Managing money effectively is crucial for every professional woman. The ability to manage finances is what gives you leeway to have the lifestyle you want.
Not every woman would tell you that they are comfortable with managing their money.
Ifeoma Okoli is an Audit Analyst with a degree in Economics and Statistics. She has a Diploma with the Association of Charted Accountants.
Ifeoma is also known to be a driven and enthusiastic Financial Analyst. In this article, she provides her tips on how women can effectively manage their money.
The finance world is typically a male-dominated industry. What led you on to the path?
I think the notion of the finance industry is typically a male-dominated industry was all in retrospect. Nowadays, especially in Nigeria, more women have begun to demand a seat at the table in this industry.
On what led me to this path, I think one of my first inspiration career-wise was my dad. He too worked in this industry and I loved number crunching.
However, one of the things that helped me was that my father insisted I do a lot of unpaid internships during my secondary school holidays. That gave me an early start to understanding the nitty-gritty of the industry.
How would you describe your day-to-day responsibilities as an Audit Analyst for your company?
I look at my role as more of control and compliance (Risk Mitigation), working constructively with finance and other departments to improve internal control across the organization.
How would you advise more women to become more financially literate?
First of all, to be financially literate does not mean you have to study finance in school.
In fact, studies have shown that most people whose job is to manage other peoples finance are actually very bad at managing their own personal finances.
With that being said, some of my advice to women is below:
- You don’t need a glucose guardian to be rich. Get a job and work towards increasing your net worth.
- There is dignity in labour and financial independence is one of the best gifts you as a woman can give yourself.
- This may sound very cliche but create a budget tracker. This would help you to know how much you should spend, how much you have spent in a month, variances and mechanical ways to save up from bargains.
- Whenever you are free, listen to financial podcasts. It will help improve your financial knowledge, plus if you have a side hustle, the podcast will teach you how to scale your business faster while learning from the mistakes of other entrepreneurs.
To check out some of my favorite podcasts, click this link .
How can the modern young working women budget and save effectively to cater to all her needs?
Most career women who are salary earners oftentimes earn way less than their male counterparts at the same level. Yet most times are the ones doing more of the smart work.
So as a young lady, be diligent and find out if you are long overdue for a salary increase. Arm yourself with facts and go forward to renegotiate your salary.
To be able to cater to all your needs means you have to increase your income and to increase income means you have to increase the money coming from your revenue-generating unit(s)
- Like I said before, use a budget tracker it would save you a lot of headaches.
- Have at least three bank accounts. One should be your expense account, one your revenue accounts and the last should be your savings account.
- Do not spend directly from your revenue account. Separating your account would also help you track your inflow and outflows.
- Try as much as possible to save up 40% of your monthly income especially if you are still single and have fewer responsibilities. Saving for rainy days cannot be overemphasized.
- 20% of your six months income should be able to take you on a holiday trip. If not, it simply means the trip is a way too much above your budget and you are balling above your budget. Find a cheaper option. Trust me, you can have an amazing holiday on a budget.
- Apps like Piggy vest are there to help you cater to your personal savings and investment.
- Finally, one which most of us ignore. Always negotiate for your pension and health insurance in all your places of employment. Your pension may seem minuscule right now but it compounds and would eventually help to reduce the financial burden when you are old and frail.
Are there useful tools or apps that can support women in dealing with their finances?
Yes, there are. Apps like Expensify, Fudget even Google sheet can help you with planning and managing your finance
What is one thing that you want more women to be aware of when it comes to managing money?
If you are contented, you would not go broke trying to prove to broke people that you are not broke.
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