5 reasons why women need to know about money.

 

 

A couple of weeks ago, I had a great chance to catch up with one of my friends. Since I left for the trip ( 7months ago), we haven’t had any chance to meet each other so it was a fantastic time to share our life stories. As you can imagine, two ladies after 7 months, we did non-stop talking for nearly an hour until the time forced us back to work. We went through various topics enthusiastically started with fashion, fitness, kids, work and even dogs and ended up with ‘MONEY’. We all love money (especially I do) but any reason quite often we refuse to talk about it. However, as I have been working in a finance field for a long time, very naturally our conversation flew into savings, superannuation and money management at home.  Surprisingly, whenever I explained about figures or financial terms  (even they was very basic) she refused to understand them and told me same sentence repeatedly. “You have got to talk to my husband as I don’t know anything.” Amusingly, she was not the only woman I have met who wishes not to know about ‘Money’.  One of my former office colleagues who were very well educated and on a very high position used to tell me that she seriously didn’t know anything about money even how much money she had in her bank account and how much she paid for her mortgage. She proudly mentioned that her husband was looking after ALL money matters and she was very happy to carry only a credit card.

 

Is it okay not to know about money for women? Only because we are women, is it socially acceptable not to be involved in money management at home? Do you really think you can ignore the financial matters because your partner or someone else is looking after them for you?

 

There are my 5 reasons why women need to know about money and I am happy to share them with you.

 

1.      The more you know, the better you can manage : When you don’t know or chose not to know about money, how can you manage it better? Better understanding about money and better managing it will offer you positive options and protect you from unforeseen risks. When you know about your current financial situation, you can act accordingly for your own good. However if you don’t pay attention to your finance, how can you prepare your life under control. There are plenty of options out there for you to grow your money. If you are more interested and having better knowledge in money management , you can change your financial situation. Do you know how much interest you get for your savings? Do you know why you are paying higher interest than others for your mortgage? If you know how to manage money better, you will see more chances that can improve your financial situations.  If you don’t, it is time to start learning about your money.

 

2.      Financial independence : It doesn’t really matter whether you are in a relationship or not, you need to have a financial independence. When you clearly know what is your financial situation and you are responsible for it, you can be ready for the financial independence. I don’t mean that you need to look after money separately with your partner. I mean you need to know basic home financial activities such as how much you have or how much you owe, what your regular expenses are and how your house budget is going, how much saving you have made or how much debts you have paid off for a certain period, etc…  You need to learn financial knowledge and make a decision for yourself. No one can make better decision for you when you don’t know about your money.

 

3.      Cooperation with your partner to make a better future: Previous generations, most women were out of work so financial responsibilities were carried by men but unfortunately (and also fortunately) it doesn’t work like that any longer. Higher living cost wouldn’t allow only one person’s participation in workforce nowadays. We are living in constant battles with money matters. Housing prices are rising uncontrollably, living costs are rising faster than our salaries, fees for education and childcare are forcing mums to go back to work earlier and earlier, bills are constantly being lifted up each season, etc… Nothing seems to be manageable without money these  days. This circumstances requires both parties to work to survive our daily life. Because we are women, the idea that we can be excepted from making money and managing became a nonsense. We need to cooperate each other to make better (financially comfortable) future and for that you need to know/learn about money more.

 

4.      Prepare for the future : Although the wage gap between men and women is getting smaller, women still earn less. As a result, women save less and women’s future savings such as superannuation is far lower than men’s. These circumstances put women into a financial hardship when they get older or divorced. They will suddenly need to be aware of  how important to manage money and know how to do it. However it can be very challenging as they spent years taking the hands-off approach to their finances. Imagine yourself as an elderly person who doesn’t have financial freedom and live under the minimum social benefits which is far less enough for a decent living. We all need to prepare financial stability for our future. To do that , you need to know about money and how to manage it.

 

5.      Improving social status : Money/finance is a very common topic to be discussed in meetings and social functions. Your knowledge in finance will boost you to get into the conversations and help you to understand/learn more about current financial situations. Any reason, women’s lack of knowledge in finance was commonly accepted previously but the world has been changed. Look around. There are many smart women who work in the finance field and perform exceptionally well. Stat being interested in money and read/learn more about it. I promise you that people will take you differently and you feel more comfortable to be in the conversations.

 

 

There are countless reasons why women need to know about money better but I hope I could cover at least basic reasons.  I haven’t heard anything from my friend since to discuss about her options to manage her money better even though she promised to contact me several times. I know it is not easy to step into the field that you are not interested or you think you don’t know much. However, we need to put our efforts to know more about money as we don’t live/survive without money. Talk more about money with people around you and try to find out better ways to manage your finance. Don’t forget your knowledge is the power.