Need to know
- Define your number: Make success measurable on your terms.
- Find your next step: Turn your goal into a practical plan.
- Plan with confidence: Get advice to protect and build what matters.
What does success look like when you define it for yourself?
It may be an age. An income. A savings target. The number of people your business employs. The years of education you want to fund for someone you love. Or the point at which work becomes a choice rather than a necessity.
Your number is the measurable expression of the life you want to build.
It turns “one day” into a destination. It gives shape to an ambition and creates a starting point for a plan.
That is the thinking behind She Owns Her Success Season 8: Her Success Has a Number. Defined by her. Backed by advice.
Understand the two measures of success: financial independence and financial security
Momentum’s The Success Women Want report reveals that women are increasingly clear about what success means to them.
In South Africa:
- 43% of households are led by women.
- 68% of women identify financial independence as one of the clearest markers of success.
- Yet only 1 in 3 women feels financially secure.
The gap is not a lack of ambition.
Women are building careers, businesses, families and communities. They are making decisions that influence the financial wellbeing of entire households.
The gap is often between knowing what matters and having a financial plan strong enough to support it. Could it absorb an unexpected medical expense, a loss of income, damage to an important asset or a longer retirement than you had planned for?
Knowing your number creates a way into that conversation.
Success is not one universal figure
There is no single number that defines success for every woman.
For one person, it may be retiring at 55. For another, it may be starting a business before 40, funding a younger loved one’s education or completing a certain number of active days each month.
The number may relate to:
- Health: the habits and milestones that support a longer, healthier life.
- Career: the salary, title, impact or business growth being pursued.
- Future: the retirement savings and income required to make work optional.
- Family: the opportunities being created for the people you love.
- Protection: the assets, income and progress you cannot afford to lose.
- Lifestyle: the time, freedom and experiences you want money to enable.
- Legacy: the people and causes you want your success to continue supporting.
The number is not the whole story.
The meaning behind it is.
Start with what the number makes possible
Financial goals are often expressed as amounts:
“I want to save R1 million.”
“I want to earn R100,000 a month.”
“I need R5 million for retirement.”
But an amount without a reason can become another target inherited from somebody else.
What would that number make possible?
R1 million may represent the deposit on a home, the start of a business or the freedom to leave a situation that no longer serves you.
A retirement target may represent unhurried mornings, more time with family or the ability to stop working without compromising your dignity.
The emotional meaning gives the number direction.
It also helps distinguish between a number that genuinely supports your life and one you are chasing because it looks impressive from the outside.
How to turn the number into a plan
A meaningful number becomes useful when it moves through three stages.
Putting the conversation into perspective
The question of what financial success looks like is one that Jeanette Marais, CEO of Momentum Group, explored in conversations about women, money, retirement, and financial freedom.
Watch the conversation below or read the full article.
Why advice matters
The number may be personal, but you do not have to calculate the path towards it alone.
Financial advice can help test whether a goal is realistic, identify risks that may disrupt it and build a plan around your circumstances.
This is especially important for long-term goals such as retirement, where inflation, investment growth, tax, life expectancy and changing income needs can significantly affect the amount required.
Advice also helps connect goals that are often treated separately.
A retirement plan may depend on protecting your current income. A family goal may require both saving and life cover. Building wealth may mean little if the assets created are not adequately protected.
A good financial plan looks at the whole picture.
It connects what you earn, save, invest, protect and leave behind to the life you have defined for yourself.
- What number best represents the work nobody saw?
- What number would your younger self struggle to believe?
- What number did you have to stop chasing to build a life that felt like yours?
- The account balance
These questions move the conversation away from comparison.
They recognise that success is not only about accumulating more. Sometimes it is about choosing a different measure altogether.
Not sure what your number is yet?
Answering these three key questions can help you define it. The answer may not come immediately, and it may change as your life changes. That’s not a failure of the plan - it’s a sign that your definition of success is evolving with you.
Frequently asked questions
Does my number have to be about money?
No. It may be an age, a period of time, a health milestone, the number of people you want to support or the impact you want to create. Money may help enable the goal, but it does not have to define it.
How do I calculate my financial success number?
Start with the outcome you want, when you want to achieve it and what it is likely to cost. Then assess your current position and the gap between the two. A financial adviser can help account for inflation, investment growth, risk and changing circumstances.
What should I do once I know my number?
Choose the next practical action. This may involve starting a monthly contribution, reviewing your insurance, updating your will or speaking to a financial adviser.
Your success. Your number. Your terms.
Her success cannot be reduced to one figure.
But the right number can clarify what matters, reveal the gap and turn ambition into action.
That is the purpose of Her success has a number: not to define success for women, but to help each woman define it for herself and build a plan capable of supporting it.
So, what is your number?
More importantly, what does it make possible?.
Take the next step
Define the number that matters to you. Then speak to a Momentum-accredited financial adviser about building a plan that can support it.
Looking for more inspiration? Visit the #SheOwnsHerSuccess hub, for the latest workshops, tools, expert insights, and more to help you make your next power move.
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