Money Musings 💠the team that makes it possible ❤️
"Justice is George Floyd still being alive today. Justice is Black people not being hunted by the police. But this verdict is important." - Frederick Joseph
With the guilty x3 verdict of the Chauvin trial yesterday, we saw accountability. The same day we heard the verdict, Ma'Khia, a 15 year old Black girl, was shot and killed by police. We have a long way to go before we see justice.
MY REFLECTION
As someone who has looked up to and followed the journeys of many successful women for a while now, I used to wonder how they pulled it all off. How was it even possible? 🤔
While many women I know and admire are pulling off wonder-women-level feats, they also often have incredible teams and networks supporting them.
At the Fiscal Femme, I’m the face of the business but I in NO way do this alone. And there is no way I could have accomplished what I have today without my dream team.
I have a content manager who edits most and drafts some of my work and brainstorms ideas with me. She also creates and runs my social media. I write some of the captions, it’s all me when I’m on stories, and you’re talking to me in my DM’s but she’s setting up everything else.
I work with an agent who negotiates partnerships on my behalf with brands.
I work with a graphic designer who designs our amazing guides and workshop workbooks.
I have a literary agent who walked me through the entire The 30-Day Money Cleanse book process from start to finish. I also worked on the book with a publisher who had editors, designers, proof-readers, a PR team - and the list goes on and on.
I have a group of friends who brainstorm with me, help edit challenging email responses, and generally call me out on my shit.
At home, I have childcare, which is sadly a privilege in the United States. Without it, I would have infinitely less time to work. E goes to school full time and J is currently home on paternity leave taking care of M. When he goes back to work, M will start daycare or we’ll do a nanny share.
All this to say, you might see me on Instagram or read my newsletters and wonder, how is she pulling all this off?
I’m not.
It takes a lot of important people to make the Fiscal Femme work and grow and I’m so grateful to our team who makes it all possible.
P.S. My negotiation workshop is tonight (April 21st) at 5 pm EST. Get your ticket here.
MONEY MOVE OF THE WEEK
KEEP A RUNNING LIST OF YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS AT WORK. It’s easy to think of salary negotiation and performance-review conversations as one-time meetings. But, they really should be a year-round conversation and process. Don’t wait until the end of the year to share your accomplishments with your manager and team. Pop into their office (or hop on a Zoom early) to let them know how much you are enjoying a project and what’s going really well.
Keep a running list throughout the year of your accomplishments. It can feel like you’ll never forget a big win at work but I do every time. Reference this when you’re writing your annual performance review or as part of a promotion conversation. I like to keep a list of personal accomplishments, too (because why not?!).
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
DEFINE: SHORT VS. LONG-TERM CAPITAL GAINS. Let’s start with capital gains. This is your profit (or how much you made) on an investment. For example, if you purchased a share of the S&P 500 for $200 and sold it for $300, you earned $100 ($300-200) in capital gains.
If you buy and sell in less than a year, it’s a short-term capital gain. If you buy and wait at least a year to sell, that’s a long-term capital gain. Why does it matter? Taxes.
Short-term capital gains are taxed at a higher rate - at the same rate as your income. Long-term capital gains are taxed at 0% if you earn under $40K, at 15% if you earn $40-441K, and at 20% if you earn over $441K.
“Fun” 🤪 fact: An unrealized gain is the growth in an investment BEFORE you sell. It’s not a realized gain (or truly your money) until you sell.
Use it in a sentence: “One of the benefits of my long-term investing strategy is that I pay less taxes on those long-term capital gains.” 💰
ICYMI, last week, I talked about a social investing network that I’m a big fan of called Public.com. It has a really cool feature that allows you to “lock” in investments (whichever you choose) so you know you won’t be buying and selling within a year.
This ensures you don't pay short-term capital gains taxes. 👏 Anything that makes investing easier AND saves you money, gives me all the 🤗.
Some other things I love about Public:
You can align your investments with your values. Public offers “themes” of stocks like Women in Charge, Combat Carbon, Reduce and Reuse, and Green Energy.
They are all about education. There are in-app explanations when you tap on key words and definitions so you can learn by doing.
There are no fees and you can get started with as little as $1.
It’s social. You know I want us to all be talking about money. You can share ideas (and learn from) other investors on the platform. You can also start or join group chats.
Public is giving me $10 to share with any member of the Fiscal Femme community to get started! Join me here.
*This is not investment advice. Valid for U.S. residents 18+ and subject to account approval. See Public.com/disclosures/.