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You Have the Right to...Have Financial Freedom!

Guest post by: Sheryl Nicholson

Article Overview: Right #10 You Have the Right to...Have Financial Freedom! If we started on the first day we went to work to save our money and invest it wisely, we would all end up millionaires. Instead many of us make poor choices, fritter money away, and hope and wait for someone (Prince Charming?) to save us. Listen, you have the right to have your own money, to understand financial matters, and to protect your own future. Why do "they" say you shouldn't talk about money? How can you learn about something if you don't find experts, ask questions and opinions, research it, study it, etc.? You have the right to make financial decisions that protect your future...just in case. It's like creating your own insurance policy against life's inevitable surprises. It can mean taking a few extra dollars out of the grocery budget each time and tuck

You Have the Right to...Have Financial Freedom!

If we started on the first day we went to work to save our money and invest it wisely, we would all end up millionaires. Instead many of us make poor choices, fritter money away, and hope and wait for someone (Prince Charming?) to save us.

Listen, you have the right to have your own money, to understand financial matters, and to protect your own future.

Why do "they" say you shouldn't talk about money? How can you learn about something if you don't find experts, ask questions and opinions, research it, study it, etc.?

You have the right to make financial decisions that protect your future...just in case. It's like creating your own insurance policy against life's inevitable surprises. It can mean taking a few extra dollars out of the grocery budget each time and tucking that away. It can mean emptying your purse each day and saving the change. It can mean opening up a separate savings account in a different bank.

In addition, there are many ways you can get information that enables you to become financially savvy and strong. Read books about money, ask people how they have handled their money well, talk to financial planners, create a stock club with friends, and learn about internet trading companies. Knowledge is power. You would be surprised at how a little bit of money handled wisely can build to a substantial sum.

Being smart with your money can also mean taking risks...calculated risks. Remember what I said earlier about taking the ones that you're willing and able to pay the price for? I asked a successful friend about his decision making process when it came to investing money. He said, "I ask myself what's the worst thing that could happen if I lose this money. And if I can really live with those consequences, then I go for it." Great advice! He has bought and sold banks, properties, and businesses, and never worried at night - because he had already calculated the risks before he made the decision.

I often ask older divorced women if they would marry again, and almost always I get this answer: "Only if I can't take care of myself financially." Wouldn't that be a terrible position to be in in life? Women who have taken care of others all their lives should now have the money to take care of themselves! They certainly don't want to be a burden on their children.

I remember my parents giving money to my grandmother. She appreciated it but still felt ashamed. Although they were happy to do it and she never had to ask for it, she was still uncomfortable. She told me, "In my day you married to have a roof over your head. If your husband died, you got his social security or retirement and that was that. We didn't work outside the home." Women's choices were limited.

Today women are working and earning good incomes. Unfortunately, some allow themselves to be unduly influenced by fashion, TV, peers, impulse. They're spending instead of investing. I love Suzie Orman's philosophy that we need to understand our money to relate to it. It's a relationship that takes care, commitment, sacrifice...like any other relationship.

I remember sharing the stage with Joan Rivers. She said that when her husband died, she didn't even know where the bank book was. She had left all financial decisions to him. She had no idea how to keep track of money - had had no relationship with it other than making and spending it. So she went to school and took accounting classes.

You too can take classes, set up a separate savings account, read books, start an investment club with some of your girlfriends, ask questions, get mentored.

For those of you who are - as I was - a struggling single mom, I again encourage you to tuck away small but steady money. "Steal" a little from your grocery kitty each week and put it away. Take all the change out of your purse each night and save it in a jar. When it's full, take it to the bank. Teach your kids to save one fourth of everything they get - they will learn to live on less and begin a habit of saving, giving, and spending, instead of just spending and spending.

Take a look at your credit cards. Do you really need more than one? What's the interest that you're paying? Can you negotiate that down?

Read books about how to get control of your spending and how to protect your future. Make sure that you are learning what you need to so that you will not make desperate decisions due to lack of money or be a financial burden to your children. Remember that

You Have the Right toHave Financial Freedom!

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Article Tags: financial decisions, financial freedom, financial matters, grocery budget, millionaires, money, poor choices



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