I am so excited to be contributing to the #WomenRockMoney collaboration on International Women’s Day, 2018! Thank you to Chelsea at MamaFishSaves for organizing the #WomenRockMoney collaboration. She also designed the graphic shown above.

A link to all posts via the #WomenRockMoney landing page is at the end of this post. 

If we could sit down together over a cup of coffee or tea with the intention of discussing financial literacy, you could tell me where you are on your journey. Instead, I will use this post to share some money-related advice that I want ALL women to know and you can contribute to the conversation by leaving a comment below.

Women of the world, you are incredibly and wonderfully made! Each of you have been gifted with an incredible brain, multiple talents, and your own unique personality. You have a purpose on this beautiful planet Earth.

Since you were born, you have been exposed to an immense variety of activities. You’ve been delighted by some activities and not interested in or not exposed to others. You’ve spent your life trying to find that which makes you come alive.

While you were loving all your various sports, hobbies, musical lessons, classes of choice, etc., you were also soaking up experiences and attitudes about money, jobs, and finances, possibly without even noticing.

How does math, money, and personal finance fit with your passions?

Growing up, I really did enjoy math and I still do. I’m not talking about calculus. You don’t need that to manage your finances. Simple math will take care of most of your needs.

I also enjoy the day-to-day tasks involved with managing my family’s finances, with my husband’s involvement, of course. To me, an ideal day of catching up around the house includes the opportunity to enter receipts into the budget software and pay upcoming bills.

I understand not every woman loves being her own personal or family accountant. You may instead enjoy completing other responsibilities associated with managing adult life that I don’t particularly like.

However, you need to know that managing your finances is SO IMPORTANT and ignoring or not understanding your finances can be detrimental. It is an area of adulthood that cannot be neglected.

A few examples:

• Debt can be suffocating. It can make you feel like you’ll never get ahead, and it can take away your freedom to react to opportunities.
• Excessive spending isn’t going to satisfy you. Piling up more stuff does not bring true joy.
• Retiring without any savings leaves you in a vulnerable spot at an age when you may not be able to work to make ends meet.

Coming from a place of encouragement: As an adult, whether you like it or not, you “get” to manage your own personal finances. Even if you’re married and your spouse prefers to handle the finances, you need to be involved at some level. This is your life. It is important that you spend less than you make and save the rest for emergencies and future needs. Your future self will thank you.

You Know Not What Your Future Holds

Consider this: our best plans and intentions for our future get knocked off track. We live on a beautiful planet but in an imperfect world. Ask your friends, extended family, and coworkers for examples of life gone astray.

A few examples:

• Many well-intentioned couples who say “I do” at the altar don’t make it to “until death do us part.” If the wife was the stay-at-home-with-the-kids parent, it is typically she who is in the more difficult place to get back on her feet employment-wise.

• Statistics show that more women outlive their husbands. Look at the statement made by Jean Chatzky in this article on www.thebalance.com: “Some 80 percent of married women outlive their husbands, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Unfortunately, that death brings with it another stressful event: Almost half of all women who wind up widows say they wish they would have taken a more active role in their finances when their spouses were alive.”

• Once I reached the point where I was ready to put my career aside and be a stay-at-home mom, I did it for several years and I loved it. I filled my days with family and household management and some volunteer time, and I basically abandoned any professional development because I was so happy on the home front. My husband and I were excited to add to our family, and I would have happily stayed home until our newborn(s) started kindergarten. Instead, I had multiple miscarriages in a two-year period. Our dream of more kids was not going to happen naturally. After that, I decided to return to the workforce. Negotiating my rate of pay was more difficult than it would have been if I had made some effort with professional development during the years away from my career.

Actively managing your finances doesn’t guarantee you will avoid challenges in your life, but it can put you in a better place of stability.

Please, become a student of personal finance and engage in this important area of your life. It really is that important. Your financial health depends on it.

Read and Study

• Invest in yourself and never stop learning. From professional development topics to mastering a new skill to learning more about investing, and much, much more, the possibilities are endless.

• In celebration of International Women’s Day, 2018, read the other #WomenRockMoney posts. You can find all of the posts at one convenient location by clicking back to the landing page at www.mamafishsaves.com/womenrockmoney.

• Subscribe to the newly launched www.womenwhomoney.com, which addresses a variety of finance related topics at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. Vicki and Amy are awesome.

• Search the directory of more than 1,500 personal finance bloggers, both men and women, at RockstarFinance.com. You can search by blog type, profession, age, and more.

Take Action

Check out these free resources from crown.org, especially if you’re just getting started:

• Track your spending for a few months to see where your money is going. Here’s a link to a free downloadable form.

• As you get a feel for your spending, draft a budget with this form . Don’t worry about perfecting it immediately. You can refine it each month as you live and learn.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog! I’d love for you to leave a comment below to tell how you will improve your financial position this year. I also encourage you to share it on Twitter or Instagram along with the hashtag #WomenRockMoney. You can follow me there; I’m @UpsizeYourJoy.

I’d also love for you to subscribe to my website. I write about personal finance and having a part-time professional career. You’ll receive notice of new posts within minutes of me hitting “Publish.”

Most of all, remember that YOU ARE incredibly and wonderfully made, and you can do this!