Sarah Roughsedge

"Whose secretary are you?" I heard some version of that question at least a dozen times in my first year as a financial adviser. I was the only woman in the room, often the only person under 40, and apparently far too young and female to be taken seriously. If this was how I was being treated within my profession as a qualified financial planner, what must it be like for other women trying to navigate this world as clients? That question never left me. Over the years, I watched a pattern emerge. Successful, intelligent women — doctors, business owners, executives — would sit across from me and say the same thing: "I'm not very good with money." "I don't really understand this stuff." "I feel so stupid when it comes to investing." These weren't stupid women. They were brilliant women who'd been conditioned from childhood to believe that money and investing wasn't for them. That it was a secret club with a membership only for men. That's why I founded Eva Wealth Management for Women. And that's why I wrote this book.