Ilyce Glink is a columnist, radio personality, and founder of ThinkGlink.
Here’s her best advice to take control of your finances:
What is the biggest money mistake you think women tend to make?
So often, a woman will hand over the financial reins to her husband. She will do most of the planning and shopping and take the lead on raising the children, but when it comes to understanding what she and her husband own and how they’ve planned for their future, she’s clueless. This happens, even if the woman has a big career, and it’s one of the biggest money mistakes. I’ve long advocated for an equal role for women when it comes to money—in knowledge if not in action. You should understand what you have, where you have it, and how to access it. If you don’t, you’re setting yourself up for a lifetime of trouble.
What is the most important thing someone can do to create a secure financial future?
The most important thing you can do, at any stage of your life, is to salt away between 10 to 25 percent of your gross annual income for retirement. If you save $3,000 per year between the ages of 25 and 35, and your money grows at a reasonable 7 percent per year, you’ll wind up with more than $1 million in savings by the time you’re 67. A little bit of savings combined with a long period of time has a huge impact.
What is your favorite finance or money management app?
MaxMyInterest.com. It you have a lot of cash on hand, it allows you to optimize the return you’re getting without having to spend time moving cash from bank to bank. You get more interest on your money without doing any more work. I’m also a big believer in Quicken and TurboTax. But any app that allows you to have a “dashboard,” so you can see where you are fi nancially from one page, is probably great.
