Money Musings 💭 Weed wackers and 🌧 day funds
When all women are wealthy, we’ll solve most of the problems in the world.
I believe this to my core.
One of the many reasons this is true is that women invest more back into their families and communities. Research supports this and I’ve seen it in our own amazing Fiscal Femme community.
As we build wealth (and believe me, that’s happening), we’ll be able to give more and more. But just like with saving, giving is a habit that can start sooner rather than later. Otherwise, we’ll get raise after raise, waiting to earn "enough" money to give, and it will never happen.
That doesn’t mean we can’t start really small or that we want to jeopardize our own financial well-being in order to give, it just means that we want to start. And giving is a lot broader than we often consider.
We often think of giving as contributing to a charitable organization but we’re also giving every time we spend money. How? We’re giving to a company’s bottom line.
We’re supporting companies and organizations with every spending decision we make. And we make many of them each week, and sometimes even each day.
Here’s an example. J and I would like to purchase a weed wacker for our backyard (I wish this was a joke, but it’s true 😂). What are some common places to get such an item? Maybe Lowe’s or Home Depot?
In the past, we probably would have gone with the best deal but if we commit to making an investment in our values with each purchase (which we are!), it’s time to dig deeper.
Both companies have spoken up for racial justice. Lowe’s has pledged $25 million in grants for minority-owned business reopening during COVID. The Home Depot co-founder donated millions to the Trump campaign.
I bet you can guess where we’re bringing our business. This is just one example of many opportunities to do a bit of research and make each purchase with consumer advocacy in mind.
For those who have the means to give, here are some of the amazing organizations our team is supporting:
If you don’t have means to give, consider each purchase an investment in a company’s values. How will you go about making your purchasing decisions going forward?
MONEY MOVE OF THE WEEK
Revisit your rainy day fund. We often come up with how much we want to have in our rainy day fund when things are going well. We can make some assumptions about how we’ll feel during a recession or when our incomes are in question, but nothing is quite like the real thing. Now is a great time to revisit how much you want to have in your rainy day fund. Start by reassessing (or assessing) how many months you want to have saved up. What does your spending look like each month in the case of an emergency? Then, multiply the two.
If you’re in a situation where you’re using your rainy day fund, that’s okay! The whole point of having one is to use it in the case of income loss or emergency expenses. Once your situation changes, you can work on building it back up.
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
Happy Pride month! Pride month is a time to celebrate the LGBTQ community and takes place in June each year to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan which was a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States.
To add to the celebration, on Monday, there was some much needed good news when the Supreme Court ruled (in a 6-3 ruling) that it is finally against the law to fire someone just for being gay or transgender. This might sound like a no-brainer but before this ruling Monday, it was actually legal in more than half the country to fire someone for being gay, bisexual or transgender. Those who have been discriminated against can now file lawsuits against their employers. This is just one step towards basic fairness in the workplace, and there are many left to go, but it’s a step in the right direction and will hopefully open up more opportunity for progress.
From former president Barack Obama - “Today reminds us that progress might be slow. It might take decades. But no matter what things might look like today, it’s always possible. Happy Pride month, everybody.”