It sounds like a oxymoron, doesn’t it?! Economists have gained a reputation of perennial negativity. If the economy is doing well, they predict it to go down. If the economy is doing badly, it is predicted to worsen. This is where Susan Hayes is different. Indeed, her degree in economics has provided her with a fantastic, educated lens through which to look at the world, but that doesn’t mean that she is blinkered from reality.

According to Susan, there are many things to be positive about among this cloud of recession. With falling prices, low interest rates and drastically improved customer service, Ireland is a nicer, yet tougher, place to do business in. Susan is certainly not looking through rose tinted glasses, she knows that everybody is suffering. Hardened times are not nice, but let’s think about it, the boom was putting us under pressure too. Constantly rising prices, fly by night businesses taking customer share, apalling customer service and evaporating foreign direct investment.

Biography

Susan has a BSc (Hons) Financial Maths & Economics and recently passed Level 2 of the CFA designation (Chartered Financial Analyst). She comments on economic, banking and investment matters regularly on national and regional radio stations including RTE Radio 1, Today FM and Newstalk, LM FM, Galway Bay FM, Live 95 FM etc. Susan forms part of a number of expert groups working with the Department of Education in relation to Economics, Accounting and Business subjects taught up to Leaving Cert. She speaks at a diverse range of events on themes, including delivering “Emerging from the Boom”, as keynote speaker, at this year’s Dept of Education Economics Conference. Susan has introduced "Wall Street to the Classroom" through creating a resource, completely for free, for business studies teachers. She began investing at eighteen using her Communion money to get her started in the stock market. Susan has set up a comprehensive training and mentoring facility for Irish investors to learn how to generate an income from their portfolios in all market conditions. Susan previously worked with the InvestR Centre in training hundreds of people in how to be successful in the stock market as well as co-ordinating several investment clubs and delivering training to numerous groups of people in this area.