Pension provider Aegon has rolled out an online tool to help 45 million people in the UK improve their financial wellbeing.
It will help them assess the role that mindset and money play in their own financial wellbeing and to make improvements.
The tool is based on Aegon’s recent report Aegon’s Financial Wellbeing Index, which measures both the health of people’s financial position and the critical role that mindset plays in influencing financial wellbeing.
The report found that more than 19 million people (36%) in the UK are struggling with their financial wellbeing and that just 16% of the population or around 8.6 million people are fortunate to combine healthy finances and a positive money mindset.
Details
The tool asks 10 questions taken from Aegon Financial Wellbeing survey. Each question will be scored out of 10.
It uses five questions on money and five questions on mindset to draw conclusions about the financial wellbeing score of the individual.
Once the individual has responded to each of the questions a score is displayed, benchmarked against an average score and showing their current financial wellbeing strengths and areas for improvement and outlining the steps they need to consider to improve.
The tool will then provide insight and a range of links, resources, facts and information based on the elements they’ve scored lowest in to put them on the path to better financial wellbeing.
‘Reframe’ thoughts about money
Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon, said: “Financial wellbeing is a very personal topic and that’s why we’re launching our financial wellbeing tool.
“People like to know where their strengths and weaknesses lie and how they compare with others like them. They also like to track how they are progressing or improving. Our new tool does that and most importantly, provides people with tailored information and relevant material to change their behaviours and improve their financial wellbeing both now and in the future.
“What we’ve found is that for most people, the biggest improvement they could make to financial wellbeing is to reframe the way they think about money – their ‘mindset’.
“It’s not always possible to make quick changes to your level of income or savings but by thinking about what sort of future you’re working towards, and the steps you’ll need to get there or by making more realistic social comparisons, you can make big strides towards a better relationship with your money.
“The new Aegon tool offers more than a score, it offers support to bring your personal financial wellbeing to life so it can be a practical priority, every day, for everyone.”