The White House Project, a non-profit which aims to put a woman in The White House as President of the United States, has some great insight and advice on women’s relationship with personal finance.

Several different studies by researchers at Pepperdine University, McKinsey & Co., Catalyst and others—here and abroad—have found a strong, positive link between company profits and the number of women in senior positions.

Whether that means female managers elicit better performance—or that successful companies promote more women, it’s hard to say.

All we know is that the link between leadership and finance falls apart for many women when it comes to their personal finances.

Here we are, at the helm of our own lives, and the personal financial outlook for our gender could hardly be more bleak. Women lag behind men in terms of income, personal savings, retirement savings, general financial knowledge. Even now.

The underlying factors are too numerous for this email. But we’d like to draw attention to one that often afflicts female (and some male) leaders, especially in the public sector, where salaries are often sacrificed in the name of some greater good: meaningful work, civic duty, and so on.

Being able to value something above the number of zeros in your salary is wonderful, but not if you end up mired in what money coach Mikelann Valterra calls, “noble poverty.”

When you live in noble poverty, you tend to believe there is some unnamed virtue in not having money—or that Truly Good People shouldn’t want a lot of it. Your mantra could be something like: “I may be struggling, but my life is about more than money.”

The danger occurs when we deny ourselves the opportunity to earn what we need to thrive—and to truly give back to others.

Here’s the bottom line: No one is going to fix financial inequity for women. We have to recognize our own self-worth, ask for higher salaries, become confident investors, and build our own wealth — especially those of us who strive to lead.

Why? Because to be effective female leaders, it’s critical that we:

* Understand and manage systems. Systems enable order and growth, personally and organizationally.
* Be comfortable enough financially to make the choices, or take the risks that will best enable our success.
* Carve new paths away from the cultural patterns that leave millions of women in poverty (not just the noble kind).
* Offer young women and men a new model to emulate.

The email then goes on to encourage women to sign up for a newsletter about personal finance for women, DailyWorth.

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Back in ’07, before the economy melt down, I was writing about Women and Money.

It’s a big deal. We say stupid things like “Money Can’t buy happiness,” when the reality is that “Not having money can buy a great deal of unhappiness.”  In a marriage especially.

Having quit my job to be a SAHM/WAHM, I don’t actually make much money. I asked my readers, of the old Blog Fabulous (now BlissTree w/b5media) and on The Girl Revolution to be just a little less economically dependent and passive about the future and just a little more active.

I convinced my husband to put $50 into my own TD Ameritrade Save Yourself Account every month.

It transfers automatically, so after the initial, somewhat awkward conversations, it doesn’t remain an issue up for debate.

We’re married. So we debate things having to do with money. There’s a limited amount of money and this is real-life, so things don’t go as smoothly as you imagine they will when you’re 20 and you think marriage is going to be all romance and rings and dinners out. Should I start selling Young Living Essential Oils? Should we spend $5000 to self publish my book? How much are we saving? How much is on the credit cards? What are we going to spend on groceries?

You know. It’s your life too.

It’s been a little over a year that I opened my Save Yourself account.

I am so glad I did. With only $50 a month, I made some investments that have accumulated to almost $2,000. I’ve bought and sold stock. It’s been a great illustration of how small things add up. You think a year is a long time – when you’re 20 – but, it goes faster and faster in your 30s and soon . . . it’s not $50, it’s $2,000.

I’ve decided to become an independent distributor – small business owner – in a brand of Healthy Chocolate and Young Living Essential Oils.   I used the income from my Save Yourself Plan to make the initial investments. No marital haggling.

It feels awesome, every time I look at it. Every time I realize, I can just decide to do something without haggling over it with my spouse. Every time I check my account I feel a little more powerful in my own life.

If you have gotten nothing else from The Girl Revolution I hope it’s that if YOU are more powerful in your own life, the odds are better for your daughter.

Modeling empowerment, financial security, body image, self esteem, and relationship stability is the very best thing you can do for a kid.

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Millionaire Women Next Door: The Many Journeys of Successful American Businesswomen has a list of attributes, habits and characteristics that highly successful women’s parents share.

Looked at another way, parents can use this list to increase our daughters’ odds of becoming financially independent. Financial independence is the force (rather than greed or consumption) driving the majority of self-made millionaire women.

1. Harmony/Empathy

• Teach her to have empathy for the needs of others
• Run a well-organized household
• Provide a home atmosphere filled with love and harmony
• Have great respect for spouse and children
• Regularly attend religious services

2. Initiative/Leadership

• Encourage her to take initiative
• Encourage her to be a creative thinker
• Teach her to have empathy for the needs of others
• Teach her never to follow the crowd
• Encourage her to take leadership roles in school

3. Happiness/Satisfaction

• Have a strong love life
• Rarely complain
• Be optimistic always

4. Independence

• Give her responsibility early in life
• Encourage her to earn her own spending money
• Teach her the importance of saving and investing
• Strictly discipline

5. Responsiveness

• Always have time to listen to her opinion
• Always use positive incentives to encourage her to achieve
• Do not threaten her with harsh punishment if she earns a bad grade
• Rarely, if ever, cold or indifferent to her.

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I know lots of my readers are bloggers or internet marketers trying to make their websites work for them. That’s why I asked Ellen Gerstein from Wiley Publishing and the very popular Confessions of an IT Girl if I could give way  3 copies of Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income. Continue reading →

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Packaging Girlhood, written by Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown, two board members of consumer advocacy group Shaping Youth, is about how “girlhood” has been co-opted by marketers. Packaging Girlhood guides parents through attempts to claim girls by marketers and the media. Continue reading →

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