by Erin Papworth
I coach people about the wealth mindset. This coaching on personal finances has brought me a number of realizations, but the one that stands out most: you rock at managing money, you just don’t know it yet. That why I love financial affirmations. It’s all about having confidence. Saying to the world, I am worthy. I deserve access to wealth and financial equality. I am essential to a healthy economy. I deserved to be paid.
Self-Promotion.
When I coach about money management, a common thread of self-doubt emerges. In general, women are not great braggers. In fact, self-promoting statements are often started with, ‘I’m not bragging, I’m just saying…’ (and this is not a strong way to begin a conversation about salary negotiations with your boss!).
So here are the levels of personal finances so that you can successfully say, I’m nav.ing my money, and I am not afraid to say it it (hello, mindset shift).
Level 1: Live within your means
In coaching sessions, I’ve had people start our conversations by telling me they don’t know anything about money but then they proceed to list how they hit all of the big money management boxes:
- They don’t spend more than they make (they save).
- They are very conscious spenders (they look for deals and try to shop local).
- They pay off their credit cards in full each month to avoid accrued interest payments.
- They avoid debt (and are trying to pay off their school loans as fast as possible).
As a financial coach – that’s what I call rocking it. And if you’re not quite there yet, it’s pretty simple to set up a budget with the Nav.it app that identifies your lifestyle goals along with some realistic financial goals.
Level 2: Investing–making your money work for you.
But, in order to invest our money wisely, we need the confidence to take the investment risks that are right for our situation and to understand how our investments will work for us. That comes with some reading, potentially a few discussions with your boss babe friends (bonus if they’re financial advisors) and maybe even using one of these apps.
Level 3: Confidence is queen.
Like I said, when I coach on personal finances, it appears there is a lack of confidence because we’re always comparing ourselves. Time. To. Stop. That.In fact, Asian women statistically have higher self-esteem because their benchmark of success is other woman. When you see another woman succeed it makes you believe your success is achievable. That’s why women supporting women, women championing other women, women celebrating other women’s wins, only benefits us all (#shinetheory).
It’s our time, ladies. We are making more money these days than ever before. We are becoming more educated than our male counterparts. In terms of overall investment loss, we tend to be better investors because we take less risk and stay in when the going gets tough. We are traditionally more collaborative than competitive. We want our spending to reflect our ideals (Like with Angel Investor Chelsea Burns in this podcast.)
All this to say: we don’t have (and shouldn’t) to do it the way everyone else does it.
They haven’t been thinking about us as they’ve built their empires, so let’s pave our own way! We can compete equally in the financial world and we can do it on our own terms. We can manage our own money and grow our own wealth. Access to money and wealth is not only essential to move our society forward, but that we all must have full participation in the labor market and wealth management, our society becomes more innovative, more creative and more equitable. Here’s to the future!
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We’re changing the narrative around money but change can’t happen with a one-sided conversation. Send us an email and let us know what you think. And remember the nav.it money app offers you free tools for checking in and managing your money moves.
You can download it at Google Play and the Apple Store.
