Top 10 Money Tips for Women
Source Yahoo Finance
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
When it comes to women and finance, sometimes there’s a disconnect between what women know and how they act, their ability as achiever and their financial underachieving, and between the power they have within reach and the powerlessness that rules their actions.
Financial expert Suze Orman gives her list of the top 10 money tips for women to follow:
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1. Listen to Your Gut
Women are compassionate toward those in need. Instead of going with their gut, they sometimes overlook the obvious and make an emotional money mistake. “A friend, relative, loved one will approach you saying, ‘I need to borrow $5,000.’ You’ll think ‘I don’t want to’ and yet you say ‘OK,’” Suze explains. So, think twice before you say yes if your gut is saying no.
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2. NEVER Co-Sign for ANYONE
If a friend or family member asks for you to co-sign on a loan, it’s probably best to say no. Suze says more often than not, the borrower will default or pay late and you risk losing money or lowering your credit score because as the co-signer, you are ultimately responsible for the loan. Say no out of love, not out of fear.
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3. Save Yourself First
If you don’t have enough to save for your child’s college fund and your retirement, your retirement takes precedence.
As explained in Suze’s book “Women & Money,” women think they are actually helping their children by paying for their college or wedding. It’s a myth. You help your children by saving yourself first. If you retire without ample money to support yourself, you will become a financial burden to your children. There are plenty of loans for college, but there are no loans for retirement.
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4. Don’t Hand Over Finances to Your Husband or Partner
Suze says women often hand over their family financial matters to their partner because they are either scared, lazy or following an old-fashioned role.
Being in control of your financial destiny requires that you be an active participant — not just by paying bills, but in overseeing your investments, too. Suze: “Take this step and I think you will be surprised how this helps your relationship.”
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5. Don’t Put Yourself on Sale
Don’t treat yourself like you’re on sale. If you’re reluctant to put a real value on what you do, then it diminishes who you are. As Suze explains, women tend to devalue what they do.
This creates a vicious cycle: “When you devalue what you do, it becomes inevitable that you — and those around you — devalue who you are.” Women will settle for less. They may offer discounted prices on their services or accept a smaller raise, even when the company is doing well. They have to ask for what they know is “right.”
Overleveraging was Ramsey’s most profound error. “I became a millionaire by the time I was 26 years old, but I had borrowed money up to my eyeballs,” he says. “Changes in the financial industry called the bank to look at their loans. They realized they had loaned a lot of money to a kid, and they called the notes. I lost everything.” The ensuing three years, says Ramsey, were “gut-wrenching,” causing his marriage to suffer and leading him eventually to file for 
Among Weston’s regrets is her first car purchase. “I did what so many people do, which is to pay more attention to the monthly payment than the total cost,” she says. “I chose a five-year loan, which was a long loan back then!” Worse though, says Weston, was buying “retirement property” 80 miles from the nearest road. She still owns it, but “literally can’t give it away because flying an appraiser out there to give it a value for tax purposes would exceed any tax break I could get for it.” What did she learn? “Not to get too far ahead of myself.”