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This post will be sharing eight realistic money management tips for millennial women.
I like to think that I have a good relationship with money. I’ve never been in debt and I always live within my means. Yes, I’ve had moderate ambitions to be comfortable and successful before I turn 30. Even though I still have three years to go, I recently realised that as long as I can pay my bills, fund my trips and have little savings by the side, I’ll be fine.
No, I don’t have dreams to be wealthy, rich or famous. I just want to have a good quiet life to afford everything I want. Thankfully, I’m the least materialistic and not particularly adventurous. I love my routines, rituals and appreciate the simple pleasures of life.
But just because I don’t have grandeur money goals doesn’t mean I don’t have good money habits. I mean nobody wants to be broke, homeless and living from paycheck to paycheck. Which is why I’m proud of my money habits and general relationship with money.
Over the last five years, these habits have helped me start a business, start investing and relocate to a new country. Yep! I saved up a percentage of my profits from my business to move to Manchester, England by myself at 25. I’ve never been more proud of myself. Which is why I’m going to be sharing my top money management tips for young women.
Here are 8 realistic money management tips for millennial women
Build a good money mindset
The first thing you need to do is to have a good money mindset. Your mindset is everything as it will determine your general attitude and behaviour towards money. It will always determine your habits and general relationship with money. If you don’t establish one from the onset, you’ll end up running into even more money problems. If you’re not sure where to start, educate yourself about money. Clever Girl Finance is my all-time fave money resource for women. You can start from there.
Jennifer goes deeper on How to Manifest Money in this post. Check it out!
Have a budget
This goes without saying. Budgeting as a topic might be over flogged but for good reason. It is one of the simplest money habits you can pick up. If you’re having a hard time tracking your expenses and creating a budget, use an app. Monzo is my fave for expense tracking and saving. Even though I personally still prefer to have my budget written on pen and paper, you can use it to create your monthly budget. The best thing I have learnt about budgeting is financial discipline. After doing it for about 6 months to a year, it gradually becomes a habit. Before you know it, your lifestyle becomes aligned with your budget. For instance, I recently went through my expenses and I realised that I subconsciously eat out just once a month. It wasn’t something I planned to do. It just became a habit that I followed religiously. Never underestimate the power of money habits on improving financial discipline.
If you’re a mum on a budget. check out Nicole’s post on 5 Tips To Boost Your Financial Health. She has super useful and actionable tips!
Automate your bills
If there’s one thing I’d rather not do, it’s thinking about my bills. I don’t like to think about them or track them because I prefer pouring that energy into something else that will make me money. So, I use Monzo to automate all my bills to go out at different times in a month. This helps me be consistent every month. P.S: If you are in need of an affordable one-stop insurance provider, you should definitely check out One Sure Insurance. They provide any kind of insurance you might need within the UK.
Make provision for shopping & miscellaneous spending
This tip has been a game-changer for me. Yes, you should create a budget and stick to it. But nobody is perfect. The only way to learn how to stick to your budget is by making it flexible and accounting for miscellaneous expenses like impulsive buying. We all have shopping habits to varying degrees. You’ll be doing yourself and your budget a disservice by considering your intentional and impulsive shopping habits. During one of my expense assessments, I discovered that my shopping expenses were on the high side. I’m absolutely obsessed with AliExpress.
So, I figured out a way to reduce it by giving myself a budget. Yes, I can still shop on AliExpress but only £5/week. This single step cut down my shopping expenses drastically. You should try it too. Instead of taking out shopping completely, give yourself a realistic budget. You can also make your money go further by using coupons. Anytime, I want to shop online, I always look for coupons from websites like Raise before placing an order. That 15 – 30% off helps so much! Don’t sleep on it.
Learn the basics of investment
One of the things I learned when I started my business was investing. Obviously, as a result of my great money habits, I did not spend all the profit I made from my business. I saved about 75% of it. This gave me quite a bit of spare cash to try my hands in investing. So, I dabbled into a low-risk investment like The Money Market Fund. While I didn’t leave my money long enough for it to properly mature, some of the ROI I got wasn’t too bad at all. The entire experience was thrilling, to say the least. I look forward to actively going back into investing post-COVID. If you’re not sure how to start your investment journey, check out the Sofi website (https://www.sofi.com/investing-101-center/) which is a one-stop-shop for all your investment resources.
Claire has super useful resources for planning a strong financial future in the wake of a global pandemic.
Apply self-discipline to money matters
A few posts ago, I wrote about my top self-motivation tips for smashing my goals. This also applies to money as well. If you have money goals you desire you achieve, you’ve got to be disciplined. No, you don’t need to indulge in fast fashion all the time. No, you don’t need that cult beauty product. Get your staples and stick to them. The earlier you learn to delay instant gratification, the better for you. Also, you don’t need the latest Fenty lipstick. Stick to your damn budget!
Always look for ways to increase your income
This goes without saying as well. Every year, you should always look for ways to increase your income. It can either be working towards a promotion, getting a better paying job, starting a small business or creating a new income stream from an existing business. Always make sure it’s a yearly goal to increase your income. Otherwise, you’re just gonna relax, get too comfortable and be complacent. You don’t have to have an emergency or go broke before you take action.
Learn how to prioritise saving.
If anything COVID-19 has taught me, it is prioritising saving. I have no idea how I would have survived without an income during this period. Already my mental health has suffered a great deal, imagine including financial stress. It’s the worst situation you can be in. Yes, there is only so much you can save because you don’t know how long a pandemic is. But, it’s comforting to have something saved for a rainy day no matter how small. So, I urge you to use this period to prioritise saving. Thankfully, some of us have started already. As the lockdown has helped us save some money.
I really hope these money management tips will help someone out there. Hopefully, it would help you rethink your relationship with money by changing your money mindset and learning good money habits.
Which of these tips do you find most useful?
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