Financial planning, farming and FAAA University Student of the Year: Emma McKenzie’s winning approach is a lesson for us all
It’s more appropriate to say that Deakin student Emma McKenzie is scoring, rather than kicking goals, combining her work and studies in financial planning, raising a family, running a farm in regional NSW, with playing netball.
She is so passionate about keeping the sport going in the regional area of her home in Canowindra and its surrounds, that she doesn’t just play on the local team with her stepdaughter, but she also volunteers as secretary of the Cowra Netball Association. “If there aren’t people to give their time to community things like this, they won’t run, and children won’t do sport and it’s going to be a really sad state of affairs,” she states.
Financial planning: A helping hand
It’s this attitude towards contributing to society that has also fuelled her passion for the financial planning industry. For Emma – who is currently completing her Master of Financial Planning online and was last year named University Student of the Year at the Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) Awards – this field is all about the help you can give demystifying an often daunting world.
“It’s not a job per se. It’s driven by people’s altruism,” the 36-year-old says. “[It’s thinking] how do I turn this desire to do good by people into a job. It’s being able to talk about general rules and empowering people, showing it’s not this big scary world that is hidden behind a wealth curtain. There are different models and people available to help them.”
She feels it’s a real privilege to be involved in some of the big milestone discussions with clients. “People are scared of having those conversations, because they feel dumb, they think, ‘I should know about super, pensions, investment properties’. But nobody’s got the time to do everything and that’s the reason that we [financial planners] exist.”
And especially with what she sees around her there’s plenty to back up her assertion. “Plenty of people have a mentality that ‘she’ll be right!’” she explains. “These are conversations that sometimes a husband and wife can’t have with each other. So we’re mediators.”
She’s also found that her studies have been invaluable for managing the books on the sheep and crop farm she helps run with her husband Craig. “Each unit that I did last year directly related to the choices I needed to make with our farm. There were different tax implications, and structural changes that needed to happen and I was able to participate in these high level conversations and not just be a witness to them as a signature.”
From hospitality to high marks
Her journey to financial planning came via another field that also uses strong interpersonal skills. “I was in hospitality management in Sydney for 12 years,” she explains. After relocating to Canowindra, however, she wanted to enter the 9-5 world to regain her nights and weekends. After completing a TAFE course in business administration she started at ground level at a financial planning practice in Orange progressing to implementation manager. Flash forward seven years, and her boss suggested she consider training to be an adviser.
“I said I wasn’t sure about it, but he said that it’s like with financial planning advice. You put people in a position of choice. [So he said] ‘Give yourself an education and then decide if you want to be an advisor after that’.”
She tested the waters with the Graduate Certificate and found herself achieving impressive results. “So I thought, OK, I can do this, it’s manageable,” she says. “I gradually built upon each qualification as I found joy in the process and noticed improvements in my overall knowledge and wellbeing from studying.”
When it was announced that Deakin wouldn’t be offering the Masters past 2025, she took that as a sign to dive right in, and is now four units away from graduating.
Fantastic flexibility
When Emma decided recently she wanted to work from home while her youngest child starts school, another opportunity came her way, as a professional-year associate for a financial planning practice in Canberra. It’s a fully remote position. “My commute has gone from 180km a day to one kilometre,” she says, happily.
From her own experience, she loves that the flexibility in financial planning means that it’s not just clients who have plenty of options – so too do those wanting to work in the field.
“It is such a multi-disciplinary area, and strengths and weaknesses can all be applied differently. People think I must be good at numbers, but maths is not my strong suit. My strength is the relationship side, I can talk to people.”
Her advice for anyone wanting to pursue this field? “Just jump in. There are so many models and specialities that it really is a case of choose your own adventure!”