Ladies, if you are reading this, chances are you are someone who has the desire to improve and thrive in life. We believe the ladies we have in our community are intelligent women filled with ambitions and passion to learn, and we are proud of you. Now one important part of a fulfilled life is money. Yes, you know we love talking about money and affluent mindset. This time, we will provide you with a simple guide to money and finance that will help you navigate this category of your life in a better way.
Now we are not going to talk about all the Wall Street money and financial terms or anything like that because we don’t believe we have the certifications for that and we don’t want to mislead you. Nor is this a fixed financial advice or a practical guide on how to make money fast, this is not what this post about. We still recommend you to consult with a financial advisor or fiduciary for that.
What we will talk about is the whole concept of money and financial stability for intelligent ladies out there. Some things to understand when it comes down to your finances, some challenges you may face and how to avoid the traps some women face when it comes down to handling your personal finance.
1. Never Settle with a NON Provider Man
Now, this is a classic knowledge if you have been around with us for a while. We are not into 50/50 relationship and believe they don’t work as well for several reasons. As an intelligent lady you should never settle with a non-provider man who asks you to split the bill 50/50 or someone who is not willing to spend his money for you.
We are not saying you have to marry a millionaire or a billionaire (although it will give you an extra advantage, financially) but you do want to be with a man who treats you the way you are supposed to be treated.
Your man should at least give you some allowance and shopping fund, no matter how small or large the amount may be.
It is the man’s job to provide for his woman and as an intelligent lady, you should allow yourself to be provided for.
2. Have A Saving / Investment Account
As an intelligent lady, you must always have a saving account for yourself.
Now we say you should have two different saving account, one is your personal saving account and the other one is an emergency fund for rainy days, which we will talk about later. A saving account is an account you use to save money for something.
If you have a dream that require you to save up, you can save your money into your saving account so you don’t “accidentally” spend it on something else. Better, make another account used as investment account.
Instead of allowing your money to go down in value due to inflation, you can invest them and allow them to grow overtime. Although we have to warn you to never invest in something you do not understand.
It doesn’t matter if all the news say Crypto or NFT is the hottest thing. If you don’t fully understand it yourself, don’t invest in it.
Invest in something you have full understanding of and make money while you sleep.
If you have a retirement account, that’s great. However, you can also explore other options. Some of our personal favorites are mutual funds and index fund. They are good if you are just starting out and don’t want to think too much about your investment.
3. Always Prepare for Rainy Days
Life is unpredictable. You never know what tomorrow will bring, you can never be too careful when it comes down to your money. As an intelligent woman, you must always have an emergency fund and some forms of life insurance.
Having an emergency account will help you during tough times which may occur in your life. This will be your safety net in case something goes wrong.
The key is to NEVER touch it unless it’s an emergency and you really need the money. After you place your money here, pretend the account does not exist and work with what you have.
4. Have Your Own Streams of Income
This may sound contradictory to the first point we make, but here is one thing we would suggest you ladies to do.
Even if you are married to a millionaire or a billionaire and live life full of comfort, you still need to have your own stream of income unrelated to your spouse’s money.
Sure, he can help you funded it in the beginning, but after that you must work on it yourself. Why? Because you never know what life will bring to your front door.
What if one day he cheats on you or you go through a divorce? Or if he suddenly dies without leaving you anything behind (believe us, we’ve seen cases like this happened before).
We believe you should never rely fully on a man. If you are a full time housewife and homemaker, you can still have your own stream of income from home.
Thanks to technology, there are plenty of side hustles you can do even if you have a job already or stay at home.
This way, even if your man leaves or something unexpected happen, you can still support yourself (and your children if you have them).
5. Diversify Your Income and Assets
It is important to diversify your income and asset, simply because you don’t know what the future is like. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket, cause if the basket falls, all the eggs would fall down and crack.
You want to have several streams of income or have several forms of asset just in case if something happen to one of your income, you are not completely ruined financially.
This should go for your partner as well. It is important for you to find a partner with this sort of mindset, that way if something happens to a section of the market, your family is still safe financially.
6. Spend Below Your Means but Don’t Be Frugal
As women, we love to shop. It is in our DNA and sometimes it can be a great stress reliever. However, it is also important to remain in control of our own finances and avoid spending too much beyond our means.
Credit card debt is only good for buying assets that could generate more income, so make sure you are not taking in debts you cannot pay for liabilities.
Also if you live in countries like US, pay attention to your credit score and make sure that you fix them if their number is low. Otherwise, you will have difficulties later on.
We recommend you to use your credit card to shop if you have enough bank balance to cover it up, this will improve your credit score, get you extra points and make it easier for you to get a proper loan from the bank later on..
At the same time, an intelligent lady is not frugal. Because frugality means you are lowering your lifestyle standard and as an elegant and classy intelligent lady, you deserve the best.
This is why it’s important to find the balance between the amazing lifestyle you deserve and remaining in control of your bank balance.
7. Learn About Basic Finances
Last but not least, you need to learn about basic finances.
You don’t have to be an expert at everything, you can just learn about the essentials such as tax, income diversification, balances, retirement plan, etc.
You can also hire a financial advisor to help you with your money and finances. The key is to never be completely blind with the concept of money and finances.
This will save you from being fooled by people and companies who may take advantage of people who do not understand their own finances.
If you don’t know where to start, we have a few book recommendations for you. Check out Money; Master The Game by Tony Robbins and The Millionaire Fastlane by M.J DeMarco.
Conclusion
If you make it this far, we are sure you are ready to take control about your finances. Remember, money and finances are an essential part of your life so you should definitely learn more about it and make wise decisions.
