Obviously, based on the fact that I started this blog I love teaching people about money but my dream readers are women who are trying to make themselves better because that’s who I am and I love connecting with women like that! As women, we aren’t often taught about money. Even in 2018, we get taught how to cook and clean and raise a family but we aren’t given the right financial education that will be more beneficial to our futures.

I know that even I’m guilty of a few of these things but I’m working hard to make myself better, as well as trying to help you all be better as well! If you want to refer back to this post to see your progress with changing these behaviours, be sure to pin it for later!

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8 Common Money Mistakes Women Make

#1 – Not Learning about Personal Finance

I know, personal finance can be so intimidating. There’s so much to learn and sometimes it feels like you have no time to learn it. The good thing is, you’re here. Which means you’re willing to start changing things, and for that, I’m so incredibly proud of you!

There are so many options to gain personal finance knowledge, my favourite is always blog posts. I’m a big fan of personal finance blogs because the information is easy to digest and written by regular people so it’s usually more conversational! Some of my favourite personal finance bloggers include:

• Making Sense of Cents 
• FITnancials 
• The Busy Budgeter
• The Budget Mom 

Reading blogs isn’t for everybody, especially people who are super busy. If you’d rather just throw a book in your bag or listen to an audio book, here’s a few of my favourite personal finance books:

• Rich Dad, Poor Dad 
• You Are A Badass at Making Money
• Total Money Makeover

Let’s just remember that even the people who seem to have their money together have a long way to go. Not everybody can know everything about finance and every person started out just as clueless, so start slow and you’ll get there. Want awesome personal finance delivered to your inbox weekly? You should definitely join my weekly mailing list 😉

 

#2 – Not Negotiating

Did you know that one of the biggest reasons why men continue to make more than women for the same jobs is because men are more likely to negotiate their salary before they start a job? Men walk into a job with the confidence to negotiate for what they know they deserve. You’ll see men negotiating for other things too, like their car, their home, their phone bill, etc.

It’s really important to understand that women deserve the right to negotiate these things too. You don’t need to be timid and accept the first thing that’s offered to you. You should always try and make more or pay less. Even if you don’t think it’ll work this time around, you’ll build more confidence for negotiating next time. Try it the next time you get a job, promotion, or try and make a huge purchase.

#3 – Letting Your S/O Deal With Your Finances

Research shows that although women are responsible for most of the day-to-day purchases in a family, they often leave the bigger financial decisions to their partner.

Now, I’m going to get real for a second. A lot of relationships end. I know you don’t think your ever going to be in that position, but there’s always a chance. Divorces happen, people die. There is a change that some day you may have to take over 100% control over your family’s finances and if you don’t know what’s going on, you’ll be clueless while also grieving a relationship or your partner.

It all starts by having good money conversations with your partner. You need to know where your money goes each month, why it goes to each place, and also be a part of those decisions when they’re made. Have you ever heard those horror stories of men who make a bad financial decision who never consulted their wife and they lose their home? Don’t let that happen to you.

• Related Post: 4 Money Conversations You Must Have Before Marriage

A great place to start is to have a monthly budget meeting with your partner to get the conversation going and discuss all financial decisions that will be made that month!

#4 – Spending When We Don’t Really Want To

We’ve all been in that situation where it’s your friends birthday and they want to do dinner somewhere really expensive where the food isn’t even good. You know you can’t really afford it right now because your priorities are different than your friends, but you go anyway. It ends up costing $100 and you didn’t even enjoy the meal. Of course, the company was great, but you didn’t need to spend that much money to hangout with the group of people you love.

As women, we really don’t want to let people down. It’s hard to say no to social situations because our friends are so important to us and we don’t want to let them down! Sometimes you need to make hard decisions and put your finances first. Saying no is actually liberating. You can make plans that are much less expensive like a wine and movie night at your place and have a much better time!

#5 – Feeling Guilty When People are in Need

Sometimes you’re going to get a knock on your door from your sibling, cousin, or whoever who just had a relationship end and needs a place to live. That’s awesome, let them come in. What you don’t need to do is let them stay for 6 months, eating your food and not paying any rent. You love your friends and family but you should be sacrificing your happiness and budget to support adults.

Also, there is no situation where you should co-sign a loan for another adult because you never know if they’re going to default and you’ll be on the hook.

#6 – Putting Your Kids First

Wow, that subtitle made me seem like a heartless, childless goon! I don’t mean that your kids shouldn’t be your first priority. What I mean by this is that you should never let your kids wants be more important than your financial needs. If you only have $100 left in your bank account and your child asks for a new toy, it’s probably not the best idea to buy it.

A lot of the time mom’s give in to their child’s wants because they know it’ll cause a scene in public if they don’t, but if it’s going to make it so you can’t pay for gas to get home, maybe deal with the hissy fit and focus on your real needs.

#7 – Emotional Spending

Oh, good ol’ retail therapy! Unfortunately, retail therapy is just a band-aid for your real problems. When you’re having a really bad day, it’s often really easy to just slide into a store and swipe your credit card. Emotional spending is always a set up for failure because even if you need the thing you originally go shopping for, you’ll end up leaving the store with way more than you intended because of the emotional high you’ll get.

• Related Post: How to Stop Overspending for Good

#8 – Not Knowing Where Your Money Goes

It’s pretty common for people to feel like they don’t have enough money for their bills and other necessities but the same people are spending tons of money on things they don’t really need. Everyday purchases add up so quickly!

If you’re unaware of all the things you spend money on you should really try and track your spending for an entire month. Tracking your spending will show you all the stupid things that you buy and the places where you can improve. The next step after tracking your spending is to have a well formatted budget that works for you.

 

Final Thoughts

Women are seriously capable of doing just as well when it comes to finances as men, heck, even better than men! When you take control of your finances you’re prepared to take over the world. Are you guilty of any of these common money mistakes? Let me know in the comments.