Women and Savings
Women tend to regret not saving earlier, according to an article in Elle. There are many distractions, such as shopping, facial, spa, massages, makeup and other things that we fancy, so some people may not have enough savings.
A friend of mine earns more than me, and doesn’t own a car. By right, she should have more savings than me. However, when I told her how much I have, all squirreled away to various insurance plans, savings plans, investments and other accounts, she was shocked. She started thinking of reasons, such as she gives more money to her parents. Well, I do have a lot of fixed expenditure, such as my singing lessons that do not come cheap, and my car that takes up quite a big chunk, and I also give money to my parents.
Too many women in their 20s or 30s are not saving enough, and when their children come, their purse strings would get even tighter. The best way to make more money is to save more.
Many books expound the virtue of paying-yourself-first, such as putting 10% of your income into a separate savings account, which can be used for investing as well. This is very important. You have to make sure you have met your own needs before you pay other bills.
10% out of a $60000 annual income is a whopping $6000. If you can save this amount every year for a decade, at a conservative interest rate of 3%, it is almost $80000 by then, which means you made $20000.
The other regret of women is they wish they know more about financial tools and other investment plans. Too many rely on their partners without taking control of their financial destiny. You really do not have to spend much time to find out more.
You can read the Sunday Times which has some investment pages, or read my blog to find out more. There are many other blogs where you can find out more. A lot of books in the market cater to those who are interested to find out more and some are written in an easy-to-understand manner.
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Maybe 30 years ago, buying gold jewelry is the main way out for us women to keep some money. Nowadays there are more tools available. I think saving money in the bank is still one of the better ways… Just that the queue is forever so looooong there …
xiaogu: use internet banking. If not when you go to the queues, they will try to get you to buy other types of plans.
[...] – bookmarked by 4 members originally found by rikitora on 2008-07-20 Women and Savings http://singaporeprofit.com/2008/07/18/women-and-savings/ – bookmarked by 4 members originally [...]
I have created a table that people can use to calculate the compounded portfolio based on a fixed monthly sum. See http://www.waynekoh.com/2008/08/drip-in-new-money-part-4.html