Helma Sick

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Helma Sick (2019)

Helma Sick , b. Fritz (born in 1941 in the Bavarian Forest ) is a German business economist , financial expert , feminist and non-fiction author . With Frau & Geld , she founded an independent financial consulting company in Munich in 1987 , which specializes in advising women. She is considered the grande dame of financial advice. At the end of the 1970s, Helma Sick was the founding employee and manager of the first women's shelter in Munich for five years .

Life

Helma Sick grew up in a community in the Bavarian Forest in the border region to Bohemia with her eight years older brother. Her father was a former local editor of the Viechtacher Zeitung , who came from a modest rural background , later a businessman and owner of a stationery shop and a passionate beekeeper . Her mother also came from a farm, but grew up in poor conditions with nine siblings. The parents married around 1930.

Helma Sick describes her childhood as full of privation, not very loving and with experience of violence. Because of her good academic achievements, she would have liked to have graduated from high school , which her mother, however, strictly rejected as a young woman. After secondary school , she left her parents' home at the age of 17 and looked for a job as an office assistant in the secretariat of a music conservatory in Munich , but returned to her hometown in the Bavarian Forest after a year because she felt overwhelmed by the big city. After the death of his father, her brother inherited the business and claimed the family home, which deprived Helma Sick of her share of the inheritance. Helma Sick was only granted a lifelong right of residence. In order to earn a living, she had taken a job as a secretary at the Regentalbahn . In parallel to her employment, she offered typewriting courses for young farmers in the region's inns in the winter months in order to improve their finances.

In 1970 Helma Sick left her hometown for good and moved back to Munich. She worked as a secretary for the union's own housing association Neue Heimat and was soon promoted to one of the three chief secretaries, and a few years later to executive secretary. Since Helma Sick was interested in politics, she made two decisive decisions in 1970: She left the Catholic Church and became a member of the SPD . During that time, she trained primarily politically and got in touch with the Working Group of Social Democratic Women ARSP . This commitment was a piece of the puzzle for her later career. “I had found my topic,” she writes in her biography. Giving up was never an option . In addition, she volunteered in an orphanage .

Helma Sick was married to the chemist Erwin Sick from 1972 to 2001 , with whom she had adopted a four-year-old boy in 1982. Today Helma Sick lives in a residence for senior citizens in Munich.

Working as a financial expert

After Helma Sick happened to hear about the plans for a women's shelter for Munich in 1977 , she approached the city's social department and applied to be commercial manager. She resigned from Neue Heimat in 1977 and became the first employee of the model project in Munich. She was responsible for the first financing concepts as well as the current finances, the administration and organization of the house, personnel matters and public relations . After working for five years, she left the women's shelter for parental leave in 1982 .

When she was in her mid-40s, she completed an evening course in business administration during parental leave at the Bavarian Administration and Business Academy VWA . In 1986 Helma Sick started working in a financial sales department and prepared professionally for her own company .

In 1987 she founded the financial advisory company Frau & Geld , with which she specialized in investments and finances for women. The aim is to support and guide women to have their own money in order to lead a dignified, self-determined life in all life situations, economically independent of other people. The one-woman company has grown into a company with ten employees. She has been a member of the FinanzFachFrauen working group since 1988 .

She became known nationwide as a financial expert in 1992 after the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT published a portrait of Helma Sick. She is a speaker in universities , associations and academies. Since 1994 she has written non-fiction books and guides on finance as well as columns in the women's magazines Cosmopolitan , Brigitte and Brigitte Woman on women, money and finance.

Quotes

“Unfortunately, women still like to give up responsibility for their money. Unlike 60 years ago, it was entirely voluntary. And men often react offended when women start to take care of their own things. "

- Helma Sick : A man is not a pension plan, 2015

“Women live riskily. The more I dealt with the topic of women and money, the more I became aware that women run a high risk if they rely solely on their husbands and leave their jobs for years because of the children. If the marriage goes wrong, they are usually the messed up. "

- Helma Sick : Giving up was never an option, 2018

Works

  • Helma Sick: wife & money. A financial advisor. Piper, Munich 2000, ISBN 978-3-492-23012-4 .
  • Helma Sick: How a woman makes her bed. Paths to Prosperity in Old Age. Piper, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-492-22864-0 .
  • Helma Sick: If I were rich: Dreaming is good, planning is better. Diana, Munich 2009, ISBN 3-453-28508-5 .
  • with Renate Fritz: Nice prospects: Don't be afraid of old age! How women can best provide financially. Diana, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-453-35448-7 .
  • Helma Sick: Invest cleverly: The financial guide for young women. Diana, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-453-35644-3 .
  • with Renate Fritz: Rich retired. How women can best provide for themselves. Diana Verlag, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-453-38017-2 .
  • Helma Sick: Rich for beginners. The financial guide for young women. Diana, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-453-38018-9 .
  • with Renate Schmidt: A man is not a pension plan. Why financial independence is so important to women. Kösel, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-466-34594-6 .
  • Helma Sick: Giving up was never an option. Why I fight for women to have their own money. Kösel, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-466-34684-4 .

Web links

Commons : Helma Sick  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helma Sick: Giving up was never an option. Why I fight for women to have their own money. Kösel, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-466-34684-4 , p. 11-20 .
  2. ↑ FrauTV: Helma Sick - For financial independence of women. WDR, May 28, 2020, accessed June 8, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e Lydia Lange: Helma Sick - Better unromantic than poor. rbbKultur The Talk, December 29, 2019, accessed on June 8, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Claudia Münster: Helma Sick: The best investment of my life was therapy ". Brigitte, July 31, 2019, accessed on June 8, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b Frauke Oppenberg: Why Helma Sick is fighting for women to have their own money. SWR2 Tandem, December 18, 2018, accessed June 8, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Helma Sick: Giving up was never an option. Why I fight for women to have their own money . Kösel, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-466-34684-4 , p. 75-77 .
  7. ↑ Helma Sick: Giving up was never an option. Why I fight for women to have their own money. Kösel, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-466-34684-4 , p. 252 .
  8. ↑ An interview with Katrin Heise: Financial advisor Helma Sick - Working for the financial independence of women. Deutschlandfunk Kultur, April 21, 2020, accessed on June 8, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Sick, Helma
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German financial advisor and company founder
DATE OF BIRTH 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Bavarian forest