There’s that old saying that no one likes to hear: Money won’t solve a money problem. We don’t like to hear it because it means we have to be accountable for the reasons there’s a shortage. Is it an inability to manage money? Is it an inability to earn enough? Understanding how to budget and manage your living expenses is an essential skill. WIthout this knowledge, a university degree or a great job will still not sustain your children as adults.

Adrienne owns a small architecture firm and spent the 2018-19 Christmas break reading Mike Michalowicz’s book, Profit First. She was so excited by the read and wanted to implement it in her business straight away. I was a little sceptical as being an accountant I know that being in business is about cashflow first. Curious, I decided to have a read. I wasn’t long into the book before I realised it’s about a methodology to manage cashflow. I settled in and enjoyed the read.

Up until the time I left home for university I played loads of sport and was rather skinny. From then until I was 25 I kept my slender figure, but was starting to feel the effects of spending too much time sitting at a desk in the form of neck and shoulder pain. From 25 to my early 30’s it was all down hill. I had put on a lot of weight, was in chronic pain and couldn’t even walk up a short steep hill without stopping for breath. Crunch time when my husband and I were watching Season 2 of The Biggest Loser. After watching this we made a conscious decision that we wanted to live a healthier life, so we booked ourselves in for a 7-day health retreat that changed our lives.

The super gender gap. The ‘glass ceiling’. No doubt you’ve heard of them – the media often reminds us of the fact women are not earning equal pay for equal work. It’s also a fact that women generally take more time off from full or part-time work to care for children or elderly parents. It all adds up to a financial future that’s anything but certain. As a result, we women need to be super savvy in how we handle our finances.