Financial Literacy: Seven Numbers Every Woman Should Know

Financial literacy is not a complicated term. It is knowing your own numbers. Anyone who knows the seven below never has to ask "where did my money go?"

1. Real monthly income

Not the salary but the amount that reaches your hands, after tax, insurance and loan repayments. If you are self-employed, take the average of the last six months.

2. Fixed monthly cost

What does not change month to month: rent, utilities, phone, education, subscriptions, loan payments. If this figure passes 50% of your income, something in the system is wrong.

3. Variable cost

Food, transport, clothes, entertainment. The only way to know it is to write down every expense for one month. One month. App or paper — it makes no difference.

4. The safety cushion

Fixed cost × 6 months. This is the sum that lets you live six months without panic if you lose your job.

Reaching this figure comes before investing. Investing without a cushion means selling at a loss at the first difficulty.

5. The rate on your most expensive debt

List all your debts by interest rate. The one at the top is closed first. Credit-card debt at 25–40% a year is a negative return no investment can beat.

6. Savings rate

Amount saved monthly ÷ income × 100.

0–5% — dangerous

10% — the minimum

20% — healthy

30%+ — strong

What matters is not the size of the number but its consistency. Fifty a month for twelve months beats two hundred once, three times over.

7. Years left until retirement

67 minus your current age. This number tells you how much time compound interest has. A hundred a month at twenty-five produces more than three hundred a month at forty-five.

Not talking about money is not politeness. Silence presented as politeness is the habit that costs women the most.

A two-hour task

This weekend:

1. Open your banking app and sort the last three months of spending into categories.
2. Write the seven numbers above on one sheet of paper.
3. Decide to change only one of them.

One number. Next month, the second. In twelve months all seven will be in place.

A separate account

One note for married women: keeping a separate account in your own name alongside a joint budget is not distrust but financial hygiene. Banking history, a credit record and independence are built only on an account in your own name.