By Sydney Sekese, CFP® professional and member of the Financial Planning Institute
This article is written as South Africa celebrates National Women’s Day on August 9; it’s essential to recognize the role women play in shaping the nation’s financial future. By empowering women with financial knowledge, we can unlock a broader impact on society.
This got me thinking: Is it possible to understand money through women’s lens? The best approach is to define what money is.
A regular financial journalist who writes for the Wall Street Journal mentions that you hold money in your hand, you hold paper dollars, you hold coins, and you think it’s real. You think that’s money. That isn’t money. That’s a thing that represents money, dollar bills, coins, money itself is, it’s an, it’s a system.
He reveals in his article that money is a system we made up. Human beings invented it to help us keep track of resources of all our stuff. You look at the point of a society and really the point of a large-scale society is to get a group of people together to combine their efforts and their resources to take care of each other. The way as societies got much larger and larger, they found an efficient way to do that. And it was basically to have everything represented by money. And then if you have money, you have a claim on the group’s resources.
What has happened over the last 5,000 years or so is that, that we have mythologized money into this real thing. And we have convinced ourselves; we have hypnotized ourselves into believing that it is a real thing to the point where the pursuit of it on its own has taken over most of what we think of as the point of economics in society. But it’s not a real thing. It’s not a thing that exists on its own. It is a thing that we created as a system that we created. And it has become for us a belief system.
Money is both a store of value and a medium of exchange. It’s a unit of account. Anything can really be a store of value. Most of what you know, the markets trade in are stores of value. Anything can really be a unit of account. Anything can work as a means of exchange, barter can work as a means of exchange. Those are just functions. Those are not the thing itself. The thing itself is nothing more than a shared collective belief in this system.
With this perspective on money, what are some key aspects of Financial Planning for Women?
Financial Literacy: Understanding basic financial concepts, such as budgeting and saving, is crucial for making informed decisions.
Investment Strategies: Women can benefit from learning about various investment options such as shares, bonds, and collective investments (or unit trusts).
Risk Management: Understanding risk management techniques, such as insurance and diversification, can help women protect their financial assets.
Entrepreneurship: Women can leverage their skills and talents to start their own businesses, contributing to the economy and creating jobs.
Final word:
Money may be a system we’ve created, but how we engage with it especially as women can be deeply personal and transformative.
It’s not just about numbers or transactions; it’s about choices, values, and the freedom to shape our own futures. As we celebrate National Women’s month, let’s continue to ask bold questions, share knowledge, and support one another in building financial confidence. Because when women understand money on their own terms, they don’t just manage wealth—they redefine it.
