Gratitude holds a BCom (Finance) and BCom (Hons) in Financial Planning from the University of Johannesburg and recently passed her Post Graduate Diploma in Investment Planning with the University of Free State. Gratitude completed her board exams in 2020 and is currently gaining the necessary experience to have full accreditation as a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® in early 2022. She is presently an Articled Financial Planner at Chartered Wealth Solutions and a member of the Women in Finance Network.
Her passion for Financial Planning stems from experiencing how her immediate family, friends and community at large have had unhealthy relationships with money and the impact that this has had on their lives, more specifically when it comes to their retirement. She aims to help clients live fulfilled lives, empowered with knowledge and peace of mind in their pursuit of happiness.
Starting in financial planning as a young black female was hard for Gratitude because of the sales requirements, which the industry is moving away from. The majority of the job posts required the applicant to have a car, a laptop, and the ability to sell. As a graduate coming from the township not meeting these requirements, she wanted to change her career path. However, she was lucky enough that a talent agent saw her LinkedIn profile and referred her to Chartered Wealth Solutions, an FPI Approved practice that has an Articled Planner Programme which pairs graduates with a senior financial planner to learn from.
Gratitude’s favourite quote is “Embrace the suck,” she says that the path to success is not easy and is hardly presented to women on a silver platter, especially in Finance, where women previously occupied “admin roles”. She believes that there is still a lot of learning and unlearning to be done, which requires resilience and challenging conversations. She believes that challenges are inevitable if one wants to grow. Gratitude’s advice to young women entering the industry is to work on their LinkedIn profile. It is similar to any social media platform we already use but helps connect you to like-minded graduates, organisations looking for talent and professionals who are always ready to help give guidance and sponsorship.
