One woman’s story of going from homelessness and domestic violence to financial independence - The Prosperity Project

Emily Owens faced adversity on her path to financial independence.

Emily Owens has grim personal experience of adversity and financial insecurity – from sleeping in her car, feeling trapped by domestic violence, and becoming a widowed single mother at age 20 when her son was just 5 weeks old.

But she’s channelled that experience into a meaningful career focused on helping others make good financial decisions.

She shared her story of survival and finding purpose with Nadine Higgins on The Prosperity Project podcast to mark International Women’s Day, and to offer hope to those struggling.

“It could have been a whole lot worse for me and I sure haven’t done everything right and it did take me a long time to learn a few lessons, but I think that one foot in front of the other is the best thing to be doing and having that optimism that things can be better.”

Owens encourages others to reach out for help – crediting the charities and social agencies that helped change the trajectory of her life.

“It helped me pay my rent a lot. It helped pay some of my uni fees, other organisations helped to encourage education. Other organisations like the Dress for Success were able to literally give me some clothes that I could wear and that really was amazing.”

She’s pleased more organisations are now asking questions she was never asked.

“These days, I notice when I go to a medical appointment, one of the most common questions is, “are you safe at home?”, and that didn’t happen back then.”

Her career in finance started in a bank call centre, as she balanced parenting with earning income, and lit a fire in her.

“My discussions with thousands of banking clients for many years really solidified my enjoyment of talking people through their products, listing alternatives, looking for whether what they’re doing is good for them or not so good for them”

Now an investment adviser at AdviceFirst, she’s focused on paying it forward.

“I really think about the women in my life and how important it is for me to give them hope about their financial situation ... ensuring that if there are people that are needing help, that they know that they can send people my way for a chat.”

Listen to the full episode of The Prosperity Project for more of Emily Owens’ story.

The podcast is hosted by Nadine Higgins, an experienced broadcaster and a financial adviser at Enable Me.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Monday.