Smart Women, Smart Habits: Powerful Habits to Create your Ideal Financial Future

By Obu Ramaraj

Everybody loves money because it is the main currency on planet earth to buy things.

When children are young, very rarely are they taught the right way to handle money – be it at school or at home or anyone they spend time with. Unless you have super savvy parents, it can be hard to manage money when you become an adult.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Smart Money Solutions Pty Ltd
• Release date: Feb 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9780987574145

Obu Ramaraj

Obu Ramaraj is the Managing Director of Smart Money Solutions and helps women take control of their financial life, so they can grow their savings. After spending a decade in the financial industry, Obu knows what is truly important to plan and achieve the desired lifestyle for women - and it's not just about making more and more money. The power lies in being conscious of your thoughts about money! Obu's experience is quite unique in that she is a first-generation Australian Indian and worked as a research scientist in her previous life. She has now built a six-figure business from ground up in finance while raising two young kids and acting as Chief Financial Officer at home. She is also the author of 'Smart Women, Smart Home loans', a guide to help homebuyers with a focus on educating women in this space. Obu has been nominated for various awards like the Telstra Business Women award, Ausmumprenuer award and has been the finalist in Wyndham Business awards (2016) and Indian Executive Club awards (2015). Obu has featured in print and radio around the world including Huffington Post, Westpac's Ruby Connection and Southern FM. Her own articles have been featured in Australian Financial Review, Women's Agenda, The Indian Sun, Working Women and Women's Business Society. Obu was the Founding President of Inner Wheel Club of Point Cook (a not-for-profit International women's organisation) and helped raise thousands of dollars during the first two years of commencement. Funds raised have been used to help not only charities like 'Days for Girls" but also a family to sustain their livelihood. Obu has also been on the board of two other not-for-profit organisations (Tamilar Inc and SIMEC). She loves music and is being trained to play an old Indian classical instrument called 'veena'. She is the embodiment of power women can have, when they are financially educated, and enjoys her well-rounded life without financial stress. She is strongly motivated to share this contentment with others and this is what has driven her to the path of women's financial focus.

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OBU RAMARAJ

Smart Women, Smart Habits

Powerful Practices to Create Your Ideal Financial Future 

Copyright © 2020 Obu Ramaraj

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the copyright owner.

Disclaimer

The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of a financial nature. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation.

Neither the publisher nor the author is engaged in rendering professional advice or services to the individual reader. The ideas and suggestions contained in this book are not intended as a substitute for professional advice. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Every effort has been made to ensure that this book is free from error or omissions. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for an abundant life. However, the author, publisher, editor or their agents or representatives shall not accept responsibility for any loss or inconvenience caused to a person or organization relying on this information.

Images are owned by the author or labeled as free to use from the internet. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry

Author: Ramaraj, Obu

Title: Smart Women, Smart Habits 

ISBN: 978-0-9875741-5-2

Cover design by Vijai Mani

Internal design by InHouse Publishing

Dedicated to

My family—Vijai, Rishi, and Raaga—for listening to all my crazy ideas

My parents and my sister—for always encouraging me The universe—for always guiding me and presenting me teachers at different stages of my life

Table of Contents

Introduction

Why Smart Women Are Taking Control of Their Money

Good Debt vs. Bad Debt

Prework

Stage 1 The I.D.E.A.L. Method to Shift Your Mindset

Stage 2 Create New Habits to Support Your New Mindset

Stage 3 Set Goals That You Want

Stage 4 How to Achieve Your Goals

Stage 5 Persevere and Review Regularly

Money and Happiness

Couples and Money

How to Put It All Together

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Introduction

It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven’t lost the things money can’t buy.

— George Horace Lorimer

W ho likes money? I do.

As long as we live on planet Earth and money is the main medium, all of us need money to satisfy our basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter. When we have plenty of money, we get to live comfortably.

So, why are some people super rich, some rich, some lead a comfortable life, and a vast majority struggle? If we look at an overall picture, there are so many factors. Some individuals with little wealth might be in their early career stages, some might have used their wealth to start businesses. Others might have suffered losses in businesses or had personal setbacks or live in parts of the world where it is really hard to accumulate wealth. At the other end of the spectrum, there are individuals who have amassed large wealth through different ways.

But, if you are someone who earns a fairly good income from your work, and still struggle to get by without credit card debt, have you thought,Why is that the case? Why is it so hard for me to save a portion of my income? If you are in a well-paid job, I’m sure you are a confident person. I’m sure you interact confidently with people, your friends, and colleagues. Is the struggle only when it comes to taking control of your money?

If this resonates with you, I am sure you have tried, in the past, to remedy this situation. You might have spoken to your friends about how they manage their finances. Or perhaps you attended some wealth-building seminars and webinars, where the speaker went on and on about investing in properties or shares. And yet again, you wondered how you would invest when you were struggling month to month to get by and pay your bills and have enough to buy food.

Every month when the credit card bill arrived, you cringed. Every month, you thought you’d had enough. You just want to get rid of these debts once and for all. But still by the end of the month, you were back to square one.

Sometimes, you look at the woman in your office, the one who seems to have it all and is happy always. You think, Oh, why can’t I be like that woman? What is the secret to her happiness? I would give anything to be in her shoes.

You know what? You can be like her; you too can be happy. But I tell you, it requires work—sometimes a lot of work from you. But once you lay the foundation, brick by brick, you can get back your confidence, the confidence you were born with. No one can stop you from handling money like a pro—your money, your hard-earned money.

All this requires is a change in your underlying beliefs. The views that were implanted in you from a young age. By whom, you ask? By your parents, when they were talking (or often fighting) about money or the lack of it. By your friends, when you wanted to go out and spend and each had access to more (or less) money. By your grandparents, by society, by anyone who had an input in your life as you were growing.

I grew up in India in a wealthy family and had little involvement in handling money. My parents instilled strong values in me, and I learned some basic concepts about money—always spend less than you earn, don’t do/buy things to please others, bargain for a deal (we Indians love bargaining). In those days, in my culture (as it is now in many developing countries), the unimplied belief is that if you study well and get good grades, you will get a good job and earn a lot of money. So, I did just that. Studied well and got really good grades. I never got to work (as in being employed) when I was young (I mean during my school days or after graduation).

Fast forward a few years. I started my own business in Australia, mainly because I couldn’t get a job in the field in which I graduated (biotechnology). I became a mortgage broker. During my initial years, when I was learning my trade, I met different kinds of people. Some were super rich (at least in my eyes at that time) and some were immigrants just like me, wanting to set up base in their new home country.

What stayed with me and created the strongest impact from these appointments were women, single women, who were earning quite good money (like $80,000 plus) and still lived from paycheck to paycheck. On the other end, I met some Asian couples, whose combined income was the same as these single women, and they still managed to save a deposit/down payment to buy a house. It used to fascinate me how some people managed money well where others struggled.

In my opinion, there could be two reasons. One is you earn good money but live like a scrooge—you’re stingy with money. The second is that you truly understand your needs and wants and make money work for you, not vice versa.

There is a third way of managing money. It’s where you understand the power of your mind and use it to bring in wealth.

I refer to wealth here in the true sense—health, money, and wisdom.

You see, in my own journey, I struggled with this concept. I am a scientist in my pre-finance life. So, everything needed to be proven before I would accept it as true. I struggled mentally to feel rich in those early years when my business was just growing. Three years into my business, I was introduced to the concept of self-development (positive thinking and the power of the mind). I started listening to talks and read self-help books like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. It was still a bit beyond my mental capacity at that time, and I couldn’t fully grasp the concepts.

My family was (and still is) spiritual. I grew up that way too. But I couldn’t understand certain concepts, like why do we have to go through tough times when we are spiritual? Would things not automatically happen if we were spiritual and praying regularly? Would God not take care of it? So many questions and no answers.

It was at this time I realized that practices like meditation and setting goals were actually small steps that my brain could make sense of. It slowly changed my life. Since then, I’ve come a long way in using the power of mind to achieve goals and also attract. Reading books like The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, learning about the law of attraction, and manifesting became my fascination.

What I present in this book is no secret. These are simple, yet effective steps and habits that helped me slowly, yet steadily change my life to what I wanted. I also share stories of women who have gone through hardships, just like you and me. And how they got past it all and are living the life of their dreams.

If you are open to assessing your current life, to understanding what works for you and what doesn’t, that is the first step. Then make those miniscule changes, day after day, week after week.

Ultimately, you will find a new version of you. Just like a butterfly emerges from the cocoon, you too will find that beautiful version of yourself.

But be aware, this is not a quick fix—not a do-it-once kind of a book. As with anything in life, this requires persistence and the willingness to keep doing things, even when you don’t feel like it. Because that is the only way that will help you achieve anything you want.

Come on this journey with me. I’ll show you how you can live the best version of your life. I invite you to try new experiments to help you change how you think, take on new habits that will serve you, and ultimately create your dream life along with financial freedom. Your life will change beyond your wildest imagination.

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Why Smart Women Are Taking Control of Their Money

Never spend your money before you have earned it.

— Thomas Jefferson

L ong before money came into existence, the bartering system was used. In this model, surplus goods were exchanged for something else that people wanted. Slowly, money became the medium of exchange and over the last two hundred years or so, it has existed as the main source of exchange all over the world. My fascination to have some savings arose from the time when I arrived in Australia. I realized unless some money was put aside, I couldn’t enjoy my life—like eating out at restaurants, shopping for fun, treating my children to ice cream, having money for emergencies, buying presents, traveling, and so on. When my spouse and I were on a single income, and being first generation in Australia, all these things were hard, because we were trying to set ourselves up from ground zero. I did not like credit cards and wanted to live within our means—even though I couldn’t live my preferred lifestyle. There were times when I used to go to playgroups with my son. Afterwards, most mothers used to go to cafes for coffee, and I would go back home because I did not have money to spend.

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