Motivation 'important' in solving money problems
18 October 2007
The key to solving money problems is having the motivation to do something about them, Axa has claimed.
The insurance provider stated that having access to financial advice does not always mean that people will choose to resolve their financial difficulties.
The comments follow the company's Axa Avenue experiment in which ten households on one side of the street were made to see an independent financial advisor (IFA) every month for 12 months, while the ten on the other side were left to fend for themselves.
After 12 months, the ten households who had seen the IFA were on average £5,000 better off per household than the ten on the other side of the street.
"If you actually take some time out and address your finances, it can actually make you better off," Rachel West, a spokesperson for Axa, said.
"The incredible thing was getting people motivated to do it. You can have advice there, but trying to get people to engage and to bother to turn up for meetings. That sort of thing is a hurdle.
"Having advice is all very well but it's about how you motivate and engage people," she concluded.
