Women Must Budget
As women, we often run our homes so it is extremely important that we budget.
Budgeting does not cost us a cent but it demands that we take time to look at our finances. There is a lot that budgeting can reveal to us. We will have clarity about how we are spending our money, where we are being wasteful and could cut down. Many people who never budget are surprised when they realise that they do have enough money but they are not taking good care of it e.g. too many store bought coffees too many cigarettes, too many take-aways, expensive TV subscriptions, too much airtime, etc.…
So during August, we invite you to take time to compile your budgets so you have a good understanding of how you are spending your hard – earned money. Those who have a copy of the book From Debt to Riches: Steps to Financial Success, can complete the budgets on pages 85 – 97.
What do you want for yourself as a woman? These are some of the examples and we encourage you to add what is important to you:
- You want to buy a home or finish paying off your home by the time you retire
- You want to be able to send your kids to university
- You want to retire financially comfortable and not have to depend on your kids in your old age
- You want to travel, at least once a year, etc.
Look at your budget and ask yourself the questions:
- What are you doing to ensure that you can achieve your goals? As an example, if you want to retire financially comfortable, are you saving for retirement?
- Do you know how much you have to save monthly to reach your goal? When areyou planning to start saving, if you have not yet started?
- Have you identified any areas where you could save money?
- What is your budget saying about you?
Many budgets have highlighted wasteful spending such as:
- Some women spend over R10 000 on food
- Many of us spend far too much money on clothes, on credit
- We are driving ourselves to financial ruin, monthly car instalments of over R20 000 are becoming very common
- We are using credit cards and we don’t even remember what we bought with our credit cards
As we spend our money recklessly, we unfortunately are not doing any of the following:
- We barely have emergency funds so we borrow from friends and family when we are in crisis
- We don’t save for our old age and this is our biggest challenge because we complain about black tax yet we are soon going to be a burden to our own children
- We are not saving enough and we are not taking advantage of tax free investments
If you are ready to make a change and start taking good care of your money, contact us for a budget review so we can help you start saving and investing your money.
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