By Lynette Barbieri
As women, we tend to “Pass the Buck” or shift the responsibility of handling the finances over to our significant other, a family member, or -even worse- we don’t really look into it at all and choose to bury our head In the sand.
I can say this from personal experience because I was one of “those” women almost two decades ago.
When I realized that by not paying attention and passing the job onto my husband, if he didn’t walk back in the door the next day I was not going to be ok. In fact, I would have had to sell my new house and move in with my mother with a two and four year old. Yikes!
That put me on the road to educate myself on what I needed to pay attention to and how, as a team, we had to put our financial plan together and review it at the end of each year. Hence, why I am discussing this with you today.
This is the perfect time of the year to do so. When one year is ending and a new one is approaching, review where you stand financially. If you have a partner, make sure you sit down and do this together. I strongly suggest that after you get all your paperwork together and you discuss a few goals for the New Year, you consult a financial professional you like and trust so they can help guide you in the right direction. Here are some things to consider:
- Make sure of is that you have a plan to fund your emergency fund. If you can, it should total six months of your monthly expenses.
- Get your insurance policies out and have them reviewed to make sure it is customized to meet the needs of the family left behind to live the life they were accustomed to.
- Get out your retirement statements to make sure you are putting away enough money and that you’re saving in the right places.
- You also need to identify your financial independence number “FIN” number for short. Your FIN number equals to the amount of money you need to accumulate by the age you want to retire to live on. Your financial professional can assist you with this.
- Most importantly, you need to educate yourself on the basics. Books like Finance for Dummies by Michael Taillard or Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey, and of course there are many by Suze Orman are books that can be very helpful. You can google her and watch any of her podcasts which are all great!
If I hadn’t started the process to educate myself on some basic fundamentals of how money worked, I would have been vulnerable to anyone’s advice. I wanted to work with someone I liked and trusted, but I also wanted to be familiar with the facts.
That is exactly how I became passionate about sharing what I learned with others and 18 years later, I am educating as many women as I can so they won’t make the same mistakes I did. The good news is anyone can start where they stand. Finance is a step by step process of learning, determining what your goals are and implementing strategies so you can retire financially independent!
