What is financial stability? How do you define financial stability? 

Everyone of us has a different picture of what it is, how it feels and what it looks like. For some people, it’s being able to buy whatever you want, whenever you want, for some, it’s being able to pay all your bills on time and then having some money left to sustain you until the end of the month, incase of emergencies and instances like that that may fall outside of  your month to month expenses, and for some it’s both. 

For me, I’ve found that financial stability is about ensuring that I understand the difference between qualifying for, and actually affording something, and as I continue to analyze my finances over the past month, I noticed that I may have made some mistakes along the way, and the next steps for me are to identify where the missteps happened and how to avoid them in the future, so I sat down and asked myself a few questions;

1. What does my income stability look like:

• Is my income consistent, or does it fluctuate?

• Do I need multiple streams of income?

• How secure is my current job or income stream?

2. What does my budget look like:

• Am I living within my means?

• Do I have a budget, and if so, am I sticking to it?

• How much of my money goes towards essential expenses like housing, utilities, and food?

3. What do my savings and emergency funds look like:

• Do I have an emergency fund in place?

• How many months of expenses does my emergency fund cover?

• Am I consistently contributing to savings or investment accounts?

4. Insurance:

• Do I have adequate insurance coverage for health, property, and life?

• How much are my insurance premiums, and are they manageable?

• Have I reviewed my insurance policies recently to ensure they still meet my needs? 

5. Debt Management:

• What is my current level of debt?

• Am I making progress in paying off my debts?

• Do I have a plan to reduce or eliminate high-interest debt?
  

If you’ve answered yes to most, if not all these questions, and you had clear answers, then I believe you are on the right track, and if you’ve answered no, and didn’t know the answers then maybe it’s time to sit down and think about your relationship with money, or better yet, sign up for the mother of all financial programs and get your money right with the Agenda Women Money Dates In Partnership with Nedbank.  From a young working woman who grew up in a household where I wasn’t taught much about financial literacy besides, ‘you have to save’,  this is my letter to you. We’re getting our money right.