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

Obu is the founder and former president of Inner Wheel Club of Point Cook (a nonprofit, international, womens organization) and has been on the board of two nonprofit organizations. She loves music and is being trained to play an old Indian classical instrument, called veena.

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Copyright 2020 Obu Ramaraj

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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

My familyVijai, Rishi, and Raagafor listening to all my crazy ideas

My parents and my sisterfor always encouraging me The universefor always guiding me and presenting me teachers at different stages of my life

GeorgeHoraceLorimer

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, andstill struggle to get by without credit card debt, have you thought,Why is that the case? Why is it so hard for me tosave a portion of my income? If you are in a well-paid job, Im sure you are a confident person. Im 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 youd 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 haveit all and is happy always. You think, Oh, whycant I be like that woman? What is the secret to her happiness? Iwould 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 worksometimes 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 proyour 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 moneyalways spend less than you earn, dont 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 couldnt 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 scroogeyoure stingy with money. The second is that you truly understand your needs and wants and make money work for you, not vice versa.