Women are becoming more knowledgeable about finances, becoming more confident managing their own investments and talking more openly about moneywith their kids, colleagues and peers. This, according to new research conducted by Citi's Women & Company.
I recently chatted with Lisa Caputo, president and CEO of Women & Co, and she says that it's about the recession and its aftermath. "Women are ushering in this new era of responsibility. They're stepping into the role of 'Chief Financial Officer' and building quality lives for themselves and their families."
They're going to graduate school. Starting companies. Becoming breadwinners. Even outgrowing the number of men in the workforce -- for the first time in American history. "We're taking the financial lead," says Caputo, "and becoming more empowered."
Here's how you can do it -- at any age:
In Your 20s
Time is on your side - use it to build a solid financial foundation.Start living on a budget, identifying financial goals and putting a plan in motion, and most importantly, setting aside income, says Caputo. Ideally, aim to set aside 15% of your gross salary. Not possible? This money doesn't have to come out of your pocket so it's not be as painful as it seems. For example, say you're single, and making $50,000 a year. If you have just $250 a month of pretax dollars automatically deducted from your paycheck, and deposited in your company's 401K plan, and if your company matches those contributions (50 cents on the dollar up to 6% of your salary), you're already more than halfway there!
In your 30s
Set up an emergency fund (ideally, 6 months worth of living expenses), max out the contributions, and "define your investment strategy and structure a well diversified portfolio," says Caputo.That may require your working with a financial advisor, particularly since you're probably having a tough time budgeting given your new status (married? kids?). You can find one through napfa.org.
In your 40s
You may be juggling the needs of a growing family and aging parents, but don't take a break from retirement savings. And think about protecting your legacy, says Caputo. "We're talking wills, naming guardians for small children, and getting life insurance if you have dependents."
In Your 50s
This is when you want to get serious about crunching the numbers -- specifically, estimating your retirement expenses and your projected income.There are calculators on the web to help you do this. Once you're age 50, you can add an extra $5,500 in catch-up contributions to your 401(k); IRA savers can throw in another $1,000. Take advantage of this. Caputo says you should also rebalance your portfolio, and review your life insurance coverage at this age.
In Your 60s
You're eligible to collect Social Security benefits beginning at age 62 -- the median retirement age -- but if you can wait a few years the payouts will be bigger. In fact, every year you delay drawing Social Security between age 62 and 70 increases your eventual payout by about 8% a year. Just something to think about, says Caputo, who also suggests you go back to budgeting basics as you learn to live on a fixed income, and that you additionally update your estate plans.
Someone on an earlier thread quoted the axiom “After 50, life isn’t about achieving your aspirations, it’s about managing your disappointments.” But I’m 54, and I’m not surprised that it may not be that simple:
... A large Gallup poll has found that by almost any measure, people get happier as they get older, and researchers are not sure why.
“It could be that there are environmental changes,” said Arthur A. Stone, the lead author of a new study based on the survey, “or it could be psychological changes about the way we view the world, or it could even be biological — for example brain chemistry or endocrine changes.”
The telephone survey, carried out in 2008, covered more than 340,000 people nationwide, ages 18 to 85, asking various questions about age and sex, current events, personal finances, health and other matters… Finally, there were six yes-or-no questions: Did you experience the following feelings during a large part of the day yesterday: enjoyment, happiness, stress, worry, anger, sadness. The answers, the researchers say, reveal “hedonic well-being,” a person’s immediate experience of those psychological states, unencumbered by revised memories or subjective judgments that the query about general life satisfaction might have evoked.
The results, published online May 17 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, were good news for old people, and for those who are getting old. On the global measure, people start out at age 18 feeling pretty good about themselves, and then, apparently, life begins to throw curve balls. They feel worse and worse until they hit 50. At that point, there is a sharp reversal, and people keep getting happier as they age. By the time they are 85, they are even more satisfied with themselves than they were at 18.
In measuring immediate well-being — yesterday’s emotional state — the researchers found that stress declines from age 22 onward, reaching its lowest point at 85. Worry stays fairly steady until 50, then sharply drops off. Anger decreases steadily from 18 on, and sadness rises to a peak at 50, declines to 73, then rises slightly again to 85. Enjoyment and happiness have similar curves: they both decrease gradually until we hit 50, rise steadily for the next 25 years, and then decline very slightly at the end, but they never again reach the low point of our early 50s…
For some people, the universe sends an unusually specific message. The Spousal Unit’s fiftieth birthday was also the first day after he’d lost his job, so he slept late and woke up thinking, “Well, at least it can’t get much worse… “
That was September 11, 2001.
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There are always ways to make money, and it is possible to do this in any financial climate, however saving money, making it grow and making it work for you is another kettle of fish.
Below are just a few tips, ideas and ways as to how you can make the most out of your money and increase your personal wealth:
1. Set goals and objectives. To increase your personal wealth its best to know what you are starting off with and where you want to be in say 1 year, 3 years and 5 years.
2. Work out where your money is going. Total up how much income you bring in a month and work out where it all goes. Work out how much money you have spare or left over to play with which can be invested or saved.
3. Decide what will work for you and remember that there is no right or wrong, for example will creating a stocks and shares portfolio work, do you like a bit of risk? or will putting your money into fixed bonds and savings accounts be better for you if perhaps you like safe but steady growth.
TOP TIP: Before ploughing your hard earned money into anything do some market research, see how it has performed in the past, work out the risk and reward you could possibly get and so on.
4. Create a wealth plan/strategy. Decide what personal wealth figure you would like to achieve and then decide how you will do this and in what period of time. If you assign a period of time or deadline to something it will help it become more achievable and realistic. Within this wealth plan why not decide what short term and long term wealth creation strategies you might like to use and put in place?
5. Keep your eyes on the interest rates. Just because you have been with your bank since you were a child doesn't mean you have to stay with them until you are a pensioner. If there are better deals out there to be had then try and grab them with both hands.
REMEMBER: Always read any terms and conditions back to front and if possible get someone else to read through them as well. Don't tie your money up for long periods of time if you cannot afford to, and remember that high risk is just that. If you are not prepared to lose money as well as gain it then don't risk it, no matter how good the rewards may look.
I hope you have found this article both useful and helpful, I wish you every success in growing your money and increasing your personal wealth.
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