Women Helping Women Create a Richer Future
Last night was a financially successful one for about 30 women in attendance at a Savvy Ladies event. And, can you believe it?....not a dollar was exchanged!
Daily Worth’s Jennifer Barrett and Jocelyn Black Hodespresented “10 Reasons You’re Not Yet Rich”, along with solutions (or, in WAC words, some baby-steps toward financial success).
There was a powerful, tangible suggestion offered to “automate everything”— to set up systems for socking away savings while you pay bills. The best advice: take FULL advantage of your 401K options. This is a direct analogy to one of my favorite sayings, “Work expands to the time allotted”: Let’s call it “Spending expands to the money allotted”. We are encouraged to take the fear out of this sense of depriving ourselves, and just try it for a year. If it doesn’t work, we can always opt for a smaller percentage to be taken out. But the formula dictates that people seldom lower their contribution amount.
Other points involve some cerebral re-wiring. Women are becoming the breadwinners more commonly in our society. Between single-parent households and the changing dynamic in traditional roles, we as women need to change our mindset in two ways
Men begin to build savings earlier. If women realize that “time in the market is more important than timing the market”, financial advancement will follow. In other words, longevity in the market will pay off long-term for the patient amongst us. Starting small, now, does not equate to aiming small.
We need to take care of ourselves first, not last. By taking care of ourselves, we are better equipped to take care of others. I suggest that if we deem this a priority, we can all find 30 minutes per day to do something healthy for ourselves.
A rewiring bonus: Stop loading up on self-imposed guilt. Yes, it may be ideal for you to be with your child more, but if you must work to support your family, the more guilt you’re weighed-down by, the less engaged you’ll be in doing great work. And, I firmly believe that it’s quality of time, not quantity of time that benefits a child (More on that in a future discussion).
Not only did I walk away with food for thought, I can now put faces and personalities behind the words I read on the Daily Worth website.