It’s easy to be confident about money if you’ve got a formal education in finance, or if you’ve been rocking your money management for ages. But if you’re not quite there yet? There are steps you can take as part of your everyday life (no marathon study sessions required) to build that confidence.
And since it’s International Women’s Day, I think it’s especially important to point out that women have a confidence gap when it comes to money.
Stnce did some research on this exact topic, and found that a bananas 41% of women are “hidden gurus” of personal finance. They had high financial literacy scores, but reported low financial confidence in their abilities.
What.
Beyond that, not a single woman was confident enough to say she got all of the answers correct—even when she did.
Luckily, financial confidence is something you can build, and it doesn’t take a degree in finance to get there. It’s important, too, because a big part of being good at money is having the confidence to take action and ask questions.
So if you want to become a person who is Confident About Money (especially as a woman!) here are the four things that helped me do exactly that.
Take baby steps
As Becca K. from The Bachelor (and now the Bachelorette!) would say, “Let’s do the damn thing.”
You do not have to do all the things at once, and I’d very much recommend that you not try. You could spend your whole life learning things about money, but the most important thing is to start by implementing the small things that you already know you should be doing.
Things like switching to an online bank, or moving your emergency fund to a high-interest savings account, or setting up an automatic savings contribution to your RRSP. It could be as simple as opening a savings account to house your yet-to-be-saved emergency fund.
Related: Five Money Moves You Can Make In Under An Hour
Do just one thing you’ve been putting off, that you know would be a good money move—and then use your momentum to build from there by doing another thing.
Talk about money
Whether you have people IRL who want to talk about money with you is largely a luck thing. I’m very very lucky in that way, because I have a ton of amazing women in my life who are more than willing to talk money with me. My mom is the OG personal finance rockstar, and I have a network of amazing women entrepreneurs who are always up to talk business with me.
But if you can’t think of anyone who would want to chat budgets-and-saving in real life with you, all is not lost. There are amazing money conversations happening all the time on Twitter, and you can jump in by following everyone my online BFF mentions in this tweet.
Happy #FollowFriday to all the ladies out there who are killing the game!@moneyaftergrad @half_banked @BitchesGetRich @bravelygo @our_nextlife @jennifertchan @RevAGSL @picksuppennies @jessi_moorhouse @caitflanders @lisleong @leighperfin @askallea @CoupleOfSense @dumpsterdoggy pic.twitter.com/mMKDmmDXPB
— Alyssa (@MixedUpMoney) March 2, 2018
There are some great personal finance Youtube channels run by women too—Mixed Up Money, Money After Graduation, and The Financial Diet are personal favourites of mine!
Last but not least, see if there are money events happening near you!
For my pals in Toronto, there’s one coming up that I’m so excited to be involved in. Stnce is hosting their launch party on March 28th, 2018 in Toronto at the Broadview Hotel. You can get tickets here, but get them sooner rather than later to make sure you snag one!
Take advanced steps
Once you’ve taken a series of small steps, and found places to chat money (online or IRL) it’s time to kick things up a notch. That’s right, it’s time to do the bigger things that might be a little scary, a little intimidating, or a little bit “not for you.”
There’s a lot of identity that goes into how you see yourself with money, and for me, that always meant that I didn’t see myself as an investor. I knew investing my money was important, and I knew what I was “supposed” to do, but being an “investor” was for dudes in suits, not for me. It held me back for a long time, and I missed out on some sweet, sweet investment gains.
It was only after I had been taking a more active role in my money for months that I finally realized OK, I’ve done everything pretty well so far, it’s probably time for me to do this, too. So I signed up with Wealthsimple, and I haven’t looked back.
I’m finally confident calling myself an investor.
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Share what you know
Maybe this means you start a blog about money (it’s fun here, join us!) but it could also just mean that you become that person at brunch who’s all “Friends, do you have renter’s insurance? If not, you should.” I wish more people had said that to me while I was renting!
You don’t have to be an expert to start sharing what you know. If you’ve done even one of these steps, you could help someone out who hasn’t, even if it’s just sharing which money nerds you follow on Twitter or Youtube! As a bonus, when you realize that yes, what you know is helping the people in your life (and that you’re now the IRL friend who’s open to talking about money) you’ll get an extra confidence boost—promise.
This post is part of a collaboration called #WomenRockMoney.
To check out all the other amazing posts that are participating, in honour of International Women’s Day, head on over to the main page!
Awesome advice, Desirae! I found myself in analysis paralysis after college with my finances. I knew a few things (start paying your loans, pay rent on time), but I had no idea how to invest and all of the research I was doing overwhelmed me. Finally, I spoke to a coworker who helped me understand our 401k… my first investing baby step. From there, I was able to gain confidence and learn further strategies. It was nervewracking, but that first baby step was necessary!
Omg yes, the avalanche of decisions and information that comes with the post-college years is unbelievable. I had the exact same reaction! Instead of asking around openly, though, I just did what I knew how to do (ask the bank to do things) and when that didn’t work I was like well… might as well wait three years and start a finance blog 😂
It’s so ironic that women in general aren’t confident, as we tend to be better investors than our male counterparts. And better money spenders–Melinda Gates reported that when women control the finances in developing countries, their children are much more likely to survive. These are great tips for us to take back our confidence when it comes to money!
😍😍😍 Yes yes yes! I hadn’t heard the Melinda Gates information before, thank you so much for sharing.
Great advice to help get women involved! Talking about money is such an important one and the more we do it the greater the comfort level will be for other women to learn and ask questions. There’s this mentality that people should understand personal finance but we’re never given the education to be able to do that.
Exactly! No one teaches this stuff, and no one is born knowing how to navigate it! We are all just doing our best 🙌
The confidence gap is so real!!
I see this a lot for tech-y subjects, too, working as an engineer. One thing that has helped me get over imposter syndrome is observing how often “experts” are really just proficient in Google-Fu.
Lol, when my fiance (A Real Developer) walked in on me with like seventeen Stack Overflow tabs open trying to troubleshoot CSS, he told me I was now A Real Developer as well.
I know money can be an uncomfortable thing to talk about but communication is key! In order to increase women’s financial literacy and confidence we need to feel like we can openly discuss all thing related to money and personal finance. We need to normalize the subject.
This article provides simple and great advice for anyone that doesn’t know how to get started. Love it!
Thank you so much JJ! I couldn’t agree more!
Talking about money is such a taboo for some people – I think you need to surround yourself with people who are comfortable talking about it and sharing their knowledge for everyone’s benefits! Great advice here Desirae 🙂
Thank you so much Peti! And yes, finding the right people is a key step!
This is such a fantastic first step and such great advice for how to build confidence! Master the baby steps first and then use that newfound knowledge and confidence to tackle the harder things. Love it, and happy International Women’s Day! 🙂
Right back at you friend!
Excellent advice, I am gladly the one who talks openly about money with my friends. It has lead to some good conversations, helped us negotiate higher salaries, and encourage each other to travel intentionally.
If it hadn’t been for a friend of mine to openly discuss her finances I never would have joined the online PF community.
It’s so important to be that friend—and have those friends! So awesome that it led you here, the PF community is the bomb dot com 🙂
I’m definitely guilty of trying to “do all the things”. Unfortunately that results in a very overwhelming, chicken-with-its-head-cut-off type of scene. And of course nothing gets accomplished. I love the idea of baby steps. Start out by learning or doing one small thing. Then go onto the next. Confidence will follow once you realize all that you have learned and accomplished while baby stepping.
Yes yes yes! Confidence comes after action, not before!
The “move emergency savings to an online bank” is something I have been putting off for wayyyy too long. I’ve decided this is the month I need to research and finally make it happen. Thanks for one more push in that direction!