The Role of Women in Shaping The Finances of a Household

In my recently concluded webinar on this topic, it was interesting to note that most women are the ones who budget the finances of the household. This may be because of women’s keen attention to details and ability to organize and multi task. Yes, the role of women has evolved throughout the years. The changes from a stay at home parent tending to the kids and the household to a working parent still finding time to balance between the responsibilities of work and the family are not a small laughing matter. Yet, let me just make it clear that gender plays no role in financial success. Truly, that is a function of financial literacy. In fact, in one of the surveys conducted on financial literacy, it appeared that men are 5% more financially literate than women.

Coming from my experience as a mother to three beautiful kids, I taught the lesson on needs and wants everytime we did grocery. I loved going to the grocery with them. At first, it was just to let them fill our cart with what was on my grocery list. If one saw a lollipop or anything else that they wanted, I would always ask if that is necessary. I made them imagine what it would be like eating it. (It was easy because they loved doing the imagine game as kids!) Then I would then make them compare that feeling with another thing they want. Then I would ask them which one they like better. It is then that that they decide which one to buy. When they got older, they took turns making the grocery list. We still went through the same exercise about needs and wants. The only difference this time was that they now had real experience on the things they want, garnered from tasting some food from the lunch boxes of their classmates or playing a gadget their classmates owned. It thrilled me every time they were able to come up with a decision, no matter that the decision may be petty for us adults.

Cash management is a very important aspect in our adult life but it has to be started early on. I started my kids on the concept of saving when they started grade school. I emphasized that saving is a habit that they had to do consistently and until they grow old. So, we opened a junior savings account for each one of them. Needless to say, they had their accounts since they were in first grade. They had their first US trip in 2019 and we made them use their ATMs for the first time. We wanted to test how effective were our lessons on budgeting was. Luckily, we all came home with their accounts still open. They had varied practices in terms of spending but one stark attitude I saw was they were always thinking about what they wanted to buy, comparing prices and looking for alternatives before settling for a buy. No one was an impulsive buyer. It was hilarious when my eldest daughter told us when we were done going around the outlets and eating dinner already that while she was at the outlets, she could almost hear me whispering to her asking whether it was really necessary to buy what she wanted. I was happy to find out that they had sound money habits. Those moments together that we had when they were young were very precious moments that I think has framed their money mindset.

Indeed, best practices start at home. Mothers are the go to for anything that their children need. This results in more interaction. More interaction means more influence. The households finances play a big role in the family’s dynamics. As mothers, I believe it is our role to bring the family’s finances to the forefront and shape the best future for the whole family, together with our husbands.