Money Musings: 150K Fiscal Femmes strong!

Money Musings 💭 150K Fiscal Femmes strong! 🥳

The Fiscal Femme community has grown to 150,000! 🥳

It's so exciting and inspiring to see this community of financial feminists and allies grow.

💰 This is a community that strives to be wealthy AND wants to do good with that wealth.

💰 This is a community that puts money towards their goals and also wants to enjoy life now.

💰 This is a community that knows that making good money moves is important but also acknowledges the huge systemic issues, discrimination and oppression that women and BIPOC folks face.

💰 This is a community that knows you can't talk about personal finance without talking about equity.

💰 This is a community that knows you can't talk about personal finance without talking about policy and politics.

Thank YOU for allowing me (and the Fiscal Femme) to join you on your money journey and for giving me the opportunity to live my mission each and every day.

Please forward this email and invite someone who you think would want to be part of a community that shares these values!

PS On June 24th at 5 pm EST Amanda Holden (aka @dumpster.doggie) is hosting a FREE workshop for The Fiscal Femme community called IRA - 401K - WTF: Understand and Set Up Your Retirement Accounts. If anyone can make retirement accounts fun, she can. I hope you can join us!

MONEY MOVE OF THE WEEK

HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR RETIREMENT GOALS?

Retirement (or work-optional) means having enough money invested (your nest egg) so you can live off the interest (and some of the principal). This means that income from your investments will support your lifestyle. We often think of retirement as an age but it’s actually a number. And it’s when work becomes optional.

There are many variables that are unknown when we’re planning for retirement, so we do our best to estimate. Check in every year or so and see if you’re still on track. Here is a retirement calculator to help you evaluate what you should save now to reach your retirement goals.

It might feel overwhelming, but the earlier you can start saving (no matter the amount) the better off you’ll be (hello compound interest)! If you want some more direction, here’s a retirement guide for the lazy (a.k.a. me 👋).

YOU GOTTA SEE THIS

LGBTQ+ MORTGAGE DISCRIMINATION.

Buying a home can be a challenging and overwhelming experience. It’s no easy feat to save for a down payment, apply for a mortgage, and navigate all of the confusing paperwork. For those in the LGBTQ+ community, the journey to becoming a homeowner is wrought with additional challenges.

Given that buying a home is typically the largest purchase many of us will make in our lifetimes, this discrimination carries far-reaching consequences that have long-lasting impacts.

According to the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report, LGBTQ+ home buyers are more likely than their cisgender, heterosexual peers to be denied a mortgage at least once before they’re approved for a home loan. They’re more likely to make sacrifices to purchase their home and pay more for it. LGBTQ+ buyers and renters of color are most likely to face the most significant hurdles. This is horrific but also not surprising.

Zillow and Motley Fool both go into more detail to share accounts of this discrimination and what can be done to stop it. We need to educate ourselves so that we can call out inequities and advocate for change, as well as do better to support those who are faced with discrimination. I know that the personal finance community has to do better at this, myself included.

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