Work/Life Balance and the Debit Card - It’s Not about How Much You Make (Part Deux)

Work/Life Balance and the Debit Card - It’s Not about How Much You Make (Part Deux)

When we detach emotions and money, we can take the steps we need to in order to avoid feeling helpless. According to a survey from the National Center for Women and Retirement, of those women who say they feel in control of their lives, 56 percent of them saved and invested monthly. Of the 42 percent who said they felt out of control, only 17 percent made savings and investing for retirement a priority. There’s a direct correlation between how well a woman takes care of herself financially and how good she feels about herself.^aLiz Perle

ARE YOU UNCLEAR about how to go about setting your financial goal? Let’s start with an example.

Let’s say that you’re thirty years old, earning $55,000 per year, and your goal is to amass one million dollars by the time you’re sixty-five. In order to do this, you’ll need to save about $467 per month. Wow! That seems like a lot of money when you’re probably not at the top of your earning game. But we all know there are a few things we really can do without:

Eliminate 2 foamy iced coffee drinks . . . $7.00

Pass up that trendy new shade of lipstick . . . $7.00

Skip that new blouse . . . $32.00

Cook Saturday night rather than dine out . . . $45.00

Wear last year’s necklace . . . $16.77

Total weekly savings . . . $$10777 per week X 52 weeks per year = $5,604.04

Invested over thirty-five years, $$5,60404 saved annually (about 10 percent of your salary) with a compounding interest of 8 percent will net you a smidge over a million bucks. Is this too aggressive for you? Start by saving $$5354 per week; at the same compounded interest and term, you’ll net $500,000 . . . that’s fifty times more than 58 percent of female baby boomers have saved today.^b

I often hear women say that they deserve that new blouse. Really? I think what you deserve is something that will last long after any blouse has gone out of style. What you deserve is peace of mind. Consider the greater sacrifice: not going shopping on Saturday or anxiously scrimping for the last thirty years of your life.

But divide your investments among many places, for you do not know what risks might lie ahead. (Ecclesiastes 11:2)

If you really want the freedom to choose, develop a goal and a savings plan; then stick to it. You deserve it; and the smaller jean size that accompanies kicking the high-cal drink habit is a bonus.

^a Ibid., 228.

^b Calculations found at http://www.bloomberg.com/invest/calculators/retire.html.