What Matters 2023 – Human Finance Trends

Do you feel it? It’s different this time, right? New Year 2023. No back to normal. Are you anxious or excited? Perhaps a bit of both…

The evidence is: we are at a unique point in time, caught between old and new Worlds…an unprecedented level of uncertainty, technology accelerating, nudging and nudging us…to go forward, faster.

Pausing if we can for a moment, we seem to have arrived at an event horizon, teetering on the edge…surveying what some call a brittle and fragmented World…better perhaps in some ways, worse in others…hard for many to make sense of. And amid all this chaos…our What Matters Report 2023 speaks to people’s imaginations with 4 Meaning Drivers and 12 trends that are grounded in what we truly need.

3. Relationships that Enrich Us

So brands will give more access to a range of financial supports, hopefully empowering many peoples’ lives for the better…But you could be forgiven if you felt lonelier and more detached in this brave new world that is emerging.

Just as many of our kids are emerging to more consciously approach friendships after Covid lockdowns, we are all going to become more intentional with and choosier in our relationships. We have realised the impact of socialisation on our health and wellbeing in general. Gyms and health clubs are fast becoming social clubs. New platforms are helping us to co-own homes and co-share living spaces. Nationwide promises to keep branches open in remote communities where people face loneliness.

Yet likely many social connections will remain online. Those of us working ‘home alone’ can now dial into virtual co-working worlds to be “present” with a “flock” of similar home workers. One platform offers “compassionate comedians,” trained in mental wellbeing and killer one-liners, to bring your employees together through the power of shared laughter.

Inevitably, we will be drawn to more intimate, so called “niche communities” to connect with like-minded people who share our interests, concerns and questions. For finance, we can expect the continued growth in personal finance communities, as well as ever present Finfluencers or FinTokkers who for Gen Z especially “speak our language,” distil complex principles into digestible formats, and educate us based on their own mistakes and lessons.

If that isn’t enough to keep you on the computer in your home office or spare bedroom, consider that many leading banks have already made a stake in the metaverse and become friendlier to NRT, digital currencies and crypto…For those of you who have had a light sabre duel with Darth Vader using Occulus Quest, it’s clear there is opportunity for some of our dreary financial interactions to get a lot more interesting…No wonder banks are falling over themselves to get a stake in the land of the metaverse…with aspirations to build branches, ATMs, games, art galleries, conferences, training, concerts and more in this new world – keen to reinvent experiences to inspire and educate customers in new ways.

For those looking for deeper financial connections, expect crowdfunding and P2P platforms to grow…blockchain will also be used to test new financial models like lending circles, friendship-based insurance offers you the ability to own and have a stake in your favourite football team’s success, and who knows…maybe the power of decentralized “we” will even revolutionize the whole capitalist system as we know it.

4. Guardians for the Universe

Finally, we need to talk about the Planet…in the grand scheme of things (and people)… With all the talk so far about personal empowerment, inclusivity and collaboration you would be right to have the impression we are seeing a broader shift in finance… away from the Gordon Gecko, ”greed is good”, type “Masters of the Universe”. Indeed, as many look to more regenerative futures, the traditional kind of winner takes all world of finance, striving for material accumulation of wealth no matter the cost is challenged.

With uncertainty being the only given, we’re in need of something to hold onto; we need hope to deal with these hard times. From connecting to nature and the universe around us, to stimulating our senses, we’re finding ways to cope and establish meaning via phenomena that are higher in power and purpose.

The green finance ecosystem is expanding rapidly: consumer payments / rewards with automated carbon accounting, green investment platforms, environment risk analysis for insurance, public/private investments projects promoting biodiversity and so on. Whilst we are seeing lots more activity in this space, so much more needs to be done, especially at tangible local community levels, rather than just broader global goals, or worse just communications which risk criticism of greenwashing. What’s interesting is that as we strive for hope in the future, spirituality and finance maybe more connected than you think. After all who hasn’t tried to manifest themselves a bit more luck in their investments?

More seriously Islamic finance and fintech is expanding, and in the US we see the popularity of biblical wealth management events for example.

For the more secular among us there are global insurers like Zurich who have positioned their brand around ‘informed optimism’.