Money Musings 💭 a life-changing money move 👊
I have some very exciting news to share... We are expecting baby 👶 boy #2 this fall 🎉!
At first, I thought it was pretty ironic that I am having another son given that I’ve dedicated my life’s work to equality for women. Of course that would happen! 😂
But the longer I do this work, the more I see - what the world needs most right now is more feminist men.
My first pregnancy was very low on symptoms but high on stress. We found out at the sixteen-week ultrasound that E was going to be born with a cleft lip and palate. That, of course, would come with its challenges but the hardest part was waiting for test results that would tell us if there were more serious genetic things going on.
We were so lucky that he was a completely healthy lil’ guy but all this to say, we spent a lot of my first pregnancy interviewing surgeons, talking to other cleft parents and preparing for this very special cleft cutie’s arrival.
Once he was born it was a whirlwind of weekly doctor's appointments and surgeries. Even though this had many financial implications, I didn’t talk a lot about the finances of having and raising a kid.
We had a lot going on. Plus, I had a lot to learn myself!
This time around, I am very excited to use this opportunity to talk a lot more about how we (and many of the parents in the Fiscal Femme community) make (or try to make) it all work financially.
And believe me… there’s so much to talk about.
I’d love to start with your biggest questions and interests. Hit reply and let me know what you’d love to learn and hear more about.
We have some great digital events happening over the next few weeks:
Become Your Own Career Coach - featuring Lauren McGoodwin, the founder of Career Contessa on May 28th at 12 pm ET / 9 am PT
Personal Finance Hacks No One Tells Us - with Ladies Get Paid on June 2nd at 6 pm ET / 3 pm PT
NEW AND IMPROVED Money Parties 🎉 (thanks to your amazing feedback! 🙏)
Daytime Money Party on June 4th at 12 pm ET / 9 am PT
Evening Money Party on June 4th at 7 pm ET / 4 pm PT
MONEY MOVE OF THE WEEK
Write a values statement. One of the silver linings of this pandemic has been that my life is a lot more simple. I’m either working or spending time with my family (mostly in real life and sometimes on Zoom). And while I miss my family, friends and pre-COVID life terribly, I want to use this new perspective to reevaluate how I want my life to look as things open up and we slowly transition back to life outside the bubble.
A couple of times per year, I go back to my values statement. It’s one sentence summarizing what’s most important and how I want to live my life (I know… no biggie LOL). This is one of my favorite exercises because it makes it very clear how I want to be spending my time, energy and money.
Go through the steps in this values exercise to create your values statement. It will evolve and change with time so don’t worry too much about making it perfect. Set a timer for a half-hour to get a good first draft.
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
Women at the Top. This year, the number of women CEOs of Fortune 500 companies (the largest 500 companies in the US) hit an all-time record - 37. Up from 33 last year. While progress is good, women still only make up 7.4% of Fortune 500 CEOs and only 3 are women of color (a meager 0.6%).
Why does this matter? Many reasons. Research shows "female CEOs drove more value appreciation and improved stock price momentum for their firms." Also, increased profitability and decreased turnover. The economy does better.
More diversity at the top means more diversity coming up through the ranks. We need more diverse voices at our companies in order to solve the big problems we’re facing. Not to mention what happens when more women are wealthy.
I could go on and on but long story short, when we have more women in leadership, we all win. Let’s hope we continue to shatter these records at a much quicker pace!