Here are five recommendations to strongly consider:

1. Increase your Income

In South Africa, on average, women earn approximately 25 percent less than their male counterparts. Women need to negotiate an increase if they are not being paid what their male counterparts are being paid. This may be challenging.

The best time to have a conversation with an employer about one’s salary is when one has an annual performance review or when one’s salary is increased annually.

First believe in yourself and in your capabilities if you want to boost your income. Understand your strengths, have the courage to be tough and see the bigger picture. What is the “bigger picture”? Possible loss of earnings e.g. If you earn R15 000 a month and you’re earning 25 percent less than you should be, you’re losing R5 000 a month, equating to R60 000 a year.

One should consider ways in which you could increase your income, even if you are not underpaid. Consider whether you could work overtime or do freelance work.

Any extra income should first go to paying off expensive debt (personal loans, an overdraft, and credit card and store card debt) and then be channelled into a savings plan, such as a tax-free savings investment or a retirement annuity (RA), etc.

2. Cover your Risks

If one is a single mother with dependent children, you need to make sure that your children will be provided for if you die prematurely or if you become disabled. In other words, you need risk cover that will pay out when you die and/or lose your ability to earn an income.

It is key to analyse your financial goals and address any shortcomings in your financial plan.

Single mothers should make insurance against disability and death a priority. Once that is covered, other financial needs, such as medical aid cover, saving for retirement and short-term insurance should be considered.

3. Save, save, and…save

Whether it is the excess on an insurance claim or an unexpected hospital bill, a sudden expense can easily land you in the Red. Saving for emergencies is as essential as saving for retirement, as debt compromises our ability to save for retirement. Saving for retirement is particularly important for women, since women have a longer life expectancy than men.

We all need savings to cover our short-, medium- and long-term expenses:

A short-term expense is typically a sudden or once off expense, such as the excess on an insurance claim. An “emergency fund”, which may be a savings account, is best for such expenses. Medium-term needs are foreseeable expenses, such as servicing your car or saving for a deposit on a car or a home. Unit trusts are good investment vehicles for these needs.

Long-term needs include paying for your children’s education and an income in retirement.

For longer-term savings goals, one should consider a tax-free savings account, which allows you to invest up to R30 000 a year and up to R500 000 over your lifetime, free of tax on interest, dividends and capital gains.

You need to decide what income you can live on in retirement relative to the income you are receiving. Then check that you are on track to reach that income goal. You may have to resolve to boost your monthly contributions to your RA.

Saving is all about planning. One of the biggest destroyers of savings is one’s failure to preserve one’s retirement savings when moving jobs. One should never spend that money, but rather invest it. One may either consider an RA, a preservation fund or one’s new employer’s occupational retirement fund.

4. Check your mate

If you are married or living with your partner, you need to know about your partner’s financial affairs.

If you are not married but in a relationship and your relationship is not governed by the Marriage Act, you must have an attorney draw up an agreement that protects your financial interests in the event of your partner’s death, or if the relationship fails.

It has been said that women have a tendency to defer to their spouses. When women leave all money decisions to their husbands, it renders them vulnerable in the event of death or divorce.

Women need to educate themselves on money matters and understand the implications for the family if their husband were to die or divorce them. What would happen if your husband were to become disabled? Would you still have medical scheme cover? The message is: be involved in all financial planning and understand your marriage contract.

5. Your Will be done

Most women don’t draft a Will or know what the impact will be if their partner or spouse dies without leaving a Will that provides for them.

If you die without a will, the Intestate Succession Act applies. In terms of the Act, your estate devolves according to a formula. If a single person dies without a will, her estate will pass to her children, and if she doesn’t have children, to her parents, and failing that, to her siblings.

If she is in a relationship, the type of relationship will determine if she will be allowed to inherit when her partner or spouse dies without a will.

If your will is poorly drafted, the execution of your will after you die will become tricky, particularly if you have dependants. Your marital regime plays a role here, because it may determine which assets are included in your estate on your death.

If you’re a member of a company-sponsored retirement fund, make sure you regularly fill out your beneficiary nomination form. The trustees of your fund are reliant on you for this information and are guided by it when they pay out your retirement savings to your dependants or beneficiaries.