Elizabeth Caley spent most of her adult life working in retail, but when the Covid-19 pandemic hit she decided to change jobs, and used all of her savings to kickstart her advice career.
According to government figures, one in four employees in the UK were put on furlough at some point between March 2020 and June 2021.
Caley, a law graduate, had been working in luxury department store Liberty London when the pandemic struck and was one of the workers placed on furlough, before eventually deciding to take voluntary redundancy.
“A lot of people during the pandemic had that time to reflect and for me I wanted to do something a bit more future-proof but that also still had that personable element.
"People say it’s a big change from retail into advice - but it is and it isn’t really.
“It’s still people and it’s still helping people achieve something they want to achieve in their life, whether it is with clothes or finances,” Caley said.
“Finance is probably a bit more responsible,” she added.
Now, three years on from the first lockdown, at age 36, Caley is a self-employed independent financial adviser working under the banner of Aegis Financial Planning.
Taking the leap into self-employment was not easy, Caley said.
“I went in completely blind,” she admitted.
“I didn’t understand how much of the industry was self-employed or how to go about getting clients but I would say because there are so few female advisers, it’s probably easier to get into the industry.”
“A lot of places want female advisers, and young advisers. It’s funny, in retail I’m really old but in financial advice I’m really young. So I quite enjoy that.”
Dreams of homeownership
Caley budgeted to earn nothing for the first two years, meaning that she had to drastically change her plans in the short to medium term.
She said: “That felt like the very worst case scenario. In the early stages, it’s hard. Even if you meet someone who is looking for an adviser, it takes time. It’s a steep learning curve.”
Before working in the industry, Caley was not aware of the lack of diversity, but she thinks that the perception of wealth is one that can be a barrier of entry to many.
“I don’t think it’s very British to talk about money and earnings, a lot of people find talking about it really distasteful but a lot of what we do is helping give people the freedom to make the decisions they want to make,” Caley said.
She used her own experience as an example of this: “For me, a lot of what I can do now in terms of career changing came from a massive place of privilege. All of the years I worked in retail I didn’t really earn very much, but I made sure I saved enough to be able to buy a house.”
