5 Women Entrepreneurs On Their Best Piece Of Self-Care Advice

This article is brought to you by Fidelity.

Thanks mainly to Instagram, the concept of “self-care” has been diluted to mean a lot of things, from canceling plans to taking a bubble bath and drinking a glass of wine at the end of a long day. But to us, self-care means the little things you do regularly to ensure you’re setting yourself up for the best future possible. That means staying on top of your finances, eating a mostly healthy diet, and yes, taking a break to recharge your batteries every once in a while.

We spoke with five women entrepreneurs (and friends of TFD!) to hear the small things they do every day to take care of their future selves. Here’s what they had to say:

Tasha Cochran, Founder of One Big Happy Life:

“Something that I do every day for my future self is to make amazing memories so that I can look back on a life well lived. Sometimes those memories are big, like planning and cash flowing our family vacation to Singapore. Given that I didn’t even have a passport until I was thirty, taking that trip was a big deal–and a big financial deal to plan for. But those big amazing memories are the exception. Most of the time the memories I’m focused on enjoying are the small ones–just stopping and being present for the small, daily experiences that are really easy to overlook. Like remembering how it feels to hug my children when they’re small. Or taking the time to slow down, disconnect, and gather for a meal together as a family where we share bits of our day with each other. I always say that life is the thing that happens between our goals, which is why it’s so important to take every opportunity to create a life that we love now even while we’re planning for our future.”

Jaclyn Johnson, CEO & Founder of Create & Cultivate:

“I spend 80% of my day thinking about the here and now and what needs to get done today and 20% about the future, saving, investments. I am a big saver and always have been since I was a kid, my mother always taught me to think of my paychecks in percentages and what should go to what. I like having the comfort of knowing I have money in the bank for a rainy day and that my money is making money and not just sitting there. And while I grew up talking about money and decisions I understand that maybe some people didn’t. 

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Erin Lowry, Founder of Broke Millennial:

“I know that I’m supposed to say things like ‘I wake up and meditate, then journal, then drink eight glasses of water and exercise at least 30 minutes because #healthiswealth.’ But I’ll be honest, the two things I do every day are cuddle my dog and watch TV (and if we’re being brutally honest — it’s probably an episode of Real Housewives). And hey, both of those reduce stress — so I’d chalk that up to nurturing my future self. 

“Given the nature of my job, yes, I do think about my money every single day, which means my husband and I have money conversations on a really regular basis. And that is probably one of the biggest gifts I can give to my future self: getting on the same page financially with my husband and working towards our goals together as a team. 

“Now don’t get it twisted — we are not always completely aligned with what we want in the present or the future. We don’t always value the exact same things. But, engaging in conversations both directly about how we handle our finances and more broadly about what we value and the kind of lifestyle we want to achieve is a beautiful gift to our future selves.”

Chelsea Fagan, Founder and CEO of The Financial Diet:

“I’m a bit of an obsessive planner when it comes to my personal life and affairs, so frankly most of what I do with my time is to some extent about planning for and thinking about my future self. I love to meal plan, to schedule social activities, to create spreadsheets for various home and lifestyle tasks, to draft up itineraries. I’m actually of the opinion that beyond just being important to prioritize your future self in terms of making good decisions, life is only enhanced by drawing out and enjoying the anticipation of an event just as much as you enjoy the event itself. (And this actually has some scientific juice behind it.)”

Stefanie O’Connell Rodriguez, Money Expert and Founder of Statement Cards:

“If ‘Future Me’ is about living an upgraded Manhattan lifestyle, ‘Today Me,’ at least in part, is about setting myself up to make that future happen. And my philosophy is that you can’t really figure out how to get to where you want to go, until you actually know where you’re starting from. And for me, that means knowing where I stand with my money. So the thing I do every day for my future self is track my spending, my earning and my net worth. So spending wise, I write down everything going out. And earning wise, I write down everything coming in. And finally, I take a step back to look at the full picture — my net worth — which is everything I own financially speaking minus everything I owe — financially speaking. Tracking these numbers on a daily basis and being able to check in with them in real time serves as a powerful in the moment gut check when asking myself questions like ‘Can I afford this?’ or ‘Is this purchase going to bring me closer to or push me further from my goals?’ In this way, I can use my spending and net worth, not only to take stock of where I stand and see how my past decisions have brought me to where I am today, but I can also use it as a measure going forward, to track my progress as I start implementing good financial habits, like increasing my savings and paying down debt — using my net worth growth to keep me motivated and on track to affording the future I really want.”

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