Financial Help for Women: 5 Strategies You Must do in the Other 8 Hours

Image courtesy of Marie Claire/Bill Diodato

In a divorce, a woman’s life is turned upside down — nearly everything about her existence changes, but for the man, the most he has to change is his phone number and address. Most women who left the workforce to raise a family are at a significant disadvantage and find it difficult as they try to re-enter the workforce they left years earlier. I don’t have marriage advice, but if you do a few simple things in the other 8 hours, you can survive a divorce and get back on your feet as quickly as possible.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my own experience growing up in a single parent home (my mom raised five kids after my father left) recently because a very good friend of mine and her two young boys were just abandoned. One day they were a family and the next her husband was leaving her for another woman. She is now struggling to survive. Not only is she trying to deal with the emotions of the situation, but she has to raise her two boys and find a way to pay the mortgage.

Added to all of this, in many families women are now the main bread winner and this trend is certainly on the rise. Now more than ever women have to take responsibility not only for the family, but for the finances, too.

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9 Must-Do’s To Keep More Of What You Make

It’s common to want to look the other way when we’re faced with dealing with our finances. It’s not a very exciting task for most people. And some people are outright scared to look at their finances, afraid they’ll discover a mess. But today I want to challenge you to dive right in there and make some progress. To give you a bit of guidance and to lessen the stress of this challenge, I’ve provided some steps you can take today that will quickly help to improve your finances.

Here are the Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Bottom Line: Read the Rest of This Article »

Debt Advice – The Facts

It’s a complex world, but most of us still manage to get on with it: whatever our job may be, we turn up every day and tackle the challenges that come our way.

When it comes to debt, though, it’s not so straightforward. Many people end up with serious debt problems they just don’t know how to deal with. Why is that?

• It could be because debt’s a complicated subject, full of unfamiliar terms and issues: repayment terms, APRs, early repayment penalties, and so on.
• It could be because we’re content to leave the details to the lenders. At the end of the day, it’s often tempting to assume that one set of terms and conditions is much like another – so all we want to know is ‘Can I borrow the money or not?’
• It could be because it’s just too easy to get credit – or at least it was until the credit crunch occurred. There are too many people who simply have too many debts: multiple credit cards, multiple store cards, an overdraft, a personal loan, a couple of hire purchase deals…
• It could be because we leave it too long before we look for debt advice.

In short, it’s easy to see how so many people who can cope with life’s other challenges still have a hard time coping with debt. Read the Rest of This Article »

5 Ways to Break Your Spending Habit

Many of us have a tendency to spend money frivolously. I’m not talking about the rare folk who run up insane credit card debts on things they just can’t afford – but people like you.

Maybe you always come out of the grocery store with a few things you don’t need … and which eventually end up in the trash. Maybe you can’t resist buying new books, even though there’s a great library nearby. Maybe you end up buying things online when you’re surfing the net in the evenings.

Spending money unnecessarily is just a habit – but it’s one that can be detrimental to your financial goals. Here are five things you can do to break that habit and take back control of your spending. Read the Rest of This Article »