Financial Barriers Women Face #SHGenworth

When I started my first real job and had the option to contribute to a 401(k) I admit I was clueless.  Thankfully I had a good manager who told me that even if I didn’t understand I should start contributing and I’d thank him later.  I remember him explaining how the company we worked for would match whatever I contribute up to 5%, so basically it was free money!  As a young 20-something all I heard was “free money” and I was sold on it.  Then I left my job to start a family and I left my 401(k) where it was.  So for six years now it has been doing I don’t even know what!  I realize finally that I am not getting any younger and I really need to take control of my future and finances.

Genworth Financial has a great document all about women and money that is quite useful. It is full of statistics, tips, facts and more.

After reading an article, I learned about four Financial Barriers women face:

• We Lack Confidence
• We Sweat the Small Stuff
• We’re Waiting for Someone Else to Fix the Problem
• We’re focused on Goals, Not Numbers

The article “Why You Need to Take Control Now” made me realize I am not alone.  It hit me right on the nose with all the barriers and I realize I don’t want to stay stuck where I am at forever.  While I know I am not going to change overnight and since I am still raising my young children as a stay at home mom, I am keeping the article information filed in the back of my brain.  Since I don’t have a real income coming in, I can’t do much with investing but I do still have that old 401(k) that I need to think about doing something with.  I can’t believe I almost forgot about it!  I am also more interested now too when my husband talks about investing and our retirement, wheras in the past his words just flew over my head.  I honestly never really paid much attention to him when he talked about our future finances.  I live in the here and now with our finances meaning I pay the bills and handle the day to day expenses, but I don’t look ahead.

How confident are you with your finances?

Mom and More Disclosure: Information for this post is sourced from Genworth Financial in partnership with the SheHeard Influencer Network.  Please see my Disclosure Policy.