Girls Just Wanna Have Funds || Personal Finance Advice Blog For Women » Guest Post

4 Fiscal Tips For The Savvy Single Woman

Ginger — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:12:10 +0000

This is a guest post by Yolanda Shoshana. Yolanda Shoshana “Shoshi” is a personality, lifestyle expert, life coach, and speaker living in New York City known as the “Luscious Lifestyle Diva”. Her blog is “The Luscious Life” which gives the 411 on lifestyle, motivation, food, health, and entertainment for single women who want to leave behind the good enough life and live lusciously! www.lusciouslifestylediva.com

You can’t deny that single women are more independent these days. We are earning more money than our mothers, buying houses, starting businesses and just all around breaking financial ceilings. All of this is “you go girl” fabulous! However the story behind the scenes when it comes to single women and our money says we need to make some adjustments. It’s no secret that we are in a recession, but now is not the time to ignore your finances or give up from financial frustration. Here are several keys areas to focus on:

- Investing

Did you go running to the your broker to take all of your money out of the stock market? Running away from the stock market is not the best thing to do right now. Stocks are about long term investing. What goes down must come up and vice versa. If you listen to wealthy people they actually like to invest during recessions and hard economic times, according to them this is when they make their money.

A small struggling stock today could be the next Google or Microsoft. Stock market trends show that after a good time in the economy the bubble has to burst to begin a new growth in the economy. Talk to your broker and find out what stocks you should keep or pick up. If you are your broker, why not research companies or see who the new kid on the stock market is.

What good will the money do for you under your mattress? You have to be in it to win it.

-To buy or not to buy

Most will say it’s a great time to buy a home, but ask another they say wait a year. Single women have become a force in the housing market. It is predicated that by 2010 single women will be 28% of the homeowners while single men are 11% of the homeowners.

Single women did benefit tremendously while the housing market was growing, but now single women are also being hurt in the housing market during this hard economic time. This is due to the discovery that women are more likely than men to be targeted by subprime lenders for loans. As the number of foreclosures rise, their homes are at risk and the mortgages are becoming getter than the value of the home.

The main thing to remember is if you are looking to buy in this market make sure you are working with someone who has your interest as a priority. Educate yourself about all the facts and ask questions such as do you qualify for a lower-cost loan. Learn the power of negotiating or get someone who can negotiate for you when it comes time to get down to the terms. Property is a good investment if you play smart from the beginning.

-Saving for retirement.

I know you have to have those shoes and that dress would look dynamite on you, but are you putting money away toward your retirement? The reality is single woman are not saving enough for retirement. Statistics show that only around 6% of women have even calculated how much they need for retirement. That is not a good number considering that single women are one of the biggest growing populations.

Experts say, the amount that single women should target to save is at least $500,000 saved for retirement. Do not let amount scare you, let it inspire you. If you make small changes to what you are saving it can go a long way. Buy things on sale, shop at outlets and discount stores. Do you really need a cup of $4 coffee everyday?

If your company has a 401(k) plan make sure to participate, most companies match your dollars to a certain amount. Start saving more money than you think you need. Keep educating yourself about money, new resources pop up everyday. As you watch your savings grow it will motivate you to spend your hard earned money smarter.

Stop waiting for Prince Charming to ride up with his pockets full of cash. If you were never waiting on a knight and shining armor, then what have you been waiting on? You are a woman on the go who can do for herself so roll up your sleeves and get your money under control. If you do not control your money, it will end up controlling you.

Guest Post: Why Every Woman Needs Mad Money

Ginger — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:00:46 +0000

This is a guest post by Pamela Grundy, writer for Personal FInance Analyst. Personal Finance Analyst is an online community of bloggers dedicated to taking the mystery out of money and helping you to live a happier, more successful life with the money you have. I enjoyed this post and I hope you will too. Think about it as F-U money! *snicker*

When I reached dating age, a couple of centuries ago, my grandmother gave me a little coin purse with a ten dollar bill in it to take with me whenever I went out with a boy. “That’s your mad money,” she said, “Don’t spend it; just keep it tucked away in your purse so that in case you get mad, you have some money to get home on.”

I never had to use my mad money on a date, but later in life, in my mid-twenties, when I met a man whose dream it was to become an FBI agent, and he was hired and we were going to have to move to D.C., we decided to get married before we left. (I never can get things in the proper order.) I had to give notice at my factory job, where I sewed little leather camera bags with lots of Spanish speaking immigrants, Asian refugees, and Midwestern black women. My nickname at this job (it was in the 1970s) was “hippie chick.” It wasn’t a put down so much as an acknowledgment that, yes, I stuck a bit there.

To my surprise, my co-workers all took up a collection for me on my last day, and sent me off with a “Good Luck” card and this advice:

“This money is for you. Don’t tell your man about it, just put it in a little savings account in your own name so that, if things don’t work out like we all hope they do for you, you’ll have a little money to get home on.” In other words: Mad money again. I won’t lie to you, I did cry.

What I didn’t do was put the money away like they told me to do. That was foolish, because not more than I year later I had a brand new baby girl, I was living in a 15^th floor flat in Rego Park, Queens, and my hubbie the fed was losing his marbles. I had to borrow money from my folks to get home on, and I stayed there until he got his act together, which only took about 20 years. Everything is fine now. He’s fine. I’m fine. The baby is will be 30 this coming February, and we now have a grandson we adore and ties us positively together even though we’ve long found other mates and other lives.

But that Mad Money sure would have come in handy.

The point is, we never know what life has in store for us, and it is not a betrayal to recognize this fact and put money aside for yourself and yourself alone. So many women think that marriage means pooling everything, all resources and possessions, all earnings. Separate accounts feel like betrayal to young lovers and newlyweds, but if you don’t maintain a sense of yourself in even the best of relationships, you eventually forget who you are and you lose the relationship too.

You may never need your Mad Money. That’s great. If that happens, you can present your man with a ten year anniversary gift he’ll never forget as long as he lives: A new pole barn, a Harley, a trip to Canada to fish for two weeks with his buddies while you go to chick flicks, get foot massages at the beauty parlor, and eat chocolate an whipped cream for dinner in front of a “What Not to Wear” marathon.

It’s healthy for couples to keep some of their hard earned money in separate accounts to use for whatever they like. And, before you tell me your life is just too expensive for that and there isn’t a dime left over to save, let me just tell you that you put the dime in first, before you pay the other bills.

You can’t buy security, but you can make yourself feel more confident and secure. Confident, secure women have healthy financial lives and happy relationships. And if by some freak of bad fortune they don’t have these things, they have Mad Money accounts to help them get back on track.

LOVED this post! It goes against some of my more traditional thoughts around couples and bank accounts but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Thoughts?

[image: LFF]

Guest Post @ Mint.com-Cheap Alternatives To The Must Haves In Your Life

Ginger — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:02:20 +0000

Check out my guest post at Mint.com-Cheap Alternatives To The â€œMust Havesâ€ In Your Life.

You can read more about mint and their awesome webware in an earlier post here.

Guest Post @ Millionaire Mommy Next Door: Fighting Fair About Finances

Ginger — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:17:38 +0000

photo credit: Laenulfean

Millionaire Mommy Next Door is featuring my article on: Fighting Fair about Finances: How do you measure up? Personal Finance is just that, personal, so I think its a good topic for newlyweds and live in couples to read up on especially if they want to learn how to fight fair about finances. Let’s face it, you will fight a time or two or more about money, but being fair and balanced is the way to go.

Enjoy!

Guest Post on Consumerism Commentary

Ginger — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:29:50 +0000

Check out my guest post on Consumerism Commentary: Smart Women Marry for Money, and Hereâ€™s Why.

I think this post has sparked some interesting and expected commentary which I will elaborate on later. Until then, feel free to go on over and check it out!

Thanks to Flexo for allowing me to guest post on the site, I really do appreciate it!