I struggled with understaning what is measured is mastered for the entire year and to be completely honest I started with my smoothies. Every cotton picking day I made one, I either put too much almond milk in and it was runny like a juice (which is not what I want) or I put in too little and it would hardly move and you had to spoon eat it. Finally, I decided to use a glass and master this smoothie problem by measuring it, not moving until I figured out exactly how much almond milk I needed for every smoothie by measuring it. It worked! WHAT…I was so excited. I now know how much to put in every time to make a perfect smoothie.
Over the past year, I have made it a huge goal to measure everything in my life from cycling, business, and finance. Is what I am doing effective, efficient or just something I do? It was difficult to start this because sometimes my mind just does not work in that way. I had to figure out what it meant, how to make changes if needed or not. Maybe things were going well so it wouldn’t necessarily be a huge issue. Truly measuring cycling, business and finance were my major goals.
Mastering and understanding my finances was huge for me. My husband did all the bill paying and money handling so it left me with a deficit on how to handle just basic finance. There seems to be a thought even in our cultural (this seems to be changing) that women did not have the same intelligence as men in the area of finance when in fact brains have no gender but women because of the years of deferring to the wants and needs of others, not really knowing or understanding what we want, did not help matters. Many women actually have a tendency towards math anxiety. We think more in terms of relationship. In one research study, it showed that men did not find math easier but they would have more confidence in their ability to learn it. The tendency is for younger girls to not feel confident in math so quietly they remain this way.
Learning to be more innovative as parents and spouses will help in teaching our young girls that they, in fact, do have the intelligence to master math but we might learn a little differently. Women tend to be perfectionist before we can say we have mastered it. Before we invest, we want all the facts when men tend to just move forward. Women actually are excellent investors because we know how to shop. We make careful decisions, gather information, see our mistakes then make different decisions. It just takes us a little more time. Investment savvy among women is growing and it is for me as well. I have been working on mastering investing even during an economic downturn.
As I began last January to master finance, it took a lot of work and diligence but I was determined to learn and understand it but I could not master it until I saw honestly where I was putting my money, spending the money and where and who I was giving it too. I had to ask the honest question, was my financial integrity lined up with my true values? After recording every dollar I spent, saved or gave away for the entire year, I really had to face myself. It was quite eye-opening and I was putting to much milk in. I have an amazing finance coach who has helped me every step of the way and he has been patient and honest with me through the process who actually encouraged me to do this. Once I graphed my finances, I could then see clearly what needed to change.
According to five ways women sabotage their financial future, women live longer to approximately 80.2 years, vs. just 74.5 years for men. Wives live 8 to 10 years longer than their husbands if they are married when they’re the same age. And more than 75% of women will eventually be widows. Given those odds, it’s abundantly clear, says Kauffman: “Women must take hold of their financial futures.”
Sometimes it feels overwhelming but you can take small steps like I did. What seemed like a small step actually made a big difference. I replaced old habits with new ones.
Small steps towards measuring your finances:
1) Educate yourself. Yes, there are many experts and I treasure their knowledge but wisdom never hurts. ( TEA aka The Escape Artist, gave me many books to start off with and every single one helped me work out a plan that is best for me although I am still a work in progress I am progressing.)
2) Get into the habit of getting a receipt for every single expense and I mean every single one.
3) Record what you purchase on a simple green accounting sheet. I label mine YNAB (did I record in my online budget?) How (AX, Debit or Cash) Where (Trader Joes, Starbucks) What (these are my categories ie groceries, gift, home, hobby, meals, personal) then…..then income at the end. Sample at the bottom.
4) Start tracking monthly then record it on a spreadsheet.
5) Have a notebook where you put every single bank or financial statement plus the green accounting sheets to start getting into the habit of opening them and paying close attention to your statements.
We are what we repeatedly do, therefore excellence is a habit, not an act.~Aristotle
