This past weekend, we celebrated the incredible women that give unabated and love unconditionally — moms. In today’s world, being a working mom demands a lot. With responsibilities to work and family, it can be easy for working mothers to feel overwhelmed. Because supporting women is one of our specific focuses, we wanted to provide a few tips to help working moms prioritize their financial planning and budgeting to ensure they are hitting their financial goals. 

Prioritize what’s important to you

One of the biggest myths of being a mother is that you have to do everything for everyone else all the time. The reality is that that isn’t healthy or sustainable. Despite what your kids or boss may think, not everything is an emergency that has to be done right now. It’s important for you to identify and prioritize what is most important to YOU so that you know where to split and devote your time. 

For example, maybe your physical health is important to you. So you will want to prioritize time every day or several days a week when you are able to get in physical activity. Or maybe family dinners every Sunday are what fill your bucket, so keep schedules clear on Sunday evenings and turn off notifications on your phone. 

Whatever may be important to you, identifying them and how you’d like to fit those activities into your life will help you create a schedule that works for you.

Stick to a schedule and plan ahead

Speaking of schedules, now that you know what to prioritize, planning your time allows you to stay organized while focusing on what’s really important to you. Time blocking is an effective way to ensure you are carving out specific times for your priorities. Having a plan for your day can help you be proactive and reduce stress. 

For example, setting aside 30 minutes one day a week to plan a dinner menu and create a grocery list (and even order groceries) can help you stay on track. Similarly, sitting down for an hour every week to review your budget and pay any necessary bills is a great way to stay on top of your financial goals. 

Of course, things pop up from time to time, so reviewing your schedule every day and making any necessary adjustments can help you stay on track. This is especially where knowing your priorities come in handy. If something is impacting your priorities, you can ask yourself if it’s urgent or if something can be rescheduled. Stay committed to your plan and learn the power of “no.”

Automate, automate, automate

Friendly reminder that working moms don’t have to do everything. In fact, they shouldn’t. There’s enough on their plates that thanks to today’s technology, automation can be a mom’s best friend. Just think about it, you can automate many household chores such as vacuuming and washing dishes. 

The same simplicity can be applied to automating your finances. Automating tasks such as paying bills, saving, and investing can all be done automatically through a schedule that you create. When available, switch bills such as rent/mortgage payments, utilities, and phone to automatic payments. 

Additionally, to help meet your savings goals, set up automatic transfers every time you get paid or on a monthly schedule to automatically deposit a certain amount of money into your savings accounts. The same can be done with your investment and retirement accounts, and even 529 college savings accounts. 

Final thoughts

Even though we can take advantage of helpful technology, you can’t put your finances and budget completely on autopilot. Reviewing your budget and accounts should have a weekly block of time on your schedule. If you don’t know where to start when it comes to your financial goals and setting priorities, we’d be happy to help. Contact us to learn about how we serve women and help them identify their financial goals and create a plan to reach them.