- Financial wellness means having a sense of control over your day-to-day finances.
- To achieve financial wellness as women of color, start with setting the intention and adjusting your mindset to take necessary action.
- Be intentional about managing your money by budgeting, saving and investing more.
As women of color, it’s more critical than ever in today’s world to look after your financial well-being. The challenges you face are unique in comparison to your White counterparts.
Black women, even today, endure an agonizingly slow pace of change. In light of Juneteenth, we would like to encourage you to continue walking the path to financial freedom and make magic with your finances and lives.
Take your confidence up a notch in managing money within your control. The key lies in putting those assets to work and building financial cushions across your checking, savings, investment and retirement accounts.
Formulate strong safety nets in short-term and long-term investments that span your life and future generations. That’s the kind of financial wellness you should be resorting to.
Financial wellness
We are women. We run the world! (As Queen Bey says it). If we run the world, then running our money well should be a piece of cake. When you run your money well, you are in control of your day-to-day finances.
And let’s be honest, we’re all control freaks in some way or another. But if you have adequate control over your money, you have hit a new level of freedom—financial freedom—and you’re on the road to making some of life’s best choices.
So, stay motivated and stay on track to achieving your financial goals!
How to establish financial wellness:
Start with setting the intention and adjusting your mindset. Asking yourself some questions.
Why?
Identify “why” you need financial wellness. That “why” can be based on what you expect to accomplish in life. You can also base your decisions on the legacy you want to leave for your children.
What next?
Be intentional about increasing your net worth. This means you need to budget well, pay down debt, save and invest more.
How?
Increase your income by negotiating your salary, ask for raises or start a business to support your financial goals.
Women of color face challenges that are discouraging but channel them as prime motivation for yourself, your children, your family and your community as a whole.
Voice out
When all is said and done and you’re on top of your money game, voice out to impact change in your community for women like you.
Financial wellness doesn’t stop with your personal economy. Use your voice to petition broader change. Address the gender wage gap, fight for more grants to be provided to low-income and minority students to reduce student loan debt, call out racism and use your dollars to support organizations that fight racial injustice.
Not impossible
Achieving financial wellness as a woman of color seems challenging but it is not impossible.
Direct your full capacity of time and resources towards your goals and your dreams. Take ownership of your life, your voice and your joy.
Yes, Black women have more obstacles than most in getting what’s due, but continue to “boss up” and extend that success mantra to other women on how to respect and revel in having money and knowing its power.
