MY LIFE IN NUMBERS
Jordan Groody CA
Founder, Haus of Finance
Jordan Groody CA’s career really took off when, as a young mother, she set out on the path to a degree and her ICAS qualification. Now a business owner, Cambridge master’s student, mentor, angel investor and CA Rising Star, she talks about financial education, the time she met the Queen and her idea of fun
4
I was born in Sunderland, then when I was five, we moved up to Aberdeen as a family. I’ve got three sisters and there’s only six years between all of us, so we’re best friends in the world, like four peas in a pod. We lived in the middle of nowhere in a farmhouse. It wasn’t a working farm – my stepfather worked in the oil industry – it was just a farmhouse. So we were constantly having to use our imagination, building dens, trying to sell rhubarb – at the end of a farm road, where there was no traffic. And we’re sitting there, like, why have we had no sales?
4
I was born in Sunderland, then when I was five, we moved up to Aberdeen as a family. I’ve got three sisters and there’s only six years between all of us, so we’re best friends in the world, like four peas in a pod. We lived in the middle of nowhere in a farmhouse. It wasn’t a working farm – my stepfather worked in the oil industry – it was just a farmhouse. So we were constantly having to use our imagination, building dens, trying to sell rhubarb – at the end of a farm road, where there was no traffic. And we’re sitting there, like, why have we had no sales?
10
My mum was mainly at home looking after us kids, but she’d always have little businesses, like a cleaning business, for example. After my stepfather left the oil industry they really stepped it up. But I could see growing up that she really liked the freedom it gave her, and I think that gave me my entrepreneurial streak.
When I was about 10, at primary school, we made a magazine and I desperately wanted to be the treasurer, the one in charge of the money. And when I got my petty cash tin, I was like, “I’m the captain of the ship. Just stay away. I’ll sort it.” I took the role pretty seriously, so I’ve always had a love of… not necessarily spending money, but making and handling money.
10
My mum was mainly at home looking after us kids, but she’d always have little businesses, like a cleaning business, for example. After my stepfather left the oil industry they really stepped it up. But I could see growing up that she really liked the freedom it gave her, and I think that gave me my entrepreneurial streak.
When I was about 10, at primary school, we made a magazine and I desperately wanted to be the treasurer, the one in charge of the money. And when I got my petty cash tin, I was like, “I’m the captain of the ship. Just stay away. I’ll sort it.” I took the role pretty seriously, so I’ve always had a love of… not necessarily spending money, but making and handling money.
21
As a child I was intelligent, but easily distracted, so I didn’t perform as well as I should have at school. I didn’t go to university straight away, but worked in administrative accounts jobs at Porsche, Land Rover and a couple of oil companies. But when I turned 21 and had a baby girl, I thought I’d need a degree if I was going to have a proper career. So I went to Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen to study accountancy and finance. My daughter was four months old when I started my degree, and four when I graduated with a first.
21
As a child I was intelligent, but easily distracted, so I didn’t perform as well as I should have at school. I didn’t go to university straight away, but worked in administrative accounts jobs at Porsche, Land Rover and a couple of oil companies. But when I turned 21 and had a baby girl, I thought I’d need a degree if I was going to have a proper career. So I went to Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen to study accountancy and finance. My daughter was four months old when I started my degree, and four when I graduated with a first.
120
I was aware of ICAS and the CA qualification by the time I came out of university. I would never have stopped midway with just a degree – that would be like studying to become a doctor and then never going to work in a hospital. That’s just not my personality. So I knew qualifying as a CA was always going to be my next step. At university, you’re in a cohort of around 120 people and everyone’s applying for the same jobs. Fortunately, I got an offer with Azets in Aberdeen.
3
I’m not going to lie – it was a tough three years doing the CA with a very young child to care for, particularly for the final year, which was during the pandemic. Home-schooling, lockdown, professional exams, full-time job… I can’t pretend that was fun, but I honestly don’t regret any of it. The life I have now comes from the hard work I put in then. So yes, I would do the exact same again – absolute no-brainer.
2022
After Azets, I moved to EY in 2022, still in Aberdeen. Our clients included some of the biggest oil companies in the world, and it was amazing getting that kind of exposure. Then I joined the Edinburgh Ace EY team, which is fully remote, doing audits, but helping out with other areas. I moved back to north-east England, to Durham, where I am now.
2022
After Azets, I moved to EY in 2022, still in Aberdeen. Our clients included some of the biggest oil companies in the world, and it was amazing getting that kind of exposure. Then I joined the Edinburgh Ace EY team, which is fully remote, doing audits, but helping out with other areas. I moved back to north-east England, to Durham, where I am now.
50
Edinburgh Ace was headed by a partner, Tom. He was just incredible, really accommodating, and I was starting to pick up my own clients on the side. It took off incredibly quickly and within six months I had about 50 clients. Coming off CA training, I was used to 70-hour weeks, but that amount of outside work was only sustainable for so long. I always knew I was going to work for myself, but this rapid growth meant I left EY in 2024 to set up my own practice, Haus of Finance, a lot sooner than I’d expected.
5
I’m a great believer in financial education. So many people – even in full-time professional jobs, like HR or logistics or what have you – don’t even know the basics. They don’t know how much they should be putting in their pension or what an ISA is – things like that. I don’t gatekeep information. I feel incredibly lucky to have so many clients and I believe in giving back. Why wouldn’t I spread this basic information, which is going to improve people’s lives, as widely as possible? So I often use social media to post simple messages, like five ways to pay less tax or tips for running a small business.
18
Then I got some work with WOW – Women of the World, doing a few talks, a presentation at Middlesbrough Theatre and mentoring for girls in school in Durham. I also went to a female founders event at Cambridge, and one of the girls – she was maybe 18, a computer science student there – reached out to me on LinkedIn after. She said, “I think it’s amazing what you’ve done. Would you mentor me?” And I thought, that’s really ballsy for an 18-year-old just to come out with that. So I’m trying to find where I can be most useful to everyone else.
18
Then I got some work with WOW – Women of the World, doing a few talks, a presentation at Middlesbrough Theatre and mentoring for girls in school in Durham. I also went to a female founders event at Cambridge, and one of the girls – she was maybe 18, a computer science student there – reached out to me on LinkedIn after. She said, “I think it’s amazing what you’ve done. Would you mentor me?” And I thought, that’s really ballsy for an 18-year-old just to come out with that. So I’m trying to find where I can be most useful to everyone else.
15
I went to a WOW event at St James’s Palace to mark International Women’s Day and 15 years of WOW. It was hosted by Queen Camilla, and Helen Mirren and Miriam Margolyes were there, everyone just mingling and talking to each other, no stuffiness or formality. It was very much in line with the work I do on financial education and independence and why women shouldn’t have to rely on men.
There’s a picture of me standing next to Queen Camilla. She’s around 5ft 8in, so not a short woman, but I’m towering over her in my heels. I’m actually 5ft 10in and was standing next to a woman of about the same height, but you wouldn’t know it from that picture because she was cropped out – and I’m left looking like a giant. My boyfriend has a laugh about this, saying they all look like little elves. I’m like, “Listen, the cameraman did the dirty on me!”
£200m
I’m part of an angel investing group in the north-east, Unity Angels. It’s like Dragons’ Den, people come in and pitch and we’ll decide whether we want to invest in them. The founders, Ciaron and Rebecca, have this great vision of keeping amazing businesses in the north-east by providing investment, mentoring and advice. It’s a really wonderful group.
I’m invested in a couple of incredibly smart, 20-something women with this great new credit-rating system for people with lower scores who might struggle to get credit elsewhere. They’ve got about £200m of investment already – so obviously I was just a tiny fraction of that. But that’s going to go really big, hopefully. That was my most recent investment and I’m pretty excited about that.
22
I’m doing an executive master’s in accounting at Cambridge – it’s called ‘executive’ because we all have full-time jobs, either at senior level or as business owners. So other people on the course include the head of fintech of a major bank, Wall Street bankers and so on… I’ve no idea how I’ve managed to squeeze in there! There’s 22 people on the course and only three of us are in the UK. There’s a lot of good technology content in the course, a lot about financial modelling, statistics and probabilities.
And the lecturers are government advisers, for example, people unbelievably experienced and high up in their field. I’m blessed to be able to do it. And I adore learning – I’m obsessed with learning. Someone said to me not long ago, “Jordan, you need to start having fun.” I said, “But this is my idea of fun.”
22
I’m doing an executive master’s in accounting at Cambridge – it’s called ‘executive’ because we all have full-time jobs, either at senior level or as business owners. So other people on the course include the head of fintech of a major bank, Wall Street bankers and so on… I’ve no idea how I’ve managed to squeeze in there! There’s 22 people on the course and only three of us are in the UK. There’s a lot of good technology content in the course, a lot about financial modelling, statistics and probabilities.
And the lecturers are government advisers, for example, people unbelievably experienced and high up in their field. I’m blessed to be able to do it. And I adore learning – I’m obsessed with learning. Someone said to me not long ago, “Jordan, you need to start having fun.” I said, “But this is my idea of fun.”
35
I won the Best Lone Wolf Accountancy Award in 2024, in recognition of getting so many clients at such an early stage. That was wonderful, but obviously I was even more thrilled to be named one of the 35 CA Rising Stars 2025 by ICAS. Being chosen by ICAS is the peak, isn’t it? I think that was because of the stuff I do around financial education, so to be recognised for something which I’m doing just because I enjoy it is a win-win.
35
I won the Best Lone Wolf Accountancy Award in 2024, in recognition of getting so many clients at such an early stage. That was wonderful, but obviously I was even more thrilled to be named one of the 35 CA Rising Stars 2025 by ICAS. Being chosen by ICAS is the peak, isn’t it? I think that was because of the stuff I do around financial education, so to be recognised for something which I’m doing just because I enjoy it is a win-win.
12
My daughter will be 12 by the time anyone’s reading this, so I’m on the home stretch now. She loves horse-riding, and she gets to do a lot of that. And I spend a lot of time in the gym and doing yoga and Pilates. I had a lot of years of struggle to be able to give us a nice life. So now that we’re in a position to, I want us both to enjoy it.
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