Are You a Leader of Your Money?

Wealth management: who has the time? As women, we are leaders in many areas in our lives, including companies, home care, children, and aging parents. Each of these categories has endless sub-categories, such as food planning, staff, shopping and preparation, home decorating and maintenance, and so on. Many women feel that they just don’t have time to be involved with their own wealth management. And let’s face it, wealth management falls into the “important but not urgent category” that often gets pushed to the back burner, until it is urgent, which is not a good situation. 

I get it! At the end of a busy day, which is every day, sitting down to watch a good movie feels more appealing than analyzing an investment or updating a spreadsheet! Or does it? What I’ve noticed is that once I get super clear about how my investments are doing, or making a good decision about an investment because I took the time to analyze and understand it, it feels pretty darn good; it actually feels way better than a movie.

Not only that, but the older I get, the more I realize that my attitude about anything is, well, almost everything! What if we think of managing our money as fun, as a gift, or even a privilege with a big reward: confidence, security and having even more money to use as you choose; when you take positive and educated actions to get a result you want, it tends to work.   

When you pay attention to your money, you can lead it right to the goals you’ve chosen. But, leading your money can feel big and scary, and hence, the avoidance that so many women fall into. I used to think that having a financial advisor meant that I didn’t need to lead my wealth, but I learned that I was wrong. Not only are there many other aspects of wealth management besides investing, it was my job to make sure that I was getting the results I wanted from my advisor.

Some habits of leadership that definitely apply to leading your money are:.

• Leaders learn enough to lead. They don’t learn it all, but they learn enough to make good decisions from a place of knowledge.
• Leaders delegate easier tasks to others so that they have time to lead. Is there an older child, family member, or student that can help with simple financial or other tasks such as bookkeeping or filing?
• Leaders know the value of their time. Could you hire a student to do mundane tasks in other areas of your life, such as errands or laundry, so that you have time for higher level activities that lead to financial freedom? This may be creating a smarter investing plan or increasing income so that you have more positive cash flow, depending on where you are right now on your money journey.
• Leaders’ own responsibility for the areas that are important. It’s hard to argue about the importance of money, yet it’s often pushed to the back burner.
• Leaders measure performance. Measurement happens by tracking our money and using the right tools to evaluate results.
• Leaders prioritize based on goals, and schedule time to do high priority tasks. Scheduling weekend day time for managing money works best for me. When can you schedule a money date?

What steps can you take to become a leader of your money?  What leadership habits from the list really speak to where you are right now?

Update:

Your questions about investing led me to outline the 3 Myths that hold back many women from overseeing their money with confidence. Get it here; It’s my gift to you…