Depending On Memory Is Bad

I remember, before I came to know about financial tools, every month I got my salary, I’d just take out the money from the ATM machine and keep spending it without recording my expenditure. By the 20th of every month my balance would almost dip down to a low. I’d bank on my memory to recollect my expenditure, but that wouldn’t give me my precise spending. I’d only remember my major purchases, whereas the smaller purchases which would contribute to my spending would simply fade from my memory. Towards the end if I’m spending $1000 per month, I could only remember my expenditure for only $ 600 while the rest $400 would go unaccounted for.

Maintaining Diaries Is Obsolete

As a remedy, I started making notes of my expenditure in diaries, but that didn’t help either. Maintaining so many diaries was difficult. Besides, other members of my household could easily see my financial status by browsing the diaries. Also, I could compare my expenditure across months easily and get suggestions regarding budgeting and making my investments grow.

Benefits of a Personal Finance Tool

This was when I decided to use a personal management tool. Electronically I could maintain huge amounts of data without any fuss. Also I could ensure security to my personal financial data by locking it up with a password provided by the tool. I could track, observe and compare my monthly savings and expenditure every month. The tool also suggested some good money saving strategies for me.

Now money management is done using advanced technology. It’s fast catching up in the personal finance sector. Mint has got some of the best personal finance management tools and software and with Intuit acquiring it, you can expect greater resources. Mint has already got over a million users and you can always join in. Mint has got some of the best features for mobile banking. I can get alerts on my expenditures and money receipts on my iPhone wherever I am.

A personal finance management too also makes visits to financial consultants absolutely unnecessary. I get the best financial advice from these websites without my having to fix up an appointment with any financial expert and visit him under time constraints.

With so many advantages, a personal finance tool for me is more than a necessity.

According to Ginita Wall, co-author of ‘It’s More Than Your Money – It’s Your Life!’, “A lot of women believe that wealth is a four-letter word. They are particularly afraid of the negative reputation that wealth has — power, greed, corrupt connotations.”

When it comes to money, women have the lesser share and during divorce, most often, the settlements are not done fairly. Here are certain tips that women should follow to empower themselves financially.

• Establish goals – Ask a woman how much she expects to see in her bank account after the coming 5 years, most probably you’ll get a blank expression on her face. This is because conventionally women were not the major financial planners of their households. The men usually do that. But if you are a single woman you should be able to plan your monetary goals clearly.
• Know The Ins and Outs of Financial Operations – women run households and they show good management skills with the money that is given to them for spending. But women are seen to be lacking in knowledge of managing long term assets. In the event of a divorce or other situations in which a woman has to independently run the finances of the household, she has problems. For example, making profitable investments for the growth of assets is an area that she might not be very comfortable with. Consulting financial experts, taking up a financial literacy course and using online financial tools will help in improving the financial literacy of women using which they can take up long term decision regarding their finances.
• Prepare yourself for divorce – This is for women who are conventional home makers. Your husbands might be providing you security at the moment and I wish that divorce should never happen to you. But you never know the future. If such a situation happens what are you going to do? Even when your relationships are alright even before you get married you should think about independent survival and what you are going to do if you face such a situation. Always try to keep a job handy so that you constantly keep earning some amount or the other. Plan for an independent house and lifestyle in case you might have to face that emergency that most of us would want to avoid. Above all never take your spouse for granted.