Smart with money
Financial empowerment is within your grasp, says money and mindset coach Lesley Thomas
How clued-up are you about your finances? Research has shown that women are 38% less likely than men to have a stocks-and-shares ISA, and 32% less likely to have a private pension. In fact, just 34% of UK women feel confident about their current financial situation.
For many of us, money remains a taboo subject – and a huge part of that is down to our reluctance to admit when we’re struggling. ‘Very often, your friends would much rather tell you the last time they had sex than tell you how much they’re earning,’ says Lesley Thomas, founder of The Money Confidence Academy. ‘This is because we attach so much of our own sense of self-worth to money. We see it as something that puts a label on us, of being either good enough or not good enough, successful or unsuccessful.’
Lesley works with both individuals and groups to improve their knowledge and help boost their confidence. ‘Women often don’t want to show or admit the lack of knowledge that they feel that they have. They will shy away from asking questions because they feel they “should” know the answer.’
‘However, you wouldn’t expect to know how to speak French if you’ve never had lessons, and it’s exactly the same with financial literacy. The majority of us weren’t taught about money at school, so how can we be expected to be good at it? By changing the way we think, and the things we tell ourselves, it’s like a switch has been flicked, and we finally feel like we can take action. We can get back to enjoying our life and start to thrive because we have a deeper understanding – not just of money, but of who we are.’
Here, Lesley shares how you can ramp up your money mojo.
Create a finances bio
Write down all the financial memories that stick in your mind – from your childhood to teenage years to where you’re at now. This could be how your parents acted around money, the things they said and did, and people around you who did or didn’t have money. By creating that awareness, you will start to see patterns of behaviour that act as a light-bulb moment, showing you when and why you started thinking about money in a certain way, and how those thoughts were then reinforced.
Once you understand those patterns, you can then make a conscious decision – will I stay as I am, or will I start to do things differently, creating a new pattern of behaviour that supports the relationship I want to have with money going forward? Just like with weight loss or quitting smoking, there has to be a pivotal moment where you say to yourself, ‘I don’t like where I am at the moment. What can I do to change it?’ Awareness is the catalyst to change.
Education, educa
