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What is the reality for women getting divorced if they have been subject to financial abuse?

Sun, 12 Jun 2022 21:43:40 GMT

What is the reality for women if they have subject to financial abuse?

The reality for many women is that they do not have the financial income or reserves to secure a residential mortgage when they are going through a divorce or separation. This is because they haven't worked for many years as a stay at home mum or their financial income has been compromised due to different types of financial abuse.

Expert Caroline Strawson shares some insight below into the challenging situations many women can find themselves in if they have subject to financial abuse within a relationship.

Women might not have been allowed to work in a relationship and will have been the stay-at-home mum, so they would have no financial income of their own or experience to secure a job that would pay enough to secure a mortgage.

Based on a poll conducted within Caroline’s Facebook group, the majority of participants voted that they weren’t earning enough and had no savings or deposits to secure a mortgage and had no choice but to rent.

Women who have been subject to financial abuse may also have had no access to bank accounts or savings if they were not the breadwinner, who leaves them with limited resources other than using debt finance. Debt or lack of names on bills can impact their credit score which can also disadvantage them when it comes to securing rental properties or mortgages. Many women end up renting as the only option until they have built up their own financial history.

Controlling finances is a key component of narcissists to make the women feel powerless, dependent, and isolated.

Financial abuse comes in many forms.

They are sometimes generous with gift-giving, but that gift usually comes with expectations and ultimatums.
They are secretly squirreling away money into their own account or lying about overtime and income so that they can use it for themselves.
They expect you to contribute to the family fund, but not to have your own account.
They go as far as making you rely on them for money, for transportation, for a roof over your head.
They do not allow you to work.
They make you take the next credit card out in your name, not theirs.
They pressure you into making a deal when it comes to settling assets and child support after your divorce.
They continuously take on more debt on the family credit card, without discussing that big purchase with you first.
They shame you for your spending habits but blow up in a fit of rage when you try to bring up theirs.

It is sad but that true that this is the reality of many women, and at Prowess Properties we want to provide homes where they can rebuild their life and develop their financial resources. We recommend a range of training programmes and job boards which can help our residents to transform their financial situation.

Becoming a Financially Independent Woman

PH462140 — Sun, 12 Jun 2022 13:48:37 GMT

Find out how Jo grew a property portfolio from nothing

Jo Lightfoot is a professional property investor, podcaster, public speaker and performance coach. Moving into the world of property in 2015 opened her world up to possibility in life, which enabled her to leave her job in the public sector. She is now passionate about unlocking this possibility in others.

Jo uses the symbol of a rainbow to help individuals shine in every aspect of their personal and professional lives. Her mission is to empower people to identify the full colour spectrum of their personality, talents and skills and perform all they are with unshakeable confidence.

Below she shares her story about how she established financial independence from having nothing.

"Before I started out in property, I was working in a 9-5 project management job in the university sector. I was living between short-term contracts with next to no professional progression opportunity. Financial limitations aside, the biggest pain I felt was not living with a meaningful purpose. I could feel there was so much more to me as a human being but where I was committing the majority of my time felt like it had no meaning and certainly not enough financial reward!

Three huge motivating reasons made me seek change.

Responsibility - Stevie is my older brother and has severe mental and physical disabilities. Since I was a little girl I have known that I would be responsible for him when my folks are no longer around and doing what I was doing was not giving me enough time or money to step into that role.

Respite - these two fabulous humans have worked hard all of their lives and retired with little financial provision. Having also been my brother's primary carers for his entire life I wanted to create financial and emotional respite for them both and allow my brother to transition into a new living setting so that all parties can enjoy their futures.

Rude awakening - in 2012 my ex-husband had a brain haemorrhage eight months before we were due to walk down the aisle. Hansdown the biggest dose of perspective I have ever had. It turned our world upsidedown. His survival spurred us on to make the most of life and get our financial ducks in a row. BUT it also showed me, as a woman, that I will never allow myself to be financially dependent on another human being again.

Before entering the world of property investment I was renting living to payday to payday. I had never bought a house and certainly didn't believe I ever would. From a position of no money, I went on to purchase my own residential in London and build a lucrative portfolio up north that allowed me to step back from my day job.

My property journey began with an advert in the London Metro back in 2015 advertising a free two-hour property investing seminar with an amazing organisation called, Fielding Financial , headed up by the incredible Gill Fielding. That led on to attaining a full blown diploma in property investing. I am now a teacher in this industry, podcaster and professional speaker. Life could not be any different. I am finally living on purpose. And it feels amazing. I am by no means perfect; I'm a divorcee facing the challenges of single living and entrepreneursgip BUT I'm doing it on my own terms with the freedom that property has given me.

What 3 tips would you give to others in your shoes who want to rebuild their lives and become financially secure

Connect to why you want to change; the pain you're moving away from and the pleasure you're moving toward
Step into your true colours - identify, accept and action what makes you shine. Money comes from that.
It's a marathon not a sprint. Don't get rich quick, learn how to get rich right."

Follow Jo here for ongoing inspiration and motivation. She has her own Property Jam Podcast and is a coach and entrepreneur.

Insta - @jolightfoot_official https://www.instagram.com/jolightfoot_official/

Facebook - Jo Lightfoot official https://www.facebook.com/jolightfootofficial/

LinkedIn - Jo Lightfoot official www.linkedin.com/in/jolightfootofficial

5 Top Tips for Financial Security

PH462140 — Sun, 12 Jun 2022 13:09:29 GMT

5 ways to create a financially secure future

Gill Fielding, CEO of Fielding Financial shares her top tips for Financial Security.

I have been a wealth watcher all my life – and from my personal starting position of not having any money at all, I was always intrigued by those people who did.

Over a lifetime of review and discovery, I have seen common traits in all successful people which boil down to just 5 key things. These 5 principles I call the ‘financial five a day’ and we all need them, they should be taught in schools as a fundamental life skill, and they apply whatever your circumstances or financial position. They move anyone from where they currently are to where they want to be.

Tip 1 – Control your income and expenditure

In order to have any control and any success, we need to know where we are and what we’ve got – or haven’t got! But most people just earn and spend with no real awareness or knowledge of where it’s all going. Getting that awareness is the first step in stopping some of that money disappearing.

I always see income and expenditure flows like a bath – I see in my mind’s eye a bath with loads of plug holes in – and your money coming in every month is the water coming out the taps and into the bath, but if you don’t have the plug in and there’s loads of holes in your bath, all the water will run away, and you won’t have any left.

Tip 2 – Budget effectively

Now it doesn’t matter how much money you receive or how it comes to you – it’s how you spread it out that matters. So, the money can be benefits, a salary or whatever – and budgeting skills will enable you to make whatever income you have last until the next pay day – or next benefit day.

If you can learn how to budget and spread your available money over a given period, you can actually get control of your financial life – and that takes away a huge amount of stress.

So, for me to be able to budget takes two skills – one is the simple financial budget of spreading your money over time and the other is more difficult and is the emotional skill of accepting deferred gratification – and that means understanding that you just can’t have EVERY thing NOW.

The great thing about budgeting, is that it creates organisation and discipline with your financial affairs and it leads to control. If you can just take what you receive as income and spread it over the number of days that it has to last you, then you are in control and you can then start taking action to save or spend what you like without the pressure or fear of there being too much month left over after the money has been spent.

If you get into the habit of doing this, you will soon feel much better about your money because the certainty that you will have enough sure beats the fear and anxiety of the uncertainty that you may not be able to pay your way.

Tip 3 – Manage your debt

Now debt is all the borrowings you have, which could include:

· Mortgages

· Overdraft and bank loans

· Specific loans for say a new kitchen or garage or extension or conservatory – so for big stuff

· Cards – credit cards and store cards

From this list we can see that the mortgage is the odd one out because it is used to buy a house or flat which in general does increase over the life of the debt – so by the time you have paid the mortgage off – say over 25 years or so – the house or flat is worth a lot more than you paid for it.

With everything else like a car or a sofa, the item is immediately worth less the second you buy it and even if it’s still brand new you can’t sell a car for its original value once you have driven it off the garage forecourt.

We need to get as much good investment debt as we can and as little consumer or bad debt as possible and it’s no wonder then that debt or credit and the ability to borrow money is known both as the 8th wonder of the world as well as the 8th deadly sin.

Debt and credit can be both good and bad depending on how you use it and what you use it for.

I know that debt is a major part of my wealth creation and that’s because you just can’t ever earn yourself rich – you just can’t live long enough to earn wealth – and if you do want to increase your wealth then you do need to get to grips with debt and borrowing and the understanding and control of it, otherwise you’ll never get there.

Tip 4 – Understand the future value of money

The cost of living (or inflation) constantly means that the cost of purchasing the stuff you need in the future goes up year-on-year. If that increase is 2% per year, then clearly your savings, which get 0.5%, will not buy as much next year as they could do today.

However, if you have your spare money deposited in a place where you can get 5% interest on those funds, and inflation is at 2%, then your savings are definitely worth more next year than they are today.

The rate of return you get on your money is partially up to you and you can decide to make an investment, or start a business that would generate the 5% or more, which guarantees the future increasing value of your money.

The basic difference is understanding savings versus investment.

We all need some savings to provide us with some backup should times get tough. However, once you have that safety net in place, any spare money is better used to make investments, where you have more control over the rate of return and where you can positively expect higher interest rates and profits.

These investments fall into three broad categories: land and property, shares and trading and having a business.

Tip 5 – Take Responsibility

To me it’s very, very clear, that YOU are the only person responsible for your financial life.

Many people have this strange notion that their wellbeing whether it be financial or otherwise is the responsibility of some external force like the government or something. But I must let you in on a secret - there’s only one person who cares about you and your money and that’s…YOU!

So “If it’s to be, it’s up to me” is what I say.

In fact, we have evidence that the more responsibility you take personally for your money the more you have and the higher the rate of return you achieve on your investments.

So do yourself a huge favour and rely on yourself! Embrace this principle and take responsibility for your finances now and for the future.

In summary…

The great thing about these top tips, is that you can work on all five of them at the same time and although they are sequential in logic, they do not have to be sequential in action. You can work on your sense of self responsibility at the same time as you work on your budgeting and your debt and for certain, the more you work on them, all the more the stronger you will be, the more choices you will have and the more success you will generate.

And the principles always remain the same and you can go back to them as your life changes.

I wish you similar successes and most of all I wish you, health, wealth, and personal happiness,

Gill Fielding

How to ask people to invest in your future

PH462140 — Sun, 12 Jun 2022 11:33:10 GMT

Find people that believe in you to help you achieve success

We all need to invest time and money into our own personal and professional development to achieve our ultimate life and career goals.. In this blog i’m going to share with you how you can get people to invest in you if you don’t have the financial resources to invest yourself. These top tips emerged out of a workshop that I did with Fielding Financial about raising investment for property.

The need to source investment can apply to all types of situations - it could be that you are looking for investment to buy a house, take a course, it could be that you are wanting your company and manager to invest in your professional development, you might be wanting to launch a business or invest in properties. As part of this journey you need to convince yourself and the potential investors about why it’s a good career choice.

My success at changing my career to work with Salesforce and developing as a leader and entrepreneur is because people have invested in me along the way. Initially I used credit cards and bank loans to pay for training and mentoring courses, and to launch my businesses i secured an investment loan from a bank and from my family. I then reinvested profit from my business into growing the business and investing in the career development of my staff. I continue to invest in myself personally and i will continue to source future investors to help me continue to grow my career ambitions with Prowess Properties.

In my younger years i always felt ashamed about asking for money as I felt like i should be able to make enough money to afford it myself until i started attending many business events and I realised that the most successful people have sourced or had investment to help them achieve success. Hardly anyone I had met had achieved success off their own back without some form of investment from a third party and I realised that's where I had been going wrong. What was also an important realisation is that if people invest in you, it gives you the confidence and accountability to go the extra mile to make yourself a success.

So how do we get your mindset into a place where asking for investment feels comfortable for you..

The first step is to get clear on your WHY - People buy into you, so share with them about why you want this investment... what difference is it going to make to your life to make you happier and more fulfilled. Have a casual conversation with the potential investor initially - you want them to be inspired by your energy, vision and story about why you want to pursue this path as they will see why you are passionate and determined to make it work. Will it give you more flexibility and time to spend with the kids, will it help you look after elderly relatives or family members who are sick. Will it help you take the next step in your career. IIn summary what is your motivation for investing in yourself and what difference will it make.

The second step is understand the HOW - you need believe in yourself that you can achieve the end goal and the path you want to take to get there - to be armed with the confidence, knowledge and insight that you feel you could be successful in achieving this career. To achieve this do your market research and put together a presentation deck or a few pages with your plan.- for example if you planning to secure invest in properties speak to as many ‘informed’ people as possible, educate yourself on right strategy, do your due diligence, market appraisal, understand what you are looking for to know what is a good deal. Investors will want to know about the training courses you have done like the one at Fielding Financial. Ultimately you want to feel confident in the support infrastructure you have chosen for yourself and feel able to sell your ‘PLAN’ confidently before asking for investment. An investor will ask why you think you can be successful in pursuing this training or career so you need to be able to give 4/5 solid points to justify this for your own benefit and theirs. For example - tell them about your career achievements to date, what transferrable and relevant experience you have to transition to a new career, tell about the benefits of the course you plan to take and the benefits it will give you to land the job e.g. work experience, references, certification etc.

The third step is to plan out the WHEN - how long will it take to achieve your vision - what are the milestones, who and what will keep you accountable to this. Investors will assess the level of risk and they will benefit from seeing if there is some level of accountability and plan to achieve this This plan may be over 2-10 years if it is about investing in a future career and the milestones you want to achieve to climb up the career ladder.

The final step is to get clear on WHAT you want - how much investment do you need, how long do you need it, when and how will you repay it, and will you offer interest on the loan if this is something they need. If you use a credit card you might be-able to get 0% interest for 12-18 months and you just need to convince yourself that this is a good career choice.. If you are borrowing money from someone you want to present the above information and you might offer them interest over and above what they get in the bank e.g. 6%-10%
Talk about how you will keep them informed about your progress so they feel assured that they will get the money back. You want to build a trusting relationship and introduce regular communication. If you say you are going to do something, keep to your word.. The investors will be your biggest cheerleader and you can celebrate together. If one investor can’t provide all of the investment ask for recommendations to others. Don’t overlook or give it up as there are people out there that will believe in you, but you need to put in the leg work to make it happen.

In summary here are 3 Top Tips for getting people to invest in your career..

Share the why - why are you motivated and passionate about doing this
Get confident in the how you are going to achieve through good market research
Get clear on the when with clear goals and milestones with a good accountability plan