Blog — Sisters for Financial Independence

This post contains affiliate links. See Disclosures for details.

I picked up another personal finance book from the library. Another oldie, but a goodie from Suze Orman: Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny. There's a section in there where she talks about Saving for Your Kid's College vs. Saving For Your Retirement. Suze, like she always does, keeps it real.

“The reality is that if you retire without ample money to support yourself, you will become a financial burden on your children. So understand that the most generous decision you can make today - for yourself and your children - is to build as much financial security as you can, so that down the line the only thing you ask your kids for is more time with them and the grandkids, not financial aid.”

— Suze Orman, Women and Money

sisters-for-fi-self-care-you-deserve-love

I don't have kids yet so my perspective is different, but I agree with Suze on this one. As women, we tend to take on the role of protector and caregiver and what this sometimes means is that we sacrifice ourselves to help others. We may not see it as sacrifice. In many cases, it's just what we know. As I am growing, I am realizing that sometimes when we sacrifice too much of ourselves for others, we risk our health: physically, emotionally and financially. In reading Suze's quotes, the first thing that came to mind is the announcement they make on the airplane when the cabin pressure drops. They always tell you to put your mask on first. It's not about being selfish. It's because if you don't care for yourself first, someone will have to jump in to do it for you.

In this video, learn the most common retirement savings options. Did you know the savings options you have for retirement depends on who you work for?

I know that the rising cost of education is insane and we want to protect our kids from drowning in student loan debt. I completely understand that. One of the many lessons we will find in the journey to Financial Independence is that we don't have to take the path that everyone is on. We want our children to have the best education so that they can succeed in life, but that doesn't have to be at a very expensive price. One thing that we as FIRE women, as future mothers of the next FIRE generation, can teach our children early on is to value good education and be strategic about where to find it where it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Hopefully as we continue to journey down this path, we can learn that there's so many other options to reducing student debt and the conventional and average way to doing something doesn't work for us.

Here’s some articles to get started. The sooner we think about reducing student loan debt, the better we can plan to help our kids get out of debt faster and ensure we are also saving for retirement faster.

As with anything in life, there's no guarantee, but one thing is for sure, I don't want to be asking my kids for money when I am older. It will absolutely cramp my style.

If you need help running retirement scenarios, check out Personal Capital. Full review here.

If you want to take a personal finance class, check out David Bach on CreativeLive.

Featured

The College Series: 9 Ways to Reduce Student Loan Debt

Give a man an education and he will build a new world, but give a man a loan and you can own that man forever.

It’s been 10 years since I graduated from grad school. I still proudly hang up my diploma because it put me on a better path for my career and my income. It was also FREE. No loans, no debt, no soul to be sold. With that, I thought I might offer some ways to help reduce debt if you are a college student or have a child that is about to head to college.