I have no doubt that these women gave truthful answers in this survey, yet, are these the things that are really holding women back? Are these really the causes?
I believe there are two major missing pieces in the puzzle that explain what’s really holding women back from aspiring, acquiring the knowledge, and then applying that knowledge.
The first missing piece of the puzzle is financial education. The reason there is so much confusion around the term “financial education” is because most people do not have a clear definition of what it is.
The word “education” comes from the word “educe” which means “to draw out, to develop.” Education is a process of discovery. It is not a process of sitting silently in your chair, memorizing, and then regurgitating what you’ve read and heard from the teacher. That falls under the definition of “brainwash: to impose beliefs on somebody or to condition somebody to behave differently.”
True education is meant to draw out the information so that students learn through their own discovery process. The traditional education system will often tell you the answer such as: “The burner on the stove is hot. Don’t touch it.” True education is when you see the burner for the first time, and you’re curious. You walk to it and touch it. You get burned. Where is the greater learning? True education is discovering things for yourself. And sometimes the process is painful.
What about financial education? The school system will bring a banker into a classroom of 10-year-olds to explain how they can open a bank account. Or they bring a stockbroker into a high school to explain stocks and mutual funds while handing out their business cards and encouraging the teens to open a trading account. This is not education. This is a sales pitch.
Financial education is discovering where you are and what you have financially and then determining where you want to go. The key word is you. Everyone’s financial situation is different. I hear financial “experts” declare to everyone, “You should not have more that 15 percent of your portfolio in gold.” How in the world do they know what’s best for every individual? Or “Pay off the mortgage on your primary residence.” That may be good advice for one person, but bad advice for someone else. You have to find out what you need and want when it comes to your money and your financial future. Then seek out the knowledge that will get you there.
But what kind of knowledge should you look for, and where do you find it? In school, we usually don’t have much of a choice about whom we will listen to. The information comes from classroom teachers, already pre-selected. But outside of school, we do have a choice of what teachers we want to listen to. We can choose our mentors, our advisers, our coaches, our “teachers.” Most of my teachers don’t even realize they are teachers. They are simply passing on their experience and real-world knowledge to me.
This freedom to choose also brings with it a certain level of confusion, at least in the beginning. That’s because there is no one place, such as a physical school building, that has all the information and knowledge you need to become financially independent. You will have to search for it.
And where should you search? In books, seminars, meetings, and investment clubs. In online research, videos, and chats. In discussions with experts in their fields—people who are doing what you want to do. In finding mentors and coaches who can guide you through your process and in networking with other investors. These are just a few places to look. Nothing can replace this kind of financial education. It is a step that cannot be bypassed or delegated to someone else. This is a must-do, because the rewards are so worth it.
Lorraine Stylianou of London, England, shares her story of the value she got from her own financial education.
I am the breadwinner for my family with two small children under five years old. I had just started working a second job to pay for my newly acquired mortgage on a family home in North London, a very modest three-bedroom terraced family house. However, I had little time to spend with my children since I worked over 40 hours a week in a full-time job and then worked every weekend in a self-employed administrative role.
I was on a huge hamster wheel and had to watch every penny.
One Saturday I took my children shopping and found I had only one £2 coin left in my purse. We were hungry and decided to share one kid’s meal in that famous burger chain. We each had one chicken nugget and about four fries each!
From that moment, I realized something had to change. I decided I would go to the business section of the local library and read every finance and business book I could get my hands on. I enrolled in a women’s money-and-investing weekend that year and later signed up for four property courses. I purchased my first tiny one-bed rental flat in Scotland four months later as a no-money-down deal.
Only 18 months after my first property purchase, I now have eight investment properties and have resigned from my full-time job. We live temporarily in one of our investment properties while I’m renting out my family home. I have experienced a huge improvement in my quality of life by doing so. My painting hobby is now turning into a lucrative business, and I’ve ditched the hamster wheel of daily commutes into Central London. I no longer feel miserable in a job that made life unbearable.
Today I am my own boss. I accomplished all this primarily with the financial education I acquired through books, seminars, and just getting out there and doing it.
That is the value of seeking out the financial education that works for you.
The second missing piece of the puzzle that holds women back is the invisible.
Beyond the knowledge that comes from financial education lies the invisible, where the “secret formula” is found. This secret formula has very little to do with facts and figures. It’s invisible because it cannot be seen, and it’s secret because it’s hidden from most of us.
A woman’s true strength, purpose, and genius reside in the invisible. The secret is to make the invisible visible. And that is what we will do.
To realize your financial dreams, you must blend the information of what to do and how to do it with the thoughts, emotions, and spirit of the invisible. We’ll explore the details of this invisible secret next.
To rise beyond what’s visible to you takes…
You have your left brain—the logical, analytical, practical side of your world. And you have your right brain—the creative, innovative, intuitive part of your world. And then you have the physical, the spiritual, and everything in between. Rising to meet your financial dreams takes all of it. It takes all of you.
Body
We obviously need our body to get anything done in this physical world we live in. It doesn’t have to operate perfectly, but it’s an important tool for our financial journey.
Your body will give you signals. Have you ever had a moment when you had a physical sensation in your heart that something was wrong? Or you suddenly felt queasy in your stomach when you were around someone you didn’t trust? This is your body giving you clues. Trust those signals. Your body is the physical conduit of your thoughts, emotions, and spirit.
Mind
The brain, a critical part of the body, collects, stores, organizes, and recalls the facts, figures, stories, and information that we need to make sound decisions. Your physical brain