Money Musings: this is a little embarrassing

Money Musings 💭 this is a little embarrassing 🙈

Okay, are you ready to laugh? 

In my first job, I had the opportunity to invest in a 401(k). Magic. I’d heard that’s a good thing and it was important to sign up. (Yes, yes! I’m cheering 22-year-old Ashley on!). 👏

Signing up sounded simple enough but when I went to actually do it, it wasn’t quite so straightforward. Did I want to contribute to a Roth or Traditional 401(k)? There were 25 investment options. Which should I choose?

Well, I had heard diversification was a good thing, so I invested half in the Roth and half in the Traditional. Then decided to invest in EVERY investment option (ALL 25) in both accounts.  That means I invested 2% of my portfolio in each of the investment options in both the Roth and Traditional accounts.

Needless to say, there was a lot going on in there! 

The truth is, even though my account was much more complicated than it needed to be, it was MUCH better that I got started. If I waited until I knew more, I would have been waiting a long time. It would have been 3-4 years of missed retirement investing (and matching!) until I started actively pursuing my money journey.  

Also, the wild thing is, this was my experience when I had a company 401(k) plan. There are even more investing options when you open up your own IRA or are a business owner navigating retirement plans. 🤪

So long story short, just get started. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You’ll notice this is a theme of mine across all personal finance topics. 

If you want some more info and support as you do get started, I’m so excited to invite you to a free workshop - IRA - 401(k) - WTF: Understand and Set Up Your Retirement Accounts - with the amazing and hilarious Amanda Holden. If anyone can make retirement accounts entertaining, she can. 

The workshop will be on June 24th at 5 pm EST and if you can’t make it, the recording will be available for a week after the workshop. If you can make it live, definitely join us because there will be some fun raffles 🥳 on the call and you can get specific questions answered in a live Q&A. Hope to see you there!  

MONEY MOVE OF THE WEEK

SUPPORT LGBTQ+-OWNED BUSINESSES. 

Happy Pride Month, all! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ Anytime we purchase something - an item or a service - we have the chance to vote with our values with the businesses that we support. You can switch a recurring expense or take the time to do some research before making a one-off purchase. 

We asked you, our amazing Fiscal Femme community to share your favorite LGBTQ+-owned businesses and here’s what you came up with. I’m always working to be more mindful about where and how I make all of my purchases, but this month, I’m giving extra consideration to finding and supporting businesses owned by the LGBTQ+ community. If you have more you’d like to share, please reach out!

YOU GOTTA SEE THIS

THE TULSA MASSACRE OF 1921. 

In 1921, a very segregated Tulsa had a thriving business district, often called “Black Wall Street.” Kevin Matthews of Building Bread tells the story: “A white mob burned and bombed the nation’s wealthiest Black neighborhood, killing an estimated 300 Black people, leaving 9k people homeless, destroying 1.2k businesses and causing between $50-$100 million in property damage all in 24 hours. The city then passed laws preventing people from building on land that was burned as a result of the massacre. Insurance companies labeled it a “riot” to deny payments to Black people despite the fact that there were at least 6 airplanes used to drop explosives in the attack.” 

For decades there was a public effort to cover up the massacre and as a result, the event didn’t make it into history books and was rarely talked about.

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