“Before you invest in something invest in time to understand it”
Due to the multiple roles that women play on a daily basis, as household managers, consumers or as business owners, sound financial management is extremely important.
Women live an average of five years longer than men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With more time in retirement, your money will need to last longer to cover living and healthcare expenses.
Women lacking competency in financial literacy face serious repercussions, such as taking on large amounts of credit card debt, defaulting on student loans, and experiencing difficulty managing income, taxes, and investments,
Financial tips
“A woman’s best protection is the little money of her own.”
Clare Booth
- Prepare a monthly budget: Plan your expenses for a given period and monitor if you have spent more than you originally planned.
- The secret to generating wealth is money management. One of the ways is to divide the money into specific accounts for specific purposes and relate each account to an area of your life – and to use it only for that purpose.
- Aim to accumulate to invest, generate returns and more income. It is good to be an active investor.
- Create an emergency fund and contingencies.
- Think about tomorrow: It is never too early or too late to design a retirement and savings plan.
- Build your credit history:
The expectation of living longer
“A big part of financial freedom is having your heart and mind free from worry about the what-ifs of life.”
Suze Orman
Consider balancing growth-oriented investments with guaranteed and more stable income sources in retirement.
- Social Security benefits, which are available to you beginning at age 62, unless you meet certain requirements
- Pensions
- Annuities in payout
- Certificates of deposit through a bank, which earn a fixed interest rate
Get the prenup
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.”
A prenuptial agreement (“prenup” for short) is a written contract created by two people before they are married. A prenup typically lists all of the property each person owns (as well as any debts) and specifies what each person’s property rights will be after the marriage.
Saving and Spending Strategies – A prenuptial agreement should address the couple’s future financial plans, including investment and retirement strategies. It should also cover how much income is to be paid into joint and/or separate bank accounts, and whether or not their will be any specific spending allowances.
“Consider getting a prenuptial agreement if you’re getting married. You always hear about prenups in the context of men protecting their assets, but they are there to protect yours too. Even if your partner outearns you now, it doesn’t mean that will always be the case.” —Christina Stembel, founder and CEO of Farmgirl Flowers
Pregnancy & Married Life May Hinder Career Goals. Even today, married women find it harder to get a job than unmarried women. Because many hiring managers and companies think that after marriage, a girl’s primary focus is on her family and kids, not work. So, plan your finances well in advance.
