02 Nov It’s not what you earn, but what you save
by Faith Saunders
When I came to the United States 30-plus years ago from Jamaica, a family friend said these words to me: “It’s not what you earn, but what you save.” She said these words to me when I was complaining that I was not earning enough money.
Faith Saunders
These words have stuck with me and guide how I lead my life. No matter what I am earning, I have paid myself first by putting aside a little for a rainy day. As Farnoosh Torabi, a personal finance expert said: “Money is meaningless unless we align it with our personal goals.”
Women continue to lag behind our male counterparts as it relates to our earning power. A 2012 study by The Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that female full-time workers made only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 23 percent. Despite this, women have grown leaps and bounds – taking on new and in some cases, challenging roles and responsibilities. Women are earning significantly more money than we ever did.
Despite this upward movement in our earnings, many of us have an unhealthy relationship with our money. That is, we love having it, but we are not allowing it to work for us. Suze Oman, in her book Women and Money, describes it best. She says, “… while women have established and expanded their roles and relationships, when it comes to navigating the financial ramifications of this new world, they are using old maps that don’t get them where they really want or need to go.”
I am not a financial expert but after working in the behavioral health field for many years in many capacities, I can speak with confidence about the emotional impact that money has on our lives. It permeates all aspects of our wellness.
Let me explain. When we are not financially well, it impacts our EMOTIONAL wellness. We become so stressed. It seeps into our PHYSICAL wellness. We are not able to eat well, sleep, etc. In addition, it impacts our OCCUPATIONAL wellness because it impacts our productivity at work.
Let’s not forget our SPIRITUAL wellness. Our purpose for existing sometimes get altered because we are at a job that we dislike but feel that we cannot leave because we have this huge debt hanging over our head. Spiritual wellness also encompasses our relationship with our Higher Power because we begin to question why we are in this situation.
In my book, BREAK FREE: 52 Tips for Escaping Your Self Imposed Prison, I dedicate a chapter to this important issue – MONEY – because I know without a doubt that it is one of the bars on many women’s prison cells. In order for women to break free – physically, emotionally, occupationally, spiritually – we have to pay attention to our financial wellness as it impacts all parts of our well-being.
This story was first posted in November 2015.
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