Finance Tips For Single Women

By Janet Fowler | Investopedia

The way most people live these days is drastically different than in generations past. People are generally waiting until much later in life to marry and have families. Considering this, many women will be single for at least part of their adult lives. Also considering the current rates of divorce, there is a reasonable likelihood that many women will find themselves single again at some stage after marrying. Those time-honored gender roles tend to suggest that most women are not great at putting their own needs first, though when it comes to personal finances, women must consider their own needs and wants in order to secure their financial future.

Budget First and foremost, build yourself a solid budget and stick to it. This is just good sense for absolutely everyone – single, married or divorced. Examine your monthly expenses, remembering to include everything from housing costs, utilities, groceries, car payments, gasoline, insurance and esthetics. Do the same for your income. Subtract your expenses from your income, and see what you've got leftover. You can divide the remainder up based on what you'd like to save and what you'd like to budget toward discretionary spending. Don't forget to factor in money towards repayment of credit card debt, student loans or any other debts you may have. You'll want to get debts paid off as quickly as you can in order to save yourself those pesky interest costs. You should also examine methods for reducing costs, like eating meals at home or reducing the amount you spend on entertainment expenses.

Avoid Giving in to ImpulseIt's probably true that most women love to shop. It can be hard to avoid giving in to impulse when you find a great deal on a pair of cute shoes or a new outfit. It's also important to avoid emotional spending. Learning to avoid unnecessary expenditures can really help to improve your financial situation – especially when you've got other expenses that are more urgent, or when giving in means you have to borrow money on your credit card. Try to spend only what you've allotted to yourself for discretionary spending, or budget for larger items like a big holiday or a car over longer periods of time. If you're unsure if you're being impulsive or giving in to emotional spending, try waiting a day or two before making up your mind about an item you're considering buying. If you've changed your mind or forgotten all about the item before the time period is up, you've made a wise choice in walking away.

Save for Rainy DaysIt's an unfortunate fact of life, but we can all expect things to go wrong on occasion. Keeping some money stashed away for those rainy days will help you to afford those unexpected expenses when they do come up. Think of vehicle or home repairs, or an unexpected illness that could keep you away from work for a long period of time. No one wants to worry about money in times of distress, so having a rainy day fund will help you to get over the hurdles life throws at you. Even if you're only able to set aside $25 a week, it'll add up over time. Get yourself a high-interest savings account to stash away your cash. You can then transfer your savings into other forms of investments with even higher interest rates once you've got a healthy stockpile. Just remember to set realistic expectations for yourself. Don't save more than you can realistically afford, but don't underestimate the importance of saving either.

Buy a HomePurchasing a home is a big step for anyone, whether you're doing it on your own or as a couple. Purchasing a home is generally a solid investment that will reward you in the future, especially since renting is essentially the same as giving your money away to someone else. As a single woman, you'll need to ask yourself a number of questions before buying. Can you afford this home on a single income? Is the area safe for a single person to live in? Will you need roommates to help pay the mortgage? What will you do if you marry or have a family? Make a list of what you want and understand what you can afford before you contact a realtor and start looking at what's out there. A condominium or town house can be a great option for single people, especially since they're generally smaller and less expensive than stand-alone houses. Keep in mind that you don't need to commit to living in your first home for the rest of your life. As you further establish yourself financially or as your needs change, you can move on to bigger and better. The important part of buying your first home is establishing yourself in the market and starting to build equity.

Consider Your Retirement PlansEven if retirement seems like eons away, you'll want to start thinking about it as early as possible. Financial security isn't only about achieving your short-term goals; you've got to consider your long-term goals as well. Even if you do intend to marry, you'll need to ensure you can take care of yourself in your retirement because statistically women tend to live longer than men. Build your budget so you can set aside some money. You can use monthly deductions or make yearly lump sum contributions to a retirement savings plan.

Don't be Afraid to InvestSo you've managed to budget and save your money. Now you've got a healthy stockpile of cash to get you through those rainy days. What should you do with all that extra cash? Though investing may seem like a scary thing, have faith in yourself and believe that you can learn the ins and outs of the finance world. You can always enlist the help of an investment manager or finance expert to guide you along the way. One of the biggest benefits of investing is the opportunity to earn extra money on your initial investment, referred to as return on investment. It may take a little courage on your part, but the payoff could be huge. Do some research and only take on as much risk as you feel comfortable with.

Invest in YourselfAlways keep in mind that you've got to enjoy life too, so don't completely give up on spoiling yourself once in a while. Go on a holiday, to a day spa or treat yourself to something truly special once in a while. View it as an investment in yourself and your own happiness. They key is making it a special treat, not an everyday event. You'll want to ensure that you budget for these occasional indulgences as well. Remember, it's not worth going into debt over a pair of shoes or a holiday.

Before You Walk Down the AisleThough it might be an exciting time when you're considering taking the plunge and getting married, don't forget that you really need to have a serious talk with your new partner about money before you get married. Though this may be an awkward discussion to have, you need to know what that person earns, what debts they owe and what their financial plans are for the future. When you make those vows, you're also agreeing to a financial partnership with your beloved. You will need to know that their goals and spending habits are compatible with yours and that you're not marrying someone who will drain you financially, destroying all the hard work you've done to create a financially secure life for yourself.

The Bottom LineLong gone are the days of considering single women to be spinsters. Women are becoming more and more comfortable in taking control of their own finances, shaping their financial futures and turning their goals into realities. There's no doubt that making big financial decisions independently can be a bit frightening, but there are also a lot of perks. You can enjoy complete control of your own financial situation, without someone else's financial interests impacting your own. Whether you're young and never married or newly single, it's never too late to grasp the reigns and take control of your financial destiny.

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Prices Are People: Why Things Cost What They Do

By contributors@theatlantic.com (Derek Thompson) | The Atlantic

Introducing the 2012 Atlantic Money Report, a month-long project on the history of breadwinners and pricetags

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In the mid-twentieth-century vernacular, the word "bread" means money. But in most years before the twentieth century, people spent so much of their figurative dough on literal dough that breadwas functionally synonymous with cash. As late as the 1850s, the typical British family spent 80% of its income on food, Bill Bryson wrote in his entertaining domestic history At Home. The majority of that 80%? It went to bread. 

The last 150 years have experienced all sorts of tumultuous economic revolutions. But the revolution in food and agriculture was perhaps the most important to the family budget. At the end of the 19th century, more than 40% of families lived on farms. By 1950, the farm economy had fallen to a tenth of the labor force. Oh, but the decline wasn't nearly done. This year, farmers account for less than 2% of all workers. 

In a century's time, farming has gone from the dominant occupation in the United States to an job whose share of employment equals Tennessee's share of the national population.

And yet, we're not all starving. In fact, most Americans are better fed than our ancestors could possibly be. Today we spend as much on home-cooked food as we do on home-used utilities (see the graph below). The price of feeding ourselves has gone way down in the last century. But the price of heating ourselves -- and driving ourselves, and housing ourselves, and educating ourselves, and insuring ourselves, and treating ourselves with health care -- hasn't gone down. It's gone up. 

Over the next month, we're putting together a special report about the money we spend. Economics is so often the economist-eye view of the world. We're out to recreate the consumer-eye view of the world. We're interested in what things cost, why they cost that much, and why they're getting more expensive and less expensive. If you've got awesome and surprising stories about prices, costs and the flow of money, leave us a tip in the comment section. 

To kick things off, we'd like to very briefly introduce one of the themes of the Money Report: Prices are people.

PRICES ARE PEOPLE

Across the 20th century, the labor force has shifted from farmers and foresters to manufacturers and then to professional and service workers. In 1900, we spent much of our manpower growing food and feeding ourselves. By 1950, the major economic industries were manufacturing and construction. But today's labor economy revolves around services, not products. Service industries grew from 31 percent of all workers in 1900 to 78 percent in 1999, the BLS reports.

Here's a snapshot of the employment story since 1939. I'd direct your attention to about 1975. In the same time span that our education/medical sector has quadrupled, and our business service sector has increased by the same four-fold rate, total manufacturing jobs have fallen. As multinational companies have made better use of global supply chains, manufacturing and other so-called tradable occupations have been in decline. But retail jobs have increased because selling cars and food and furniture is still a face-to-face business that's hard to do anywhere except at the point of sale.

Economist Stephen Rose, writing for The Atlantic this month, surveyed that same half-century period between 1947 and 2007. But instead of looking at people, he looked at prices. It's the same story. Rose reports that spending on items that could be manufactured or produced globally -- food/drink and clothing -- fell the most. But the categories with the largest employment gains in the graph above -- education and health care -- also saw the largest gains in consumer spending in the graph below.

There is more to prices than employment figures, of course. Productivity and technology matter. Scarcity matters. Demand matters. But labor is such an important cost that it can appear almost determinative.

Across the economy we can see that items that require fewer and fewer American workers per completion (think: socks) get cheaper, while services that can't find similar ways to replace American workers (think: health care, education, government) don't get cheaper at all. In fact, they sometimes get more expensive. 

This isn't bad news, necessarily. A rich economy that needs fewer people to make things can employ those people doing other important things. We should want workers to move into new industries that serve our needs. But too many workers serving a need leads in one direction: Up. It is only a small exaggeration to say that prices, for lack of a matter word, are people.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/prices-people-why-things-cost-172207704.html;_ylt=AhYN.R.940EZ43.4OzYhYbCiuodG;_ylu=X3oDMTIzNDF2amZtBG1pdANGaW5hbmNlIEluZmluaXRlIEJyb3dzZSBTcGxpdARwb3MDNgRzZWMDTWVkaWFJbmZpbml0ZUJyb3dzZUxpc3Q-;_ylg=X3oDMTJ0NzhqN2FwBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDNTIzNWFlNDktYzlkYS0zMGIzLTkxOGUtNWFlY2IyODYzYTg5BHBzdGNhdANuZXdzBHB0A3N0b3J5cGFnZQR0ZXN0Aw--;_ylv=3