How Women Can Claim Their Financial Power

Oct. 23, 2013— -- If you're a woman, chances are that you're not fulfilling your financial potential. Whether this will change is completely up to you.

Though more and more women are entering high-paying professional fields and earning substantial incomes, as a gender, they tend to lag behind men financially in many ways. They earn less than men and live longer — a double whammy when it comes to their resources for retirement. Further, many women fail to get the most mileage out of the money they do earn because they are generally reluctant to take control of their finances.

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At the same time, many women are haunted by what's known as the bag-lady syndrome, the fear that they might end up financially destitute, regardless of how well off they may be today.

Too many women lack the confidence necessary to take control of their financial lives — to make investments, manage their money, plan and monitor their spending, make and manage investments and increase their wealth.

Why don't more women assert themselves financially? Is someone stopping them from doing so?

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The answer: They are stopping themselves. Many women haven't yet purged their minds of the traditional social view that they aren't wired for financial matters. As a result, many subordinate their financial lives to those of their husbands, boyfriends or parents. They've failed to take steps toward financial control because they buy what society has been telling them for decades, thus perpetuating these social norms and precluding a change in their attitudes toward themselves, their money and their relationship with money.

Until they evolve out of this mind-set, they will lack real financial power. Like many forms of empowerment, financial empowerment must come from within. Women must claim their financial power. They must seize it with zeal reflecting an unshakable resolve to take control of their financial lives and thus improve their lives in general.

This is the first installment of a monthly column aimed at women interested in improving their comfort level with money in general and gaining knowledge and the confidence to invest wisely.

If you're a woman, you must make up your mind that you can do this, that you will do it and that you're not going to let antiquated, ill-conceived notions of gender drag you down. Keep "EMPOWER" in your mind as an acronym representing these concepts:

Education is critical

Motivation inspired by your values

Protection against risk

Ownership of your future

Work — claiming what is yours requires effort

Emotions should be kept out of decisions

Responsibility to yourself

To muster the resolve to change your thinking and claim your financial power, start by examining your beliefs about money. Some of these beliefs may be obstacles to empowerment. For example, do you believe that money is the root of all evil? Do you have trouble envisioning yourself as well-off financially because you believe this is only a status for others? By identifying and rejecting such obstructive myths, you can clear your path to financial empowerment.

The next step is to think hard about life goals that can be better reached with increased wealth. As money is best viewed as a means to an end — and not, materialistically, as an end in itself — this thinking tends to be highly motivating and can affect the way you plan your financial future.