Congrats! You are having a baby! As someone who’s self-employed, you not only have the normal parenting fears and questions like “will I ever sleep again?” but also the big question mark around parental leave. How much time can I take? How much time will I need and want? Will my business survive without me? And often the most concerning - how will I afford this?
I get it and so do many others. Here’s a step-by-step guide to navigating parental leave as an entrepreneur or freelancer.
Over and over again in the United States, the Black community has been stripped of wealth through policies, scandals, and even massacres. This has created and perpetuated a racial wealth gap. It will take 228 years for Black families to amass as much wealth as white families if current policies stay in place.
One of the institutions that have played a major role in the racial wealth gap and the United States’ racist past is banks. Due to racial discrimination, the Black community hasn’t had access to banking products and services at all or in the same way that white folx have.
The cost of childcare has risen dramatically in recent years. Since the 1990’s, the cost increases have doubled that of inflation, making it completely unaffordable for many families and a tremendous financial strain on others.
It makes sense that parents with two incomes question when it makes financial sense for one of them to take time away from their current job to work inside the home on childcare. Does it make financial sense to pay for childcare? Is the cost of childcare worth it?
Right now, there’s a lot of moving going on. Some are moving in with family in order to save on rent, some living in expensive cities with indefinite WFH plans are moving to cheaper locations, and others are pushing up their plans to move to the suburbs in order to have more space.
Regardless of why you’re moving, it’s never easy to move - and it’s expensive. Most of us don’t actually plan for the cost of moving and even when we do, we grossly underestimate what it will cost. This can cause us a lot of stress and affect our financial goals. If you are budgeting for a move in the near future, here’s how to do it
When I first started my money journey it was really helpful to see how much people were spending on certain things. Not because it was important to compare myself with others or that I should spend my money the same way. But more because it opened my eyes to what was possible and gave me a spending frame of reference.
I remember finding out that one of my friends spent a fraction of what I was spending on food and dining out. Yet, her life didn’t seem that much different from mine. It made me realize I had a lot of room for improvement.
Groceries have been in the spending spotlight the last few months as we’ve stockpiled (often marked-up) shelf stabilized goods and haven’t had the opportunity to dine out.
I noticed that being crunched for time with work and toddler, J and I turned to the same meals over and over. I got really sick of eating the same things and did a complete 180. I went too far in the other direction and started spending way too much precious evening time pinning Pinterest recipes that were complicated and time consuming and left me frustrated and ready to order pizza (again).
We’ve since found our groove. Here’s what’s worked for us as far as meal planning to save money and time.
Only 25% of the parents in the Fiscal Femme community felt financially prepared to have a child. Most reported that they didn’t really know how they were going to make it all work financially but they figured it out.
I share this because if you are ready to have kids but aren’t feeling prepared financially, you are not alone.
We hear kids are expensive (to say that least), but what does it even mean to prepare financially? What can we do to prepare ourselves for this big change? Is it worth delaying starting a family if we aren’t financially ready?
Once you’re ready and excited to make the switch to a socially responsible bank, the next logical question is “which one?”
We know you’re eager to align your spending with your values (while also reaching your financial goals), so we’ve done the research for you and outline the best socially responsible banks.
How and why to switch to an ethical, green, and socially responsible bank.
At the Fiscal Femme, we’re all about aligning our spending and investing with our values. Every time we make a spending decision, we’re voting with our values. In an ideal world, we should be able to look at our recent spending and have a good idea of what’s important to us.
Pandemics and times of economic upheaval, (like we’re experiencing today), exacerbate inequities that were already there.
Data shows that the Black community, specifically Black women, are bearing the brunt of this current recession.
