Once a woman becomes a mom, the time she used to have to take care of herself is now used to take care of others. As a result, her own personal care tends to slip on the list of priorities. Even when she finds the time to take care of herself, she likely feels guilty spending any money to do it.
Instead of another picture frame or iPhone case, for this Mother’s Day, give yourself, your mom or your wife a gift that keeps on giving for years to come. Put in place a financial system for personal care. Here is what you do:
Open up an account specifically designated for personal care. Yes, an account just for this purpose! There are some banks that will even ‘pay’ you to open an account. For example, several online banks will give you $25 for setting up a no fee checking account with a debit card feature.
Determine how much money you or the mom in your life would like to spend on personal care for the year. Dream big! Make a list of everything and the associated costs. Haircuts, beauty products, nails, waxing, massages/treatments, gym/fitness, and even clothes belong on the list. If you have no idea what personal care costs for a woman, I estimate an annual budget of at least $1,000 will keep most women looking and feeling good. Total up the annual cost and divide by 4 quarters (or 12 months). If that number is unattainable given your current financial position, take a critical look at your list and determine where you can scale back.
Fund the personal care account. If you already have money in your spending plan for personal care, direct it to the new personal care account. Otherwise, determine if you can allocate some of your monthly cash flow to this account. When there just isn’t any extra money, it is time to get creative! First, instead of gifts for birthdays and holidays, ask that your family contribute to the personal care account. Or if you are a husband setting this up for your wife, automatically transfer a monthly amount to this account. If your goal is $1,000 for the year, that is only $83 a month! Second, consider consigning or selling clothes and other items (CD’s, DVDs, books) that you don’t use anymore and putting this money in the new account. Maybe you have a nice bike collecting dust that could be sold.
Schedule the appointments and don’t cancel them. Now that there is some money put away specifically for personal care, you need to schedule the appointments and spend it. If the amount you have to spend still isn’t enough, you can get creative again. Ask around to find great deals on haircuts, massages and other services. You don’t need to pay $125 for a massage at a big spa. You can get incredible deals through massage schools with professionals building their practice hours. Or spend a few hours (or the day) at a local spa and enjoy all the amenities, like steam room, sauna, heated medication pools or reading by a fire place for a fraction of the cost of a treatment.
Continue to fund this personal care account throughout the year, every year. Take care of Mom, and give her a gift that will keep on giving.
Katy Song, CFP® Marin financial planner, works for VitaVie Financial Planning, a fee-based firm that addresses the financial issues expectant parents and young families face. Katy and her husband have a three year old daughter and live in Mill Valley. You can email Katy at katy [at] newparentfinances.com.
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I just wondered who started Mother’s, Father’s day and the likes. Were they started by individuals or big businesses decided that they need to sell their products and services more on those days. Christmas and all those other days are just pure commercial and nothing else. Why should we show our appreciation to someone on just one single day and forget them the rest of the year. Mothers and fathers and the likes are always here to take care of us and then eventually we take care of them. As long as we don’t let the businesses turn these days into their own commercials, we can always appreciate them in our lives on a daily basis. Why don’t we just stop and think and don’t let the big businesses run our lives.