How Women Can Get More Assertive with Financial Decisions at Home

By J. Tyler Thompson, Financial Advisor, CFP®, CEPA®, AAMS®, WMS®

Many women aren’t very involved with financial decision making at home, and we like to encourage our clients to lean in and take a more active and assertive role in their family’s finances.

One of the most common reasons that some women tend to shy away from financial decisions is because they haven’t had much training or experience in doing it, and when they got married their spouse took over that role and the pattern was set.

Perhaps their mother yielded all of the decisions to their father, and they unconsciously adopted that modeled behavior.

Maybe they’re simply not interested in it, or don’t think they have time to do it, or don’t know where to start.

It’s time to change all that.

Because of divorce, death of a spouse, a health crisis, an unexpected need to care for elderly parents or other major life event, there’s a 90% chance that every woman will be the primary financial decision maker at some point in her life.

So it’s more important than ever that women take a more active and assertive role with financial and investment decisions at home.

FINANCIAL GUIDANCE BUILT FOR LIFE ON YOUR OWN TERMS

Women can build confidence by studying the family’s income and spending trends: how much money is coming in each month, and how much money is going out. Creating a household budget or using an app to track spending or a credit card analytics tool is a great place to start. Women should also join their spouses or partners for meetings with the family’s Certified Financial Planner so they can understand where their wealth is invested, what their overall portfolio looks like, what the family’s long-term financial goals are, and what progress is being made toward meeting those goals.

Feel empowered to ask lots of questions, even when they seem to be in the weeds about things like why low-cost exchange traded funds (ETFs) are great investment vehicles or how interest rate decisions by the Federal Reserve Board can make the stock market swoon.

For women who work outside the home, be sure to contribute to your 401(k) and take advantage of any matching funds your employer offers. Your family’s wealth manager can make recommendations on how to invest those dollars and which funds to choose as part of a holistic wealth creation strategy.

Women should also have discretion over some of their family’s funds so they can pursue their own dreams or goals that might be independent of the family’s goals or her spouse’s goals. For example, if a woman wants to start a business venture, take a special vacation with friends to celebrate a milestone birthday or buy a luxury car, she should make those goals clear to her spouse and put together a plan for achieving them.

As women get more involved in their family’s financial and investment decisions, they will gain more knowledge and confidence so they can become more sophisticated investors who take an active role in shaping their financial future.

More importantly, women with greater financial literacy will also model positive behavior for their own daughters and can teach their children about important financial concepts that will set them up to be successful independent adults.

Any opinions are those of J Tyler Thompson and Capitas Advisory Group and not necessarily those of RJA or Raymond James. There is no assurance any of the trends mentioned will continue or forecasts will occur. The information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but Raymond James does not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete. Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of strategy selected.