Four money questions every woman should ask herself

Wealth coaches Lianne Lutz and Kerri Lutz from Women’s Wealth share their top tips for financial independence.

1. What’s my attitude to money?

Our attitude towards money can impact on how it circulates in our lives, and often stems from how our parents handled their money.

Ask yourself questions like: ‘Was money freely available?’, ‘Was money used as leverage?’, and ‘What were the emotions around asking for money in your home?’.

Discovering your financial mind set can challenge your current beliefs about money, allowing you to develop a new, more empowering attitude towards growing your money.

2. What are my financial goals?

Knowing your financial goals can help you to identify the steps you need to take in achieving them.

Write them down, concentrating on short term (saving for a wedding in a few months’ time), medium term (buying a house in five years) and long term (paying for your child’s tertiary education in 10 years’ time) goals.

Be realistic with your goals, but challenge yourself enough to make an impact. You can always build on them and create bigger goals as you go along.

3. How do I get out of debt?

Debt can seem like a mountain we’ll never get over, but persevering by taking small consistent steps goes a long way.

Consider:

• Using your access bond as a form of debt consolidation i.e. borrow money from your bond to buy your car instead of taking out a loan
• Paying off your highest interest-bearing debt first
• Setting the goal to add extra money to your minimum payment amount. This will slash your payment time

Once your debt is paid up, you can start saving!

4. Have I drawn up a proper budget?

Budgeting is a key starting point to financial independence. It helps give us more control over our finances.

Draw one up simply by putting down what comes in and what goes out, and distinguishing between fixed (insurance, rent) and variable (entertainment, food) expenses.

To make it less daunting, look at it as ‘smart spending’; maintaining your same standard of living in a more affordable way. For example, you might want to invite a friend to your house for coffee, instead of going to a café.

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