“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”- Steve Jobs
Did you know April is the Financial Awareness month? It is also Mathematical & Statistical Awareness month. But mostly we remember April as a tax month.
We know money is an integral part of our life, but not many people feel comfortable let alone are confident when it comes to dealing with numbers. Even Einstein, the mathematics genius didn’t understand Taxes. He once said, "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax." He found it more perplexing than theoretical physics.
People stumble when it comes to managing personal finance. Higher education doesn’t guarantee financial literacy in both men and women. The latter is even more vulnerable. According to the U.S. Department of Education, over 3.8 million American women have third-graders’ skills on financial literacy and there are only 22.5% of the women who were able to answer the basic financial literacy questions (Mitchell & Lusardi, 2014). It is fundamental for women to be financially competent.
Addressing the dire need of financial literacy, we come across three kinds of people in our surroundings; the first ones are those who like to exaggerate problems, the second ones are to complain about it and play a victim role, but the last one is- she who sees the problem, acknowledge it, and take an action to solve it.
Ashley Clark, the founder and CEO of Sense to Cents is that inspiring Hero, who took an action to transform a problem into a possibility. Here is an excerpt of an interview, where Ashley shares an inspiring story behind the birth of Sense 2 Cents, which is celebrating its 3rd birthday on 15th of April.
“I had a member at our bank come in because he was upset that we were taking “dividends” from his account. I had to explain that process and that was frustrating. I figured instead of being mad about it. I should do something about it. I started teaching my kids some of the terms we got questions about frequently and the Internet saw it and asked for more info on it.”
Every time I hear this story, it inspires me thinking how easy it was for her to get frustrated over the client’s ignorance. She could have dismissed the topic, but she took an initiative to educate not only her own kids but also impacting hundreds of families across USA.
When asked what was one thing she wished to have known ten years ago, Ashley answered, “I wished I knew to believe in myself more and to not let outsiders affect my way of thinking.”
Indeed, we all come across this situation in our daily lives, when we are full of doubts, what if’s, and I am not ready yet kind of excuses.
It takes massive effort and conscious decision-making to bring the desired outcome we want to see in our life.
Not only that, we need to put our thoughts into real action, iterated Ashley; who shared two unfailing tips towards desired financial success:
“ Start with a Budget! Write it down on real paper with a real pen.”
"Save until you can start investing!"
When asked about the fun facts about this wonderful difference maker; she beamed with full glow, “I love sneakers, especially colorful ones.”
Yes, keep adding colors of confidence in many families through your meaningful initiatives Ashley! Keep shining! Keep inspiring!