MANAGING YOUR MONEY equates to LOVING YOURSELF

You work hard for your money whether you are self-employed or an employee. When others are sleeping or enjoying themselves you are working. Why do you make the effort? For many women it is to be able to provide “material things” for family or to be able to keep up with “Jones”. For International Women’s Day 2018, you are encouraged to MANAGE YOUR MONEY and in so doing Love Yourself.

Five or ten years from now, what will you have to show for the long days or hours you have worked? It should be in your savings or an asset (i.e. property) that is increasing in value.

In this brief article to commemorate our special day, please love yourself by ensuring that you directly and indirectly determine who spends your money and what it is spent on. As women, many of us are carers and givers to children, partners and extended family or sometimes friends; we leave out ourselves.

Contrary to public opinion, ‘self-love’ is NOT selfish or wrong. How can you love others, if do not love yourself? (Mark 12.31) When it comes to money management, one of the ways you love yourself is by paying yourself first for having worked. It is done, by putting aside regularly, a fixed amount for saving right off the top rather than doing it over what is left over. Saving is of prime importance in a budget because it is the buffer on which you will fall back in case of an emergency. It is also the basis of your nest egg for retirement in the future.

By teaching your children and those with whom you come into contact to save, you can be the positive force in society that we are as women. I wish to celebrate my mother of precious memory, Eva Dunbar-Lee, who taught me to love myself by instilling a sense of self-worth. She also gave me my first insights into achieving financial independence. From childhood, she taught us to live within our means or as she used to say “Cut your coat according to your cloth”. I encourage all women who read this article, to commit to sharing this idea with their family; it will save them from financial distress in life.

In closing, I point you to some ways in which you can make ends meet, by picking up the FREE Ebook 71 Ways to Make Ends Meet. Having knowledge is another way in which you can love yourself.