Financial Independence For Women

Welcome to A New Life podcast with Pamela Jean, where it's all about empowering women to empower more women. Get ready, friends, to create a new life. And here is your host, Pamela Jean. Hello, my friends, and welcome to this week's episode of A New Life podcast with Pamela Jean. I'm so glad you're here. Today we are focused focusing on creating a balanced life with our balanced businesses and careers. Today's topic I'm excited for. Please don't yawn when I tell you what it's about. You might not want to hear it because it's a little bit boring, but. No, it's not boring. It's a topic that most women don't want to talk about because it's intimidating and they don't feel very knowledgeable and confident about this topic. So stick with me, okay? I promise you it's a good one. We are going to talk about creating financial independence for women. We are going to empower women to take control of their financial lives and really achieve true independence. We're going to be together for, I don't know, maybe 20 or 30 minutes, but. Sorry about that, I just bumped the microphone. We're going to be together about 20 or 30 minutes, but we're going to talk about some great strategies, insights and tips to help women build a strong financial foundation, overcome some financial challenges and fears. Financial fears, and ultimately achieve the freedom that you deserve. The freedom that you deserve, my friends. Because when a woman is financially independent, the decisions that she can make for her life and the lives of the people that she loves most are absolutely endless. I know that you know someone in your life right now that is staying in a bad relationship because of financial fear. If they leave the abusive husband or the narcissist, they cannot financially support themselves and their kids. They cannot buy a beautiful home that they're accustomed to living in because they can't make the same amount of money as their spouse has. When a woman is financially independent, your opportunities, your decisions, are truly endless and will never be tainted by fear. Never be tainted with fear. So let's begin. Financial independence is being in complete control of your finances, where you have enough resources to support yourself and the people you love the most. Achieve your goals without relying on others. It's also about having the freedom to. To make the choices that align with your values in your dreams. In many cases, women face unique challenges in achieving financial independence, such as there's a pay gap, of course, that's something that we deal with. Or career interruptions for family. When you had your children, did you not work for 5 years, 10 years? What did that look like for you? Did you lose your hierarchy in your career because of taking time off to raise your children? However, whatever the circumstance is for you, you can overcome those hurdles. They're definite hurdles, but you can absolutely overcome them. I have every confidence that you can. So build a solid financial foundation. First of all, understand your relationship with money. In a podcast a couple weeks ago, I talked about being financial, financially stable and you know, wealth does not make you happy, money does not buy happiness. But you have to understand what your relationship with money was. Is what is your relationship with money and who did you learn that from? The better you can understand where your understanding of financial freedom and money came from, that relationship with money. If you can understand where that came from, you'll have a better opportunity and an easier time to dissect it and create a solid foundation for yourself. So first of all, you have to set some financial goals. Creating a budget and building an emergency fund. So what I like to think about is the first 10% of your income goes to giving, goes to charity. Charity of your choice. 10% off the top goes to charity. 10% after that goes to savings, and you learn to live on the other 80%. So 80% of your income you get to live on 10%. You give 10%, you save. So building the emergency fund. I do suggest having three months of your monthly responsibilities in savings, there's an emergency fund, and then saving above and beyond your emergency fund goes after that. So the 10% of savings each pay period or each month, that doesn't change, you just allocate it a little bit differently. And remember, saving money is not about restricting yourself, but rather making conscious choices to align your spending with your priorities. When I talk about priorities, I talk about those goals that we are meant to set and think about investing. After you have your emergency fund built, your rainy day fund, then you have some savings rolling. Then you can start looking at, okay, now that I have that rainy day fund, I've got my emergency fund figured out. Let's start talking about some investing and how can you start contributing to a retirement account which can grow significantly over time. Investing is a powerful tool for building wealth and achieving financial independence. I am not a specialist in investing, so don't ask me a question on what to invest in or how. I have a financial advisor and you should have one as well. Overcoming financial challenges. You know, life is full of surprises and sometimes they come in a form of financial challenges. Whether it's dealing with debt, unexpected medical expenses, or I mean you go into work tomorrow and they're closing your company, that unfortunately is, is part of it, that's part of life. These hurdles definitely can, can hit you head on and really, really affect your financial well being. But if you have that rainy day fund, that emergency fund set up, that's going to curb any issues that you might, that you might have. Knowledge is power. Most women that I work with in their financial wellness, really what focuses around finances for them is fear. Most women don't have the confidence with numbers. I don't understand numbers. I did horrible in math. I was never very good at algebra. Thinking that because they weren't good at numbers and don't have the confidence with numbers that you cannot learn the knowledge to empower yourself to be able to handle financial matters. You know, it's really quite simple. Figure out what all of your monthly expenses are, the things that take to live, your house payments, your car payment, your car insurance, your electricity, your utilities, your grocery bill, your phone bill, etc. Figure out what all of your monthly expenses are and spend less than that. You know, spend, pay for your expenses and then be mindful of what you're spending your money on. Budgeting and numbers are not complicated. We make them complicated out of our own fear of the numbers and out of our fear of not feeling like smart enough to be able to deal with finances. For many women, having a side hustle can be a path to financial independence. There are so many great benefits about starting your own business, how to turn your passion into a profit. But the importance of financial planning is immense. For entrepreneurs, building a business is hard. You can always take on a little side hustle just to help fill in the gap. I, I have talked to so many women that are Uber drivers now. I'm not suggesting that for you, but I'm just saying I was so impressed with the tenacity of women that, you know. How long have you been driving for Uber? Oh, I just do this to help pay for my kids activities. If I do X number of drives per month, I can pay for all of their extracurricular. Think about that. Do you have a couple extra hours each night to maybe to, to pour into a side hustle or another little gig? There are so many women that jump into a side hustle and end up making their side hustle their full time career. It's absolutely possible. Life challenges. Navigating major life transitions are definitely the scariest part for women. I think significant transitions like marriage or divorce or becoming a caregiver can really have a profound impact on your finances. It's tough if you know, you've been married for 20 years or 15 years or however many years and you've blended your finances with your spouse and then you go through a divorce and now all of a sudden you are 100% responsible for yourself. That is tough. I've been there, I'm divorced, and it is very difficult to come out of that. What was helpful in my situation though, is having a career and a business that I could turn on many, many different ways of adding new income and building and growing. It's not easy. I'm not gonna, you know, sugarcoat anything. It's very difficult. But not having fear around money absol helped me make that difficult time doable and survivable. You can absolutely have everything that you want in your life, friends. You 100% can. But it takes planning. If you look at your biggest fear around finances, what is it? Lack of knowledge oftentimes is fear. I get that. Then learn what you need to learn. If your job is not making enough money, well, then go to school and learn what you need to learn to get a better paying job. There's always an answer, there's always a solution. A lot of it is wrapped around how much are you willing to do, how hard are you willing to work to create that solution for yourself. There's a fantastic book and it's written by David Bach. Bach and I'll put a link to in my podcast notes because it's so fantastic. He's an amazing writer that really, really speaks to women. And this is what I am just going to tell you a quick story about. I heard David in a podcast and this is what he shared. The reason he does what he does by empowering women through their finances is because he's second generation financial advisor. He learned from his father. His father would do focus groups back in the day where people would come to a conferen conference room and they would basically listen about investing in finances and they would build relationships and try to gain your business. Well, in particular, one focus group was filled with a room full of women. And some of the women in the group just simply wanted to learn about how to invest money. They were just new to investing and just needed investment advice. A couple of the women were in much different situations. One lady was in her early 60s. Her husband had passed away six months prior. She had not worked outside of the home since her early early twenties. She had her children, then left the workforce and became a homemaker. Raised her Family, all of those things. And her husband suddenly died. She did not know where anything was financially. She didn't know bank account numbers. She didn't know contact people and investment firms. She was not on any of his accounts. Not one of his accounts did he have her on. And what ultimately ended up happening is all of those accounts had to go through what's called probate. And after it went through the court system, she ended up with very little. And here's the saddest part of it. She ended up owing. They were in so much debt that she was not aware of because her husband took care of everything. He took care of everything. So she didn't even think about it. She wasn't able to pay her house payment. She was not able to take care of the basic utilities. She didn't even have access to those accounts because my husband took care of everything. He took care of it. I didn't worry about it. Is that true for you right now? Are you in a position where, if you lost your spouse or your support person, that you would not know where anything is? Having access and knowledge of the finances of the family are very, very important. If you lose the financial provider for your family, the primary provider, where does that leave you? What do you know? What don't you know? It might be an uncomfortable conversation to have with your spouse, but have that conversation. In David's book, he really talks about how women can step up and be their own advocate, can be their own voice and take care of their own finances. He has one book called the Latte Factor that is excellent. And the other book that is. That is one of my favorites, is called Smart Women Finish Rich. And they're fantastic books. They're about your empowerment, your empowerment to take over your finances. I don't ever want to hear another story about a woman staying in a bad relationship because she's afraid to leave because of money, or I'm afraid to leave my job because of money. If you set up a solid foundation around your finances and if you face and understand your relationship with money, there is nothing you can accomplish financially. Your financial independence, my friend, it's truly within your reach. With the right knowledge and mindset, you can make it a reality. Part of my work with my women in a balanced Life, a balanced business, is to dive into the financial wellness of your life as well as the financial wellness of your business. If you're in business, because those two things are different. But the importance of the financial health on both those are very important. But where are your finances at your Financial wellness starts and ends with you. With the right knowledge and mindset, you really can make that a reality. Step outside of your fear. You can make good financial decisions. You are capable of understanding money and understanding finances. Being responsible with your money and what you're spending it on and living within your budget. That is a very simple fact. You just don't spend more than you make. That's as easy as that. It really is as easy as that. Sometimes when we're wrapped around fear about a topic, we stick our heads in the sand and we pretend that it's not a problem, like out of sight, out of mind. You're just, you know, not listening. It's not there. If you don't see it, it doesn't happen. When you grab your financial wellness with both hands, you dig in and you are going to learn it and figure it out. There is nothing in this world you cannot do. There's nothing you cannot do. So, friends, I don't know where you find yourself today in the world of financial independence. If you want some help with this, I want to help you. I want to help you. First of all, look for the links in this podcast. Notes for David Bock's books. I will post those. Please get them and read them. You know, go to Amazon or wherever you get your books. You should be able to find those. Fantastic. Really, really good stuff. If you want to have a conversation, let's schedule a virtual coffee. I tell you, there is nothing that conversation and coffee cannot solve in this world. I grew up in Northwest Iowa and we drink coffee all day long and we have conversations. We sit down and meet people for coffee and solve the world's problems. So let's schedule a virtual coffee. Let's get together, let's talk. Let's see where you're at. And let's see how together we can create a roadmap for you to have your financial independence and your financial success. Thank you, my friends, for joining me today. Thanks for listening. Please like and subscribe. If you have a friend that is dealing with a financial hardship that could use this podcast, please share the link, write a review, I will read them all. And I thank you so much for joining me today. Make it a great day. Friends, until next time, thank you for joining us today on a New Life podcast. We will see you next time.