We’re excited to be working with Ellevest to start this conversation about women and money, and we may receive compensation if you become an Ellevest client. All opinions are our own.
When I was younger, I would find myself fantasizing about landing a husband who would financially take care of me. Like in a way that we were totally in love, but I could depend on him to support me.
I think a lot of us are familiar with hearing, “well, you could always marry rich!” from family members as if it’s a legitimate backup plan to landing a well-paying career.
It’s more than time to shatter this fantasy of finding a “sugar daddy” or someone wealthy to financially take care of us and create a much better one for ourselves: a realistic goal to become financially independent. Like, not in a lofty “someday, it would be nice to be financially independent” way but deciding right now that it’s a real priority for this year.
Let’s start with asking ourselves what financial independence could mean for us. It’s a superpower that we can gift ourselves, but we have to know the personal value that being financially independent brings for us or else it’s just a goal that sounds nice, but doesn’t mean anything.
Freedom
When you’re financially independent, you have the freedom to leave a toxic situation without the reason ever being that you’re dependent on someone financially. You’re there because you choose to be, not because you feel like you need to be.
You won’t be stuck in a job well-past age 65, unless you choose to, because you’ll have thought about retirement. You won’t be stuck in a relationship with someone, because you’re worried about how you’d pay the bills.
Being financially independent means reminding yourself that you have the ability to earn on your own and that your future is set (as much as it can be), because of your dedication to your future self. When you own your power, you have more freedom to do what you want.
Power
We all know how much money affects what we want to do, and how we can get closer to our goals with more of it. But what we forget is how making more money is a choice we can gift ourselves.
As Sallie Krawcheck, CEO of Ellevest says…
“Investing is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. It can build your wealth….not by a little, but by enough to make a real difference in your life.”
Everyone talks endlessly about self-care, but I don’t think enough people talk about how personal investment goes beyond your physical and emotional well-being, but in your future self.
How do you want to live when you’re older? What do you want to be doing? It’s fine if you don’t have a clear vision of yourself years from now. What matters is that you remember that you want a good future with less worries and lots of options.
A digital investing platform made for women like Ellevest is a good option to start. They spent hundreds of hours researching what women are looking for in an investment platform. Most platforms are made with men in mind with men’s salary and life cycles. If we’re paid less, and live longer, shouldn’t our investing tools reflect that?
Ellevest works to eliminate all that unnecessary jargon that makes investing seem way more complicated than it needs to be. They make investing feel empowering, instead of intimidating. And as fiduciaries, they’re required to work in your best interest.
They offer a free personal plan to help you own your financial power and give you a detailed overview of what investing in your future self would look like. They focus on goals-based investing, so if you have a specific goal like buying a home or creating a business, you can plug that info in and they’ll give you a personalized plan at no cost or commitment. One of the goal options is yourself, so even if you just want to invest in yourself with no specific goal in mind, that’s totally an option too.
The personal plan doesn’t require you to sign up for investing with them, but if you do choose to, there’s no minimum amount you need to put down to get started.
Confidence
Sometimes we feel like we A) don’t deserve lots of money or B) that it’s hard to get. Deciding that you are worthy of earning and that money can flow easily to you if you trust that it will is ultimately a decision that you get to make. Money can be a real struggle for some, and I don’t want to make light of that, but a lot of our money struggles can be shifted by our mindset. If we believe that money is hard to come by, we tend to make decisions based on that. We try to avoid thinking about it or we make poor spending decisions or leave money on the table without thinking about how we can do more with it.
Our actions are a reflection of our belief system. For the longest time, I avoided my debt. I avoided thinking about investing in my future self. But the reality is, if we start embracing financial freedom and making it our top priority, we’ll serve ourselves well in the future. It takes courage to change your money mindset and to take positive action. And instead of feeling overwhelmed by it, choose to see it as a self-care ritual that you can do for you.
Get your free personal financial plan from Ellevest here.
