…mothers urged to prioritize their financial growth
allMoms in Leadership (AML), an initiative that seeks to empower mothers, has launched the allMoms Finance Academy, with the objective of promoting financial literacy, emotional wellness and profitable collaboration among mothers.
Founder of AML, Ethel Marfo, well known as Ethel The Mompreneur, indicated that the launch of the Allmoms Finance Academy (AFA), is to provide knowledge to mothers because knowledge is power and without it, mothers cannot connect for profitable collaboration as AML seeks to do.
“For some time now, we have been doing business as usual but we want to take it a notch higher and be able to acquaint ourselves with better ways of investing our money, saving and hedging towards unforeseen circumstances in the future,” she said, noting that the launch formed part of activities to commemorate AML’s fourth year anniversary as an association that empowers and educates women and mothers.
Standing orders on personal accounts
The Ag. Head, Ecobank Womens Desk, Dr. Loretta Abena Sarpong, speaking as a guest speaker at the launch, urged the mothers to set standing orders on their personal accounts that will guide their spending habits in order to nurture a saving culture.
According to Dr. Sarpong, knowing what one wants to achieve and putting in place a strategy is a key step in the process to success in life but equally important is a controlled and guided spending habit that shows when to save and what to save, therefore putting in place standing orders is a perfect enabler.
“I will encourage all of us to start planning toward our future, especially financial planning. Pay yourself as an entrepreneur and out of your salary save some part to support the future, importantly also is that your savings should not be in a savings account but should be pushed into an investment that will yield results.
Set standing orders on yourself and accounts and ensure that the percentage for savings is in an account you cannot access. We mothers are more like magicians and no matter what happens we can manage to take care of the family,” she said.
She added that salaries should be split into two, on a 70/30 percentage basis with 70 percent going into all the necessary expenses ranging from home upkeep to utility bills and personal expenses whilst the other 30 percent should go into savings and investment. However, when the individual is a Christian, then 10 percent of the 30 should go to the church as tithes and the remaining 20 percent saved.
She was quick to add that no amount of salary is too small to save a percentage, likewise no amount of income is too small for an entrepreneur to save. “Do not wait till you start getting GH¢5,000 or more before you start saving, let’s start now so that make money available for children’s education, vacation travelers, retirement and uncertainty,” she reiterated.
Complementing the remarks of Dr. Sarpong, Wealth Manager of Octane DC, Dr. Suzy Aku Puplampo, emphasized that budgeting and having a profit & loss account is not a reserve for big organisations. “As individuals we must have a profit & loss account, balance sheet and do some for our startup and business too. It is this records that enable one to know the value of their business,” she added.
She was of great concern that often times women end up putting all their money into taking care of home without saving, forgetting that in unforeseen circumstances the first point to reach out to is savings or investment.
allMoms Finance Academy will be taking off with financial courses in June to empower mothers in business.
