a working lifetime.
- Separate research finds that while many people believe they are financially literate, a majority fail basic questions about savings accounts, inflation and investments.
If financial journalists and City professionals can misunderstand the difference between a cash ISA and a stocks & shares ISA, it’s not surprising that the average person is confused.
This lack of understanding has consequences far beyond individual bank balances. Financial strain is linked to relationship breakdown, poor mental health, physical illness and poorer outcomes for children. At a macro level, weak investment culture and over‑reliance on money creation are tied to issues like the cost of living crisis and inflation.
Compound interest: making money while you sleep
One of Andrew’s core messages is that compound interest is the real “eighth wonder of the world”—but only if people understand it and use it.
He shares an example:
- Suppose a relative invests £5,000 into a tax‑free account (such as a stocks & shares ISA) for a newborn child.
- If that money earns around 10% a year on average, and nothing more is ever added, by the time that child turns 55 the pot could be close to £945,000.
Long‑run data on major stock market indices such as the S&P 500 show average annual returns in that sort of range before inflation, although of course returns in any given year vary widely and past performance is not a guarantee of future results.
The key principles:
- Invest regularly (for example monthly), starting with whatever you can afford.
- Stay invested for decades, not months or years.
- Diversify across thousands of companies through broad market funds rather than betting on individual shares.
- Do not panic‑sell during market crashes; keep going.
Over time, this kind of boring, automated investing can do more for your wealth than any pay rise alone.
Investing vs trading: why slow and steady wins
Andrew draws a sharp distinction between investing and trading:
- Investing is a life habit. You set up a direct debit into a pension or stocks & shares ISA every month and hold a sensible mix of assets for the long term. It’s the financial equivalent of brushing your teeth—unexciting but transformative over time.
- Trading is what many people mistakenly think investing is: buying shares one week, selling the next, reacting to news headlines and trying to time the market. This is speculative, stressful and rarely successful for non‑professionals.
He also emphasises that an ISA or pension is not the investment itself, they are just tax‑sheltered accounts you put investments into. Inside those accounts, you can hold global equity funds, bonds, and other assets that do the actual work of growing your money.
Renting vs buying: challenging property myths
The conversation also explores Andrew’s more controversial view on renting vs buying.
He doesn’t say renting is always better. Instead, he argues most people:
- Never run the numbers on what buying actually costs once you include stamp duty, interest, maintenance and fees.
- Assume “renting is throwing money away” and “property always goes up”, without adjusting for inflation or local market differences.
If house prices, beer, eggs and everything else have all gone up 10x, then a 10x property increase may not mean you’re truly wealthier; it may simply reflect a 10x fall in the value of money.
For some people, renting a good‑quality home while investing the difference into global markets can be more rational than stretching to buy at any cost, especially when interest rates are far above the ultra‑low levels many took for granted.
Is it too late to start in your 40s or 50s?
A lot of listeners resonate with the feeling of “I wish I’d known this 20 years ago.” Andrew’s message is clear: if you’re in your 40s or even early 50s, it is absolutely still worth starting.
He points out that:
- The average UK pension pot at retirement is around £50,000, when many people will actually need £500,000–£800,000 or more to retire comfortably.
- People in mid‑life often have higher earning potential, even if they’ve missed earlier compounding years. Increasing monthly contributions now can still create a radically different outcome over 15–25 years.
- Advances in healthcare mean many people in their 40s today may be working and living much longer than previous generations, which changes the time horizon.
For younger people, the message is to start with small amounts £25 a month is better than nothing, because the habit and the decades of compounding are incredibly powerful. For those in mid‑life, the focus is on bigger contributions and smarter asset mixes, not giving up.
Overcoming fear of investing: knowledge beats anxiety
Fear and loss aversion are hard‑wired human traits. Many people avoid investing because they’re scared of “losing it all”, or they’ve only ever heard about stock market crashes.
Andrew’s answer is that the antidote to fear is education:
- Understand what the stock market is, what a bond is, what gold is, how inflation and interest rates work.
- Learn the difference between short‑term volatility and long‑term returns.
- Build a mix of higher‑ and lower‑risk assets that matches your age and stage, so you’re not over‑exposed close to retirement.
Once people grasp the basics, investing becomes no more difficult than learning to drive. The rules are knowable, and if you follow them consistently, crashes become events to ride out rather than catastrophes.
Why financial wellbeing belongs in every workplace
For Sara and Andrew, financial wellbeing is not a “nice‑to‑have” extra. It is a core pillar of overall wellbeing, alongside mental and physical health.
Research shows that:
- Money worries are one of the top causes of stress, anxiety and relationship strain, and directly affect performance at work.
- Many employees don’t understand basic financial products, including pensions and ISAs, and lack confidence managing their money.
Andrew argues that employers can make a tangible difference by:
- Giving employees access to plain‑English financial education—books, workshops, or webinars that explain inflation, ISAs, pensions, compounding and budgeting without jargon.
- Embedding financial wellbeing into wider wellbeing strategies, recognising how strongly money worries and mental health interact.
When employees understand how to invest for the long term, use tax‑efficient accounts and build resilience against shocks, their stress levels fall and their ability to focus, perform and plan ahead rises. It’s a win‑win for individuals and organisations.
If your organisation is UK‑ or US‑based and you want to support financial wellbeing in a way that genuinely changes lives, contact us about our financial wellbeing webinars.
