The crux of the matter is that women need to spend more time on financially educating themselves and ensuring that they have long term financial plans to see them into a comfortable future. Too many of us spend and consume beyond our means, with little thought for the future. Consuming less has so many benefits – not only on our finances, it helps the environment and also generates a sense of achievement when you can see see your money grow rather than go out the door.

I like the tip by Peter Switzer that suggests look at how you spend your money and cut back by 10%, he calls this GST’ing your life. Well worth doing. Another tip that I find helps kick start your savings is to have your employer pay your salary into two accounts with a minimum of 10% of your salary going into an interest bearing account, as discussed in my post ‘An easy way to earn more money! Salary management!’

As the article by Maureen concludes “it’s up to us women to choose our own financial adventure.”

Please share any great money management tips you have.

Note: today I was sent this great article by Terry Barnes,  ‘Consumption at all costs‘ which expands upon the need for all of us to reconsider how we spend and save our money. It quotes  “according to the Reserve Bank, for the first time Australians now owe more in household debt – on mortgages, credit cards and personal loans – than our entire economy earns in a year. That’s $1.2 trillion of debt, or about $56,000 for every Australian man, woman and child.”

In the past few months I have discovered the force of finance expert Suze Orman who is regarded by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Not sure where I have been (I suspect at work) as Suze is a regular on the Oprah Show, has written books, is on radio has her own show and much more. She is definitely an inspirational women who is focused is on educating women about money. She has a top selling book ‘Women and Money’ which highlights the need for women to take financial control, not just for the dollars however also for the sense of self.

Suze advocates many sensible money practices, such as ensuring you have a cash reserve aside for emergencies, paying off your credit card and also being willing to ask for a pay rise and enter into salary negotiations. This is an area that women can really develop very easily through education and practice. Download the Free Six Figures Salary Negotiation Guide for Women to help you get started. It is never to late to start learning about negotiation.

Suze also explores financial management for women in business, and not being afraid to raise your prices. Also be willing to negotiate with service providers and paying yourself first. I myself have seen this and done this in business where you pay everyone but yourself and often you get paid last or not at all. To have a viable business and a sense of self your business must be able to pay you first. So while many of you may be thinking that given the GFC it is not the right time to look to become more financially empowered, the opposite is true. Now is the time to start your financial management plan and to start taking care of your financial present and future.

I don’t normally write about beauty products as it is clearly not my domain. My skills, expertise and experience are focused on careers and financial management. However I think the topic of beauty products does however fit with poor and good financial management!

Given the amount of businesses, websites, forums, magazines and so on focused on beauty and beauty products it is hard to ignore the subject of beauty. Particularly the amount that is spent (mainly by women) on so called miracle lotions and potions!  I myself have been skeptical of expensive moisturizers and so on and stick to the basic and cost effective brands. My view being that a good diet, sleep, exercise, water and a positive outlook on life is just as likely to keep you looking good as any of the expensive creams on the market. Also, I suspect it has something to do with genetics as well, which no product can alter yet!

My view was confirmed last week when I had a great chat with a friend of a friend who worked in marketing for a pharmaceutical company that made various creams. All the scientific research seems to show that an Oil of Olay face cream for under $20 is just as good as a Lancôme face cream for $120+. It is all in the packaging and marketing of these products. The promises of younger looking skin, less wrinkles, smoother skin and the like! Expensive packing and advertising clearly works – these companies make billions making us feel inadequate about how we look. 

Realistically all you can be guaranteed is that expensive lotions and positions will work no better than the cheap ones. The only difference being you will have wasted a $100+ each time you make a purchase if you opt for the more expensive option.  If you total all those ‘expensive products’ you purchase up each month, if you invested this money, you can only imagine the returns on your day cream, night cream, eye wrinkle cream, cleanser and so on.   You may have enough for a lovely holiday, to purchase some shares, further educate yourself or your children,  or potentially over time a deposit for a house.

Clearly life is to be enjoyed, and if you gain a lot of enjoyment from expensive purchases that is also fine. However if you have big dreams and ambitions, it makes sense to be money wise, as the long term benefits will be very enjoyable and hopefully will keep on giving as you invest your money wisely. With expensive lotions and potions, the fun and giving is gone once the jar is empty!

We all fall for the lure and promises that clever marketing and advertising deliver.  I myself have and no doubt will continue to,  however sometimes I check myself and as a result end up saving hundreds of dollars each year, which I put to long term investments that will keep on giving!

Share your thoughts about expensive lotions and potions versus the more basic products. Are you someone who has always been skeptical of the expensive products or do you advocate them and their benefits? Perhaps you have a different view on the topic completely.

Some of the things we cover in the interview include:

* How to build trust with your audience through your website
* Why your online brand impacts your credibility
* How you can make your business attractive to prospective employees (even if you can’t pay the types of dollars larger companies can)
* The mistakes businesses make when hiring staff

Click the link to listen to the interview on “Niche Online Business Matches Top Talent with Top Jobs”

Find out more about the Australian Businesswomen’s network, including their resources, membership, interviews,  mentoring programs and much more.

I have many friends in their twenties and thirties who are intelligent women, however when it comes to financial management too many fail to invest in their futures. They, like a lot of people, spend all that they earn. Some pay off their credit cards in full so as not to attract extra interest, some have mortgages and all have the standard living expenses.

An easy way to begin investing and earning more money is to set aside a minimum of 10% of your weekly or annual salary to be paid into an interest bearing account. Ensure it is transferred before you even have a chance to see it – have it locked away.

Kick start your financial management plan today by having your employer pay your salary into two accounts with a minimum of 10% of your salary going into an interest bearing account. If they are not obliging, simply set up an automatic transfer to occur each month.  You will be quite surprised at the end of a year to see how your money has grown.

Please share your wealth creation and financial management tips.

This group of women (plus two men) is completing their MBA’s at the prestigious MBS. They were intelligent, professional and dynamic woman, all from different professions and all with different goals, some which included starting their own ventures.

One of the topics raised was discrimination or sexism towards woman in business, which is prevalent regardless of if you are an employee or self employed. Unfortunately discrimination is everywhere – be it gender, age, nationality and so on. In my view, the key is to accept it and work with it, not against it. I have found that through sourcing out those (men or women) with similar values and interests that they will support you and help your business or career to grow.

It has to be said that many business deals do still occur on the golf course and in the gentleman’s clubs lacking transparency and fail to offer an equal playing field. However all we can do is hope that this will change over time.

On this same subject I found an interesting article on Honestly Woman, where Kylie Moppert reports on … women entrepreneurs and sexismIn the article she concludes with “Naming sexism appears difficult for women entrepreneurs: to do so could create conflict with important stakeholders who are sexist. These women display a preference to modify their behaviour or interpretation so they can get the result they want, rather than directly challenging the status quo.” In my businesses I have not found the need to modify my behaviour however I expect that this is different for those working in corporations or specific industries.

For those looking to establish their own business, my top ten tips include:
1. Passion, integrity, expertise and tenacity as its tough out there
2. Have a great business partner, with complimentary skills to share the journey with
3. Find great mentors and advisors in the same and different fields to your business
4. Develop networks of dynamic men and woman
5. Thing big, think global
6. Take calculated risks, be flexible and open to change
7. Hire and work with top people, cut poor performers quickly
8. Debt is necessary, be it bank loans, grants, private investors or venture capitalists
9. Don’t be afraid to ask for help
10. Question everything, everyone and negotiate

The organizer of the event sent me a lovely thank you email, which offered a lot of hope for women to be audacious entrepreneurs – “I do believe we ladies can start technological and complicated infrastructures as well as the men do.”
The lunch at MBS was interactive with questions and experiences being shared by all. It was an inspiring group of woman who I look forward to following their careers and ventures into the future.

Best of luck to all the audacious female entrepreneurs out there

Please share your business tips and / or experiences a female in business.

In season 4, episode 16, of Sex and the City, they highlight an important topic that women should be discussing more but seem to avoid. In, what I think is the only episode that explores the topic of financial management – the message is very powerful. These women are comfortable talking about the most intimate of topics, sex, medical problems and relationships, yet the same comfort and openness does not extend to discussions around finance. Why? Is it because we don’t know enough, we find it boring, we don’t know where to start, we were raised not to discuss finance – who knows, the point is that we need to do something about it.

In this episode Carrie finds her engagement to Aden is ended. This chain of events puts into jeopardy her home that she has lived in for 10 + years and forces her to address her woeful financial position. Prior to the engagement Carrie had rented her apartment, however Aden then bought the apartment with plans to renovate and expand. With the dissolution of their relationship Carrie was faced with an option of buying the apartment or sourcing a new home to rent.

The realization soon comes that although she makes what would seem like a decent living as a writer, Carrie had no savings. She was essentially spending everything she earned aside from a having around US $900 in savings. At 35 years of age Carrie had no investments and no collateral from which to raise the $30,000 needed for her apartment. No financial institution would loan her the money and only when desperate did she speak with her friends about the matter.

Carrie calculated she had spent over $40,000 on shoes, rather than saving and managing her finances more wisely like Samantha and Miranda who were self made women. Albeit, only after Carrie’s situation was discussed did she learn that Miranda and Samantha owned their own apartments, with Charlotte acquiring hers through her divorce.

Interestingly, Charlotte says that Carrie’s financial situation is not something they should be discussing, even though she has raised the topic and asked for help. And whilst Miranda and Samantha offer to loan Charlotte the money to keep her apartment, Charlotte avoids the subject. Her explanation later to Carrie was that her father said never loan money to friends, that you should not mix the two.

I realize that Sex and the City is only a show, however it does explore real life subject matters in a brutally honest way, which is what makes it so appealing. The take-away from this for me was that women need to be more active when it comes to managing their finances and need to be more open discussing this subject with men and women.

 Research shows us that many women avoid learning about and actively managing their finances which is to their detriment. In the post “Scary Financial Stats for Women” and “Why women need to think big when it comes to money” you will find further information about why this is a problem and how we can address it.

What advice, information or stories would you like to share to inspire and assist other women with financial management?

They invite speakers along, which are a mixed bunch when it comes to relevance. None have actually been focused on business and the financial empowerment of women, though some have been amazing women in their own right (current ANZ ambassador excluded.)

If the ANZ are hosting these very expensive events purely for a social purpose for their female banking clients, then they achieve this – though personally I think we would all prefer for them to save this money and put it back into keeping their staff or lowering our bank fees!

They have made the mistake of marketing these events as delivering business and personal value to women – which for myself – I am yet to experience any value beyond the social. This may be why they are considering scrapping these events, along with various other initiatives such as the ‘Break Out’ program which has gone.

Let me take you through the most recent event, however I will spare you too many of the painful details. It was so dull and boring that even their ambassador (Antonia Kidman) was falling asleep on the stage as she sat with a panel of ANZ employees, bar one marketing lady.

Antonia, devoid of personality,  recited her uninspiring story of being divorced and that she did not know anything about finance. Clearly that delivered a lot of value to us all!

They then recounted job market information (the same as we hear and read in the news every day) and finally included some interesting statistics from an ANZ Women Survey they conducted into the financial habits of women.
A few interesting points here though not enough to justify sitting through the presentation. I would have preferred to have just read the survey.

Finally question time came – the only exciting part of the presentation. There was a mixtures of ages and women in the audience, who all seemed pretty astute and many angry with the ANZ for how they treat female customers, fail to deliver a personal service, make things complicated which results in its clients often paying more in fees than they should for products and services and so on. All those who asked questions, did so professionally and raised good points. The ANZ panel failed miserably to address these questions raised.

Interestingly, similar to their lack of service, they failed to deliver any value when it comes to helping women become more financially confident. Again supported by the number of women who asked about – how do I find out about being more financially astute, where do I go, who do I talk to, what do I read and so on. No real responses were given that offered any solutions to the audience. One suggested talk to a girlfriend who is good with money. Well that is okay, however you have jus told us from your survey only 1% of women talk about it, so that may make it a bit hard one would think!

They have not recognized that consumers are intelligent, that they read and talk and that they want more. They say that they are listening to their customers – yet customers don’t care that they are listening until they are actually acting. Actions speak louder than words. At the moment ANZ seems to be focused on the words and telling us how much they are listening. I will be interested to see if they act!

Whether you work for someone else or are self employed, if you are looking to create more income and financial security for yourself these seminars will help you to do just that.

In these seminars we will explore ways you can increase your earning potential and create a more satisfying and financially sound future for yourself through;

•    Career awareness – identifying your skills & strengths that can earn you income in and outside of the office
•  Personal Branding – online and offline to build your profile and demand for your expertise
•    Salary negotiation skills – how to value and be paid fairly for your time
•    Financial management- how to effectively manage and grow your money for long term financial security

To find out more about the ‘I Dream of Earning Six Figures‘ seminars, including dates, locations, venues and cost please email kellykaplon@live.com.au or call 0417 330 673

What stops us thinking big? We are highly educated (surpassing men) so clearly it is not lack of intelligence. We are great communicators, negotiators (in some contexts) we are creative, organized, tenacious and much more – yet why do we still think small when it comes to money.

I have covered the topic of women, pay in equality and the need to speak up and negotiate our salaries in ‘Why Women Avoid Salary Negotiation’ In another post ‘Scary Financial Stats for Women’ I looked at the low numbers of women who are confident and who have investments that will offer them a great lifestyle once they retire. The majority manage the household budget, over 58% in fact yet the minority manage the big financial investments! Why is that?

Last week at the Online Divas event in Melbourne, as I sat in a room of intelligent and inspiring women, what became apparent was that we also think small in business. Not so much in terms of our ideas, more how we finance them. Women had started businesses on a shoe string, which is not a bad thing, rather admirable in one sense, yet also restrictive in another.  Others proudly boast not having borrowed any money, having loans through other means or investors. I don’t dispute that you have to go with what works for you, though the reality is you will struggle to create a big amazing and financially viable business with small financial thinking.
Women perhaps lack the confidence to borrow from the bank, to seek out investors and to really back themselves. It is also maybe a case of not knowing who or where to go and maybe a case of not wanting to ask for help. We are great at helping others though not so great at asking for help.

I would be interested in other people’s thoughts around the subject and ways that we can support other women in achieving financial confidence, success and freedom in their personal and work lives.