Empower your Future: Smart Financial Advice for Women
I’ve covered so many aspects of how someone can get their life together, but was completely missing the boat on finances. It’s such a huge part of our lives and can be a major stress point for so many people. Particularly right now, when everything - even the basics - have become so incredibly expensive.
So, I was lucky enough to sit down with a very good friend of mine, Sarah Penfold, to talk about all things finance and female empowerment. Sarah has dedicated the last couple years of her coaching career to helping women change their relationship with money and find their financial footing.
One of the more interesting aspects of our conversation was the differences in how women and men approach money. I asked Sarah, in her experience, do women have a different relationship to money than men do? She had a lot to share.
“Often the difference is confidence. Men are raised to be confident regardless of whether they know what they’re doing or not. Women are taught to be submissive and passive so we often subconsciously abdicate our power to professionals, usually men.” says Sarah. “Something I love to share with women is that the very thing that often keeps them from learning about investing actually makes them a good investor, which is that women are risk aware, conservative and think long-term. Those are the three powerful traits for being a successful investor.”
She also made the point that having a lot of money does NOT automatically make someone good with money. Making a lot of money and being good with your money are two very different things.
So let’s dive into the conversation.
Q. How do you know when you need to get a plan together?
(Sarah knowingly laughs) This one is simple but not easy. If you don’t have a plan, then you need one. Living your life without a plan for your money is kind of like having a week off, a desire to go to Mexico, and just going to the airport. You’ll waste all this time running around the airport to figure out when the next flight is to a beach in Mexico. Then you’ll get to the beach and have to wander around trying to find a hotel. If you had spent a couple of hours a few weeks before you could have just hopped on a plane and relaxed right from the start.
Money is the same way, when you don’t have a plan you end up wasting time and energy worrying about your finances. Having a plan for your money can actually create feelings of freedom and safety, and these are often brand new feelings for my clients with their money. If you have a plan for your hard earned money you know what to expect, you can relax and put your seat in the recline position with your money so to speak because you know exactly what’s going on.
Q. What are the common things that hold people back from getting started?
It’s usually some delightful combination of guilt, embarrassment, shame. Talking about money is so taboo in our culture. For so many incredibly capable people it’s their ‘dirty little secret’. They have a great life and career and so many things appear to be working on the outside. But on the inside they’re feeling all these feelings and carrying around the stress and anxiety.
I remember feeling so overwhelmed and embarrassed by my situation. I felt like I was the only person in the world who didn’t know about money and who wasn’t managing it well and I just felt really alone with it all.
Q. Is it ever too late to start?
No, of course not. It’s never too late. I can’t stress this enough. I started in my 40’s. There are advantages to starting when you’re younger of course, but the next best time to start is today. Most people don’t know what they don’t know when it comes to finances so they default to these grand sweeping beliefs that reinforce staying stuck. Despite what the world would have us believe, personal finance is NOT rocket science. You can get literate in the fundamentals and set up basic systems really quickly.
Once you get into action you feel more confident and capable and you keep building from there. You do bump up against yourself. You have to look at all things that you did or didn’t do in the past that got you to where you are and that can be a little bit confronting but the more we persevere and get over that the more quickly we can get into action and experience the freedom and safety from having a plan for our money.
Q. If you really don’t know where to start, how do you get started?
Your first step in a financial plan is creating a spending plan including a debt reduction plan if you have high interest debt. You can get basic income/expense plans easily online. But really understanding yourself is the key to being successful. If you’re someone who will go down rabbit holes and research and figure things out, then yes, you can probably self educate yourself. There are tons of books, websites, podcasts and more out there to learn from.
If you’re someone like me, and you know you thrive with external accountability and being in community with others, then a one on one or group coaching program with a money coach will move things along more quickly. What I will say is that a good coach will compress time for you which means that they’ll have done the work to create a process to get you results more quickly than you could do it on your own. With financial coaching there is an immediate return on investment (ROI) because they will help you find money in your system that you didn’t think you had and so that’s money that’s immediately going back into your life and future that wasn’t there before.
Q. When/should you hire a professional?
I like to compare the world of finance to the medical field. There are so many different specialties. You wouldn’t go to an orthopedic surgeon if you were having heart trouble. As a financial coach, I consider myself your GP. I will help you with your immediate relationship with money and get your basic financial health in order and then I will send you to qualified professionals for whatever else you might need.
For example, if you need insurance coverage for your protection plan, an estate plan or if you want to work with an investment advisor I would point you in the direction of the appropriate professional. But no one person knows everything about the financial world just like no one doctor could treat every single ailment a person has.
Q. What’s the difference between a coach and a financial advisor?
This is a great segue from the previous question so as a financial coach, it’s actually unethical for me to give you financial advice about the stock market because I don’t have my financial advisor credentials. I can absolutely teach you the basics and how “robo advisors” work and how you can start investing on your own, but I don’t research companies and funds or pick stocks and funds for you.
My job as a coach is to be in your life for a short amount of time and teach you to fly on your own with money. I will get you financially literate, give you tools to manage and structure your finances and help you get out of your own way by looking at beliefs and mindset. A financial advisor works for you. You pay them to manage your money in the stock market and grow your portfolio.
Q. How do you assess all the financial advice out there?
I like to follow anyone I’m thinking about working with for a few months. I might do a low ticket or free offering of theirs just to see if it’s a good fit. At the end of the day it’s going to come down to chemistry and method.
If you do want to work with someone, I recommend talking to 2-3 people - a decent coach will do a free insight call for 15-30 min - to check for chemistry and fit, and to ask them what their method is. If they can’t clarify their method they likely have not put the work in to create a process to take you through to create success. Money can be a deeply personal and vulnerable thing to work on so you want to feel comfortable with, and confident in your coach.
So readers, I sincerely hope this post gives you the confidence, or the push you need, to re-evaluate your relationship to money and get started on a new path to find independence and financial freedom.
I'm thrilled to share that Sarah has extended my readers a special offer of 15% off 1:1 or group coaching with promo code THISTHAT15. If you're on the fence about getting help with your finances, I hope this helps you take the leap forward!
To learn more about Sarah and how she can help, follow her on Instagram @sarahsacredwealth or visit www.sarahpenfold.com where you can find free resources and more.