Money Musings 💠Confession… 📣 I’ve become a spender
Confession… I’ve become a spender. And it's okay!
My money journey has ebbed and flowed.
When I first started paying attention to my money, I was definitely spending more than I wanted to.
Then as I learned more, aligned my spending with my values and understood opportunity cost, I became a lot more frugal.
Every dollar I saved brought me closer to my dream of quitting my corporate job and working on the Fiscal Femme full time.
9 years later (where does the time go?!), my priorities and circumstances have shifted. I now focus on the opportunity cost of my time (more so than money). Time with my kids and time for myself.
I now spend more money on support. Support in my business (I’ve built a team) and support in our home (mostly in the form of childcare and babysitting).
Even though things have changed, both mindsets served me where I was in my journey at the time.
Our money journeys are always changing. Our priorities change and our lives change. How we use our money should reflect that.
Now I’m not saying I never get off course. I’m always rebalancing.
Sometimes the spendy side of me gets out of hand, and other times I rebound too strongly to the frugal side of things. But I check in and assess at each of my money parties.
I’d love to hear how you navigate the ebbs and flows of your money journey. Have you noticed your own mindset shifts? Hit reply and let me know.
P.S. We got so many amazing responses to the Anonymous Money Survey. 🥳 Thank you! If you haven't filled it out yet, you can do so here (plus, you get the chance to win amazing prizes!). I can't wait to share the results with you!
MONEY MOVE OF THE WEEK
YOUR CREDIT SCORE FIRST STEP.
We know our credit score is important but where does it come from?
The information in our credit reports is used to determine your credit score.
There are currently 3 credit agencies (or bureaus) - Experian, TransUnion and Equifax - and each has a credit report with information on your debt and payment history, bank accounts and even past address.
You can pull these three reports for free once per year at annualcreditreport.com. Read each of them through and check for errors.
Note: These reports DO NOT include your credit score but the information in them is used to determine your score.
Why check your credit report for errors?
According to the Federal Trade Commission, one in five people have an error on at least one of their credit reports. And sometimes these errors negatively impact your score.
I’ve had clients with loans on their reports that don’t belong to them and sometimes those loans have late payments.
If that’s the case, remedying an error on your report is the quickest way to get your score up!
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
LGBTQ+ PAY AWARENESS DAY.
Today is LGBTQ+ Pay Awareness Day. Why pay awareness vs. an equal pay day? Because we really don’t know - we need more data. 🤯
While we know there are very real and raging wage gaps, there is still a lot of data missing, particularly when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community. Without data, we haven’t quantified the problem. And that keeps us from doing something about it - especially when it comes to policy.
Here are some things we do know:
Transgender women’s earnings fall by nearly one-third after they transition
The pay gap is $0.95 for gay men and $0.77-0.88 for bisexual men (to the white man’s $1)
The pandemic has disproportionately affected people of color in the LGBTQ+ community
58% of transgender people of color had reduced hours during the pandemic (compared with 23% for the general population and 27% for white LGBTQ+ people)
26% of transgender people of color became unemployed due to COVID (compared with 12% of the general population)
What can we do about it?
Get educated about the lack of information about LGBTQ+ pay and other financial inequities. Learn more here about what’s missing and what data exists.
Spread the word. Talk about it with friends and family and/or share about it on social media.
Email your senators to support the Equality Act (you can read about what that would do here)