When I'm curious, I take surveys to answer the questions that are spinning around in my head. I turned to women I know and began to ask one question - a question I put to you right now.
'What are you doing now to make sure you'll have financial well-being for your life when you ease out of working?'
Will you reach a point in your life that you work because you want to and not because you have to?
The first time I posed my question, I asked my friend during a catch-up brunch date in the City. 'You know, we've both made a lot more money than we ever expected when we planned our careers. But where are we going to be when we're 70 years old? What are you doing to make sure you don't end up broke?'. She turned to me and said, 'Well, I have a car and a house, and that's about where I am right now she said.
A few days later, I talked to another dear friend. She gave me the same answer: She had a car and a house. A pattern was emerging. I pressed on.
That night, I called a woman I had known since University. We often chatted by phone just to stay in touch, but rarely saw each other as I had moved overseas. I asked her the same question. 'We own an Apartment here in the city and my Husband and I both have a car so we can take the kids to Daycare,' she replied
I even talked to my hairdresser who I have been visiting for years. Guess what? She owns a three-bedroom house in the outer suburbs, and yes, a car.
The pattern was clear. My friends were 'investing' in houses and cars and then stopping because they, too, hadn't come up with any good strategies for growing their money.
Our parents, our schools, our employers, our financial institutions, our popular culture-not one had taught my friends and me how to employ our money as part of our younger years. Something was seriously wrong.
Where we are today regarding money matters is very much where we were two decades ago regarding personal fitness. At one time it was commonly believed that if you ran at full speed, jumped up and down a lot, and sweat profusely, then you would eventually become physically fit and thin.
Today the more accepted wisdom is that old-fashioned anaerobic exercise-the kind in which you're moving so hard that you can't talk-actually sends your body into survival mode. As a result, the body stores fat, probably defeating any weight-loss or health goals you seek through exercise. Now we know that a regular walk in the park that involves both your body and mindset will produce consistent physical and mental benefits.
When it comes to money, you can employ these same strategies. And we can find other examples of common beliefs that are now outmoded: for example, our past beliefs about nutrition. When I was growing up, we were told to eat three large, balanced meals a day in order to be healthy and fit. Today, many nutritionists and doctors say that four or five smaller, low-fat meals-one or two of them being fresh fruit or vegetables and no meat -make a more healthful diet. Thankfully, the word about proper exercise and diet is spreading rapidly among women of all ages.
But many women are still in the dark about money matters and the effective strategies to financial health. Financial institutions itself deserves much of the blame. At many of the major Wall Street brokerage houses I researched, the primary approach to building wealth was to make big chunks of money for the client-and, more important, for the broker-all at once.
No value was placed on slowly, patiently building a bundle for the future. If you buy into that living-for-the-moment rush, then yes, the risks are very high, and the anxieties of first-time investors are an understandable reaction to the frenzied Wall Street approach.
But beneath the hype and excitement of the 'fast money'game is the real motive for the financial industry: generating the highest possible commissions for unscrupulous brokers and increasing the wealth of the firm.
I noticed that the investment information itself wasn't too tough to understand, but it was often presented in a jumbled manner that was heavy on jargon and short on simplicity and logic. It seemed that someone deliberately wanted to make financial information confusing to the average consumer.
I noticed also that brokerage statements presented information in ways that confused clients like myself and often omitted essential information-like what I as a client paid for a specific investment and its current value. With a little effort to straighten it all out, though, and to put it into sensible language, nothing was particularly difficult to understand by me or my girlfriends.
Eventually, I realised that the financial community is interested more in separating us from your money than in building our wealth. As a result, investor education is a low priority. Even those who worked in major Financial Institutions in the Square Mile, Canary Wharf and Wall Street, making your investments were never really taught how to handle our own personal finances, or to lead others to grow wealth.
'You mean you knew how to invest other people's money but not your own?' - you ask. No. It wasn't that.
The point is that the likes of the Square Mile isn't really interested in investing your money, only in getting you to spend it. Let me explain.
The Square Mile has taught the investor to 'buy in greed and sell in fear.' What does that mean? I'll give you an example: Your broker calls to give you the following hot tip: 'ABC stock is really HOT. It's about to go through the roof. You should buy it. Well, if you have some cash sitting in your bank account, you may well say okay and take the plunge.
Several weeks later, the price of the stock has declined and you begin to get nervous. What happened to that great opportunity? Your broker's answers are confusing, even evasive. Naturally, you think, 'I really wouldn't want to lose all of my money.' So you opt to sell the stock.
Bottom line-you did this - you bought in greed and sold in fear. The only person who benefited was the broker, who made commissions on both the buy and the sell.
Now's the time to develop and rely upon your own judgment when it comes to making your dollars work for you.
Decades ago, many women went to male doctors, who often didn't listen to what a woman had to say about her own body, but who presumed to know all the answers himself. This happens to women and their money, too-a woman's competence is questioned and she may be treated like a baby.
For women, the path to building wealth is using self-knowledge, making more personal decisions, preserving their power to choose their own direction - and being aware of and expanding their financial choices. Every woman needs financial legs. We live in a time when a woman can advocate for her own financial well-being - this makes it the best of times to secure our financial futures.
Adapted from Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Joan_Perry/216137
