Women and Money: Taking Control of your Finances

As a women, you have financial needs that are unique to your situation in life. Women are natural nurturers and wired to care for the needs of others, and by doing so they often neglect to take the time to take care of themselves. Whatever your circumstances may be, it’s important to have a clear understanding of your overall financial position.

That means constructing and implementing a financial plan. With a financial plan in place you will be able to focus on your financial goals and understand what it will take to reach them. There are three main steps in creating and implementing an effective financial plan:

• Developing a clear picture of your current financial situation
• Setting and prioritizing financial goals and time frames
• Implementing appropriate saving and investment strategies
• Identify your current monthly income and expenses
• Evaluate your spending habits
• Monitor your overall spending
• Try to make budgeting part of your daily routine
• Build in occasional increases in discretionary items (extra vacation) into your budget
• Examine your budget regularly (monthly) and make adjustments or changes as needed

Developing a clear picture of your current financial situation:

The first step to creating and implementing a financial plan is to develop a clear picture of your current financial situation. Consider creating a budget or a spending plan. Creating this plan requires you to:

To develop a budget, you will need to identify your income and expenses. Income should consist should include your regular salary and wages. Also, make sure to include other types of income such as dividends, interest, and child support. Next, your expenses should be split into two categories: fixed and discretionary. Fixed expenses include things that are necessities, such as housing, food, and transportation. Discretionary expenses include things like entertainment, vacations, and shopping. Some key points to staying on top of your budget include:

Setting and prioritizing financial goals and time frames:

The second step to creating and implementing a financial plan is to set and prioritize financial goals. This can be achieved by making a list and separating the list into two categories: short-term goals and long term financial goals.

Short-term financial goals may include a short term cash reserve for emergencies or paying off an outstanding credit card bill. Long term goals can be the purchase of a new home, children’s college, and retirement. Once you have established these goals you will want to prioritize them. You will have to decide which of these goals are the most important to you and make sacrifices.

Implementing appropriate saving and investment strategies:

The final step to creating and implementing a financial plan is to set up a savings and investment strategy. After you have determined your financial goals you will know how much it will take to fund each goal. Next, you can focus on implementing the best investment strategy to meet these goals. Some questions to consider to formulate your investment strategy:

• What is my time horizon?
• What is my tolerance for risk?
• What are my liquidity needs?

Once you have answered these questions you will be able to implement the appropriate strategy for each of your financial goals.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES

Financial Planning and Investment Advice offered through STA Wealth Management (STA), a registered investment advisor.

STA does not provide tax or legal advice and the information presented here is not specific to any individual’s personal circumstances. To the extent that this material concerns tax matters or legal issues, it is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, by a taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed by law. Each taxpayer should seek independent advice from a tax professional based on his or her individual circumstances.

These materials are provided for general information and educational purposes based upon publicly available information from sources believed to be reliable—we cannot assure the accuracy or completeness of these materials. The information in these materials may change at any time and without notice.

As always, a copy of our current written disclosure statement discussing our services and fees continues to be available for your review upon request.