As we head into a New Year and the cost of living crisis dawns on us, finances are on everyone's mind RN. But according to three female financial experts, women can feel empowered to take charge of their finances - they just need to acquire a few simple skills. In Girls Just Wanna Have Funds: A Femininst Guide to Investing, the founders of Female Invest, a global financial educator targeting women, break down exactly how women can acquire the skills needed to take charge of their finances. Emma, Camilla and Anna-Sophie founded Female Invest in 2017 with a joint mission to close the financial gender gap by arming women with the tools and empowerment they need to take charge of their money.
Ranking on the Forbes 30 under 30 list and winning the 2020 Cartier Women’s Initiative, these brilliant women are breaking the glass ceiling in female entrepreneurship. They are now the co-authors of Girls Just Wanna Have Funds, a book which proves you don't have to be a financial guru or a millionaire to make money - it educates people on personal finance and investing, find financial confidence, and teaches women and marginalised voices to learn to use their money for positive impact. Together they are changing the narrative around women and finance by teaching women, female-identifying and non-binary people how to set realistic goals and demystify financial jargon and more.
Here, to mark the launch of their book, they've shared simple golden rules of financial goal setting with GLAMOUR…
Before you start defining your money goals, there is one thing to keep in mind: your goals should be smart. That means: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound.
Specific
It can be tempting to set a goal such as “improve my finances”, but what does that mean? When you look back in a year to see if you have achieved it, how will you be able to tell? so be specific in your goal – set it out clearly.
Measurable
If you can’t measure your progress, how will you gauge it and therefore keep yourself motivated and moving forward with every success? to do this you need to clearly state what you want to achieve in terms that can be measured. for example, decide: I want to save R5,000.
Achievable
If your money goal is not something you can work towards or potentially achieve, what’s the point? Write down what you need to do each week in order to reach that ultimate goal, and be realistic about what’s possible.
Realistic
In the same vein as achievable, don’t set yourself up for failure by setting wild goals you know you won’t be able to achieve. t’s important to find a balance, where your goals are both challenging and realistic, so be honest with yourself about what obstacles you can overcome and what you can manage – but don’t undersell yourself!
Time-bound
Finally, your goals should have a deadline. Make sure you set a specific time by which a certain goal needs to be achieved, so you can break down your progress into quarterly, monthly and weekly goals in the lead-up to that date.
When you have decided on 2–5 goals, we suggest you write them down. There is something magic about putting pen to paper and writing down what you want to accomplish. It gives your goals life, it serves as a reminder to you, and they’ll become even more real when you see them on paper.
What's next?
Once you have set out your goals, it’s time to look at each one individually and make a schedule. Let’s say your goal is to save R5,000 over the next 12 months; if you break this down, this means you’ll need to save £416 a month, or £104 a week.
For each of your goals, divide them into chunks and start tracking them daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly. Again, write this down on paper or set up a spreadsheet.
Finally, you will need to make a schedule of actions; this could include things like:
updating your budget to reflect your new goals, calling your bank to open a dedicated savings account, then setting up automatic transfers into it either weekly or monthly.
Extract taken from Girls Just Wanna Have Funds by Camilla Falkenberg, Emma Due Bitz, Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen
This article was originally published on Glamour UK.
