Home Lifestyle Why Women Need to Be Wealthy {A Money Expert Weighs In}

Why Women Need to Be Wealthy {A Money Expert Weighs In}

by Hoboken Girl Team
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Money struggles are something that many people can relate to. It’s something that affects everyone, no matter who you are. Of course, any tips to help alleviate that stress + help deal with those struggles is always welcome, which is why our guest contributor {+ HG of the Week} Ashley Feinstein of The Fiscal Femme is stepping in. Read on to find out some of her top tips, her great insight on finance, and why women {who often face the brunt of financial struggles} need to be wealthy.


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Through my work as The Fiscal Femme, I’ve found that just about everyone struggles with money in one way or another. Yet, we feel alone in our money struggles because money is not something that we talk about – even with our closest friends and family. Money is something that most of us have never learned anything about, yet we have to deal with it almost every single day.

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I love this tweet from Sage Boggs, “I’m glad I learned about parallelograms instead of how to do taxes. It’s really come in handy this parallelogram season.”

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See More: Hoboken Girl of the Week: Ashley Feinstein {of The Fiscal Femme}

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Women have it even worse. We have the gender pay gap and the pink tax {where the things we buy cost us more than they do for our male counterparts}. We’re also not investing as often as men so the money we do have isn’t growing. And we live longer, so we actually need more money saved in order to retire! Cue facepalm…

The Facts

Almost half of adults say they could not cover an emergency expense costing $400 without selling something or borrowing money, at any age.

On top of that, 25% of non-retired adults have no retirement savings or pension whatsoever.

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More than 25% of adults skipped necessary medical care in 2017 because they couldn’t afford the cost.

Regardless of our relationship status, where we live, or even how much we earn, money is a universal pain point.

Women Have It Worse

Let’s start with the gender pay gap. In 2017, women earned 82% of what men earned. Black women, Native American women, and Latinas are much worse off, earning just $0.63, $0.57, and $0.54 {respectively} to the white man’s dollar. That means Latinas would have to work an extra ten months to earn what their male counterparts did in 2017.

Then we have the pink tax, where the things we buy cost us more than the same products created for men. Women {and girls} pay more for just about everything. Target was under fire after charging double for a pink version of two otherwise seemingly identical scooters. We pay 7% more for toys and accessories, a whopping 13% more for personal care products, and we’re even charged more for our dry cleaning.

Not only are we earning less and spending more, but we’re also investing less than men. The gender investing gap is real — women invest less than men, even though we’re better at it when we do {go figure}. That, coupled with the fact that we earn less and live longer, puts us at a huge disadvantage when it comes to becoming wealthy, reaching our financial goals, and funding our retirement.

Read More: $50, 1 Day in Hoboken: Jordan’s Challenge

What Would Happen if Women Were Financially Well-Off

Not only are all of these facts frustrating and disappointing, but the repercussions are huge. If ladies were financially well {imagine a nice savings buffer in our bank accounts}, we could negotiate harder to be paid fairly at work.

We could leave relationships and jobs where we were being mistreated. We could take more risks in our careers without worrying about the financial implications. We’d see more women on boards and management teams.

More diversity means more productivity, less turnover, and higher bottom lines. When women are wealthy, they invest more of that wealth back into their families and communities.

It’s critical for all of us that women become wealthy.

Here’s What We Can Do About IT

Always Ask

Women are four times less likely to negotiate their salaries than men. Find out what you should be earning and then ask for it. {For tips on negotiating your salary, check out this guide.}

Automate

I’m a strong advocate for making our financial lives as simple as possible. Automating our saving and investing allows us to be sure that it’ll happen. We don’t have to remember to do it, and we don’t have to worry that our expenses will take up the money we planned to invest. Set up an automatic transfer after each paycheck that goes through to your savings and investing goals.

Start Investing

Because there’s so much information out there about investing, it’s hard to know where to start. It’s common to be afraid of losing our hard-earned money, but we lose so much more by keeping our long-term savings in cash that loses value over time. We learn by doing, so do a little research {put a time cap on it} and get started.

Have you tried out any of Ashley’s tips before?

Let us know in the comments!

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