Money Musings 💭 Tiffany Haddish Started This 📩
A few months ago I shared the story about Tiffany Haddish and the $4,000 Alexander McQueen dress that she wore on many red carpets.
I asked where you felt pressure to spend money due to societal norms and it was probably the most responded to email in Fiscal Femme history. You are feeling the pressure to spend and I’m so grateful you took the time to tell us about it.
Here are some of the places and categories where you feel pressure to spend money that you otherwise wouldn’t want to spend your money:
Kitchen and home remodeling
Having a certain brand / model of car
Treatments to continue to look “youthful” in appearance like Botox
Baby gifts / wedding gifts
Bachelorette parties (when they include a weekend away) and other expenses associated with being in a wedding
Spending money on your own wedding and wedding-related events (some shared they are eloping)
Gifts for anniversary and Valentine’s Day (many choose experiences)
Prom-posals (these did not exist when I went to prom!)
Fast fashion / staying on trend with new clothes (more pressure from some industries than others)
Occasion dressing (i.e. new outfits for every occasion and party)
Tipping outside of restaurants (many noticed tips are an option or additional charge all over)
Kids expenses like school starting at age 2, expensive clothes, classes and, iPads / tablets
So are you rejecting these norms like Tiffany? How do you deal with the pressure?
PS If you want to get nauseous (but in a "I can’t look away" kind of way), check out @liana_ava’s series called #NeverWorns. She goes into people’s closets and they pull out everything they’ve NEVER worn.
MONEY MOVE OF THE WEEK
PRIORITIZE YOUR DEBT.
Prioritize your debt. Last week we took inventory - now it’s time to decide which debt we want to pay off first. To do this, rank each piece of debt in your inventory tracker. #1 will be the first debt you pay off and you can go down the list from there. How to choose what comes first? I recommend using one or a combination of the following methods. Whatever you choose, make sure to keep your motivation in mind. Which method(s) will keep you motivated 😄 and feeling good 👍 along your debt pay down journey?
The interest rate method - pay off the debt with the highest interest rate first because technically it’s costing you the most money .
The snowball method - pay off the debt with the lowest balances first. Getting to cross an entire piece of debt off of your list can be so motivating that it propels your progress.
The emotional method - pay off the debt that causes you the most emotional stress first. This might be a loan from a family member or a bank that you’ve had a horrible experience with.
To get your full debt pay down plan, join the 8-week Tackle Your Debt Course! I’ll take you through everything you need to know to create a manageable and sustainable plan to pay down your debt, for good. 🙌
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
RECORD 41 WOMEN CEOS IN FORTUNE 500.
Breaking news… there are now more women CEOs than CEOs named John on the Fortune 500 list. As recently as last year, this wasn’t the case. [Cue the celebrations and some tears that this was ever true].
The annual Fortune 500 CEO list came out and this time there are 41 women-led companies on the list. This is up from [37] in the last year.
There are now 2 Black women CEOs: Walgreens CEO Roz Brewer and TIAA CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett (up from 0 after Ursula Burns, the CEO of Xerox stepped down in 2017). Woof.
Another milestone? Karen Lynch, the CEO of CVS, is now the highest-ranking woman business with a woman CEO at #4.
We also see the first woman CEO of a major Wall Street bank, Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup.
While it’s great to see forward progress, women represent over 50% of the population AND workforce and still only 8% of the companies on the list are run by women. 0.4% are led by Black women and a total of four other women of color (a total of 1.2%). We still have so far to go.
Check out the list here.