Woman and Money with Suze Orman

Women face different money issues than men do. Suze Orman literally wrote the book on the subject with her latest, Women & Money.

If you’re interested in personal finance, you know who Suze Orman is. She has written nine best-selling books, is a financial advisor, a speaker, and a television and podcast host.

Suze’s book Women & Money addresses some of the financial issues that are unique to women.

A Nature to Nurture

While many personal finance issues apply to everyone, women sometimes face unique challenges. Women will do anything to take care of their families which often means they put themselves last.

Remember when we talked about putting your own oxygen mask on first? If you aren’t taking care of yourself, you can’t be as capable of taking care of those around you.

Your family leaves for the day immaculately turned out, healthy lunch packed but what about you? If we learn to look after ourselves as well as we look after our families, we will be better, and our families will be stronger.

Getting What You’re Worth

Sometimes women undervalue themselves in the workplace. They don’t negotiate when offered a job; they don’t ask for a raise, they don’t charge clients enough.

I’m guilty of this, and maybe some of you are too. I’m so afraid of being told “No” that I used to charge less than my work and my time was worth.

Andrew who has given me a lot of great advice about a lot of things broke me of this when he told me, “$100 isn’t going to change your life. $1,000 might.”

What he meant is that whether I charge $100 or $1,000, the amount of work I do is the same. And like everyone else, I only have so much time. So for the time I have, do I want to make $100 or $1,000?

The other advice that helped me was from a guest on the podcast, Josh Doody. People sometimes just take whatever offer they get because they think if they negotiate for more, they’ll be told “No” and the next candidate will get the job.

But whomever you’re dealing with wants you! They offered you the job over everyone else. Not only do they want you, but they are also expecting you to negotiate.

From a Place of Power

Without certain things in place, it’s much harder to approach issues like these from a place of power. If you’ve been out of work for months, you’re going to be so grateful to get any job, that you jump on it and accept whatever offer they give.

When you badly need your job because you live paycheck to paycheck, you might be afraid to ask for a raise or to walk away when a deserved raise is not forthcoming.

Suze believes we can achieve the power we need to demand the things we want (whether they be more money or more respect) when we don’t have credit card debt or student loan debt, when we do have an eight-month emergency fund (we say six is sufficient), when we do have maxed out retirement accounts, we are more likely to refuse to take “No” as an answer.

Or Fake It

Suze told an interesting anecdote that further confirmed a theory I have about being sexually harassed in the workplace. Suze had a boss with a reputation for bedding female staff.

Before he even had a chance to proposition her, Suze marched into his office and told him if he treated her disrespectfully she would cut his pecker off! At the time,