Empowering financial resources and tips for every woman

In 2023, women earned just 83.6 cents to every dollar that men earned, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.¹ Further disparities exist for women of color and mothers, with Black women earning around 70%, Hispanic women earning around 65% compared to the average White man.²

While ongoing wage and savings gaps are often financial hurdles for women, understanding these challenges can motivate all of us to advocate for higher wages and affect positive change. Here are some resources and tips to help you get started.

Invest in your financial literacy

Many companies are now focused on sharing free financial education and investment guidance for women. If you're wondering where to start, the following organizations offer no-cost resources to improve your financial well-being and build confidence:

Ellevest: Ellevest is an investment company focused on providing guidance and education for women investors interested in setting aside money for short- or long-term goals.
Women's Institute for Financial Education (WIFE): WIFE is a nonprofit dedicated to empowering women with financial education, through articles, videos, and more.
Clever Girl Finance: Clever Girl Finance provides free financial articles and courses, as well as paid one-on-one money coaching and more.
Women's Money Matters: Women's Money Matters offers free financial workshops, mentoring, and peer discussion groups to support women.
HerMoney: HerMoney provides women-focused educational articles on saving, earning, investing, borrowing, and more.
Savvy Ladies: Savvy Ladies is a nonprofit offering a free financial helpline for women, no-cost courses, webinars, and money-focused articles.
Narrow the Gap: Narrow the Gap is a project focused on identifying and eliminating women's wage gaps in the workplace. It lets you search by profession to better understand pay disparities, and it shares resources for negotiating higher wages at work.
Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR): The IWPR educates people on how policy changes impact women's finances and economic equity.

Set your financial goals

Once you've armed yourself with knowledge, it's time to start setting your financial goals. Since money is very personal, your goals might differ from someone else's. For instance, your priority might be becoming a more confident investor and boosting your retirement savings, while someone else may want to pay down their debt. There's no one right path for everyone.³

These actionable financial tips for women can help you create and track progress toward your money goals, putting you in a stronger financial position over time:

1. Assess your financial situation

Assessing your current financial situation is a good starting point for setting your goals. Review your bank accounts and credit cards, and check your credit. What do you notice? Is your savings account smaller or your debt larger than you'd like? Does your credit need improvement? Answering these questions will help you determine which financial goals to work toward.

2. Create a list of specific and measurable money goals

Instead of creating a lofty goal, like building an emergency fund or putting money in your retirement savings, consider setting SMART goals that are specific and measurable. For example, if your lofty goal is building an emergency fund, your specific goal could be putting $500 each month into a high-yield savings account.

You may aim to put $250 from each paycheck into your 401(k) or another employer-sponsored retirement account. Or you could prioritize asking for a raise at your next performance review and determine how you'd like to approach that.

With specific goals in mind, seeing your progress and staying motivated will be easier. A large, nebulous goal can be much harder to track. It can also be smart to divide your goals into buckets—short-, medium-, and long-term—and assign deadlines for yourself where possible. For instance, you might give yourself one year to save $6,000 in an emergency fund. If it's helpful, you could create a table outlining your goals and how you plan to achieve them.⁴

Here's a basic template with some sample goals:

Lofty goal	Specific goal	Goal type	Deadline
Build emergency fund	Save $500 a month (or $6,000 in a year)	Short-term	One year
Save for retirement	Contribute $250 per paycheck to retirement account	Long-term	Ongoing
Increase income	Ask for raise	Short-term	Next performance review
Earn professional development certificate	One year
Build credit	Pay off $6,000 in credit card debt	Medium-term	Two years

3. Prioritize your goals

Once you have your list ready, it's time to prioritize and set a budget. Consider putting the essentials first, such as growing your emergency savings or paying down your high-interest debt. These essential goals are very important for your financial well-being.

Also, your "wants" should be lower on the priority list than your "needs." For example, saving for a vacation or new furniture might be a lower priority than consolidating credit card debt to facilitate repayment.⁵

4. Stay on track with the right tools

Creating and prioritizing your goals is the easy part, while working toward those goals is often more challenging. Fortunately, several budget-tracking apps and other financial tools exist to help you stay on track.⁶

For example, when you open an account with Ellevest, its platform creates a road map for your investments that you can rely on for motivation. Other organizations, like Savvy Ladies, offer free budgeting worksheets and calculators.

Besides using tools for financial support, set up automatic contributions to savings and investment accounts, as this step can take the guesswork out of saving money.

The bottom line

It's no secret that wage and savings gaps are often hurdles for women seeking to improve their finances. Fortunately, investing in your own financial literacy, setting actionable goals, and advocating for higher wages could make it easier to achieve your goals. Some of the tools and tips we've shared above can help you get started.