Posts filed under 'Money honey'
My article on figuring out how soon you can ditch your day job is live on WORKS. Here’s how it starts:
Admit it. You’ve fantasized about turning in your letter of resignation no less than 100 times — and that’s just this month. You spend each lunch hour staring longingly out the window of your mind-numbingly sterile office at whatever footloose and fancy-free dog walker, landscape designer, or espresso-cart owner happens to be within view. And you often wonder if you’ll ever love your job as much as they seem to.
The good news is that a career you’re passionate about is always within reach. You just have to iron out a few of the logistics first, and one of the biggest is figuring out how you will afford to live while you pursue your dream. Here are a few tips to get you started.
Gather research. First, you need to determine how much you realistically stand to make in the first few years of your fantasy career. The Web is teeming with sites that can help — Salary.com, PayScale.com, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, to name a few. But don’t stop there. Talk to honest-to-goodness people who already have your dream job. Ply them with lattes and ask what salary range a newbie like you can expect. Also contact the industry associations in your neck of the woods. Many of them regularly conduct salary surveys of their members.
Do the math. Your next step is to take a long, hard look at your monthly spending. If you don’t know how much you’re shelling out for groceries, pedicures, and Mai Tais, it’s high time you learned. Save four weeks of receipts or track every cent you spend in a notebook stashed in your purse. Then use a program like Quicken to record the damage…
To read the rest of the article, visit WORKS.
August 3rd, 2007
A woman I’ve known for a long while recently gave me grief because (a) I bought a matchbook-sized cosmetic fixer of a house, (b) I’ve lived here two years and have yet to finish unpacking, paint the walls, and make the place sparkle like a newborn’s freshly wiped ass, and (c) my work is varied (though I believe “chaotic” was the word my acquaintance used), fluctuating from article assignments to book deadlines to one-week editing projects to four-month onsite temp gigs.
I know this woman means well and just has a hard time relating to my way of working/living and my (quasi-obsessive) creative drive, and I know I’m being overly sensitive here, but still. I went back and forth about whether to add this detail, but I think it bears mentioning: The woman in question — who, by the way, is childfree — wouldn’t have a home of her own, a housekeeper, the ability to not work for long stretches of time, and half the amenities in her life if she was not married. (I say this knowing her financial history, not as a judgment of married life.)
Not that there’s anything wrong with any of that. I’m not looking to start another careerwoman/stay-at-home-wife-slash-mom smackdown. In fact, if I ever merge households with my sweet beau, I could mayyyyyyyyybe see us trading off supporting each other so we could spend significant chunks of time focusing on our writing or whatever the heck floats out boats. (Maybe. After all these years standing on my own, it’s hard to wrap my brain around being kept or being someone’s sugar mama. But ask me if/when I get there…)
I’m saying this: Sometimes the digs against hard-working single women get really fucking old, know what I mean? And this is hardly the first time my freelance friends and I have been judged for our lack of housekeeper, breadwinning hetero bedwarmer, and predictable 9-to-5 lives. (Want proof? Read this book.)
I’m saying this, too: I’m so freaking proud to be a highly employable — and for the most part, decently paid — bootstrapping babe with multiple job skills/talents that put food on the table and insulate me with four mint-green-aluminum-sided walls. As in, you will neh-ver hear the words, “I just want to marry a rich doctor so I never have to lift a finger again,” seep from my lips. (Sorry, Grandma Etta.) So today I plan to celebrate all the self-made freelance and small-business-owning babes out there. Tonight, ladies, I raise my Roman candles, bottle rockets, and all other figurative TNT implements to you. Rock on, DIY women, rock the fuck on!
And if you need some financial inspiration, here are a couple of nifty resources I found this week:
- Fab new book! Whether you’re flying solo or shacked up, see On My Own Two Feet: A Modern Girl’s Guide to Personal Finance. Because, ladies, let’s be real: Financial life does not begin when you start sharing a bed with someone; it begins the second your parents cut you off. If you don’t have a financial clue, there’s no time like the present to get one.
- Fab web calculators! While researching an article on financing a career change (which I’ll link to once it’s live), I discovered that Kiplinger.com has a bunch of cool tools that can help you figure out such essentials as how long it will take to pay off your credit card debt, how much (if any) mortgage you can afford, how much raising a bundle of joy will run you, if you’re saving enough for retirement, and whether you and your sweetie can afford to jettison one of your jobs so the other can go back to school, write a screenplay, or stay home with that wee bundle of joy.
July 4th, 2007
I had a blast yesterday doing an interview on Felicia Sullivan’s web radio show, Writers Revealed. (Podcast here.) I loved that I was on the “cubicle edition” of the show, right after novelist Joshua Ferris, whose book on office life — with a sticky-note-riddled cover! — is now at the top of my reading list.
Felicia asked me something no one’s asked me about the book so far, to list some of my top tips for negotiating a raise or rate. Studies show that women have a harder time than men asking for what we’re worth. We don’t want to brag, and we certainly don’t want to talk cash — we’re taught that both are pushy, crass. To that I say, get over it! Do you want to make friends with the hiring manager or do you want to make rent? Besides, career coaches and HR experts say that managers respect you more when you don’t undersell yourself.
Here are the negotiation suggestions I made on Writers Revealed (some live on the show, some on the show’s blog):
- Don’t beg, whine, or whimper. Just put on your poker face and cough up that dollar amount. Then, as painful as it might be, wait for the response. The idea is to sound confident, not desperate or unsure of yourself.
- Do the market research. And don’t just use sites like Salary and PayScale. Talk to people doing what you do or aspire to do, and check with industry associations, which often do salary surveys. Ask people on listservs to email you off list to talk cash. (Many lists have rules against talking turkey online because it could be construed as price fixing, which is illegal.)
- Don’t flat out ask someone’s salary. Most people find this rude. Instead, ask what salary range or fee they think someone with your level of experience in the field can command. Or ask what their company might pay someone with your background. Or call your competitors and pose as a potentially interested customer. Or check your competitors’ sites; some pros will post their rates online (though if you work as a service provider in something like writing, editing, or web design, I wouldn’t advise this — rates vary from project to project).
- Cozy up to your calculator. Before you negotiate, figure out what amount of dinero you need to be paid for the gig to be worth your while, of course factoring in what the going rate is for someone with your experience level in that industry and geographic region. If that amount is $50K a year (or $50/hr), tell the hiring manager you want 10% more. That way if they haggle with you, you’re not starting at your “no way i am doing it for less” bare bones amount.
- Remember, it’s not personal. This is a great tip I got from Michelann Valterra, one of the fab speakers at BizJam, a rocking indie business conference I spoke at this weekend. Your self-worth is not determined by your hourly rate, or whether you get the gig. Try to remember that. In other words, compartmentalize and grow a thicker skin.
June 11th, 2007
Have you seen the interesting coverage Equal Pay Day (April 24) is getting this week? Basically all those wackjobs who say discrimination in the workplace is a figment of the collective feminist imagination can eat their boxers (or in some cases, thongs). A new study by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation has found that women working full time one year out of college earn 80 percent of what their male counterparts earn. And ten years out of school, we’re earning 69 percent of what our male counterparts earn.
Meaning all those “that’s because some mommy-minded women choose the slow track at work” arguments don’t hold water. Ditto for the “that’s because some women choose lower-paying careers and/or industries” argument. Check out these stats about women and men one year after college graduation:
In education, women earn 95 percent as much as their male colleagues earn, while in math, women earn 76 percent as much as men earn, the study showed.
If you want to read the entire study, you can indulge in all the wonky stats your vindicated little heart desires here. Also, here’s a kickass writeup of these new findings on Broadsheet (if you’re not a Salon subscriber, you may have to watch an ad first).
Oh, and as a consolation prize, the London’s Evening Standard reported that between household duties and office life, women only work ten minutes more a day than men.
April 24th, 2007
“If you work for yourself, aren’t you throwing away your retirement?”
A producer from Seattle’s KING5 TV news asked me this when we were prepping for my February 16 morning spot.* My answer: Hardly. Workers under 40 are lucky if they get a 401k at all — especially one with employer matching. And pensions? They’re pretty much extinct, unless you work for the government.
If you’re not getting a 401k with employer matching, you’re basically in the same boat as a self-employed person: You still have to siphon money from each paycheck for your retirement fund, even if it’s one you get through an investment firm like Fidelity or Vanguard. (I use the latter.)
Why the hell am I thinking about this on a Sunday, when instead I could be scrambling to rent the last few Oscar-nominated flicks I haven’t seen? Because I contributed to Your Money 2007, a Seattle Times special section that came out today. Basically we hooked up a handful of readers with certified financial planners, gave them the money makeover of their lives, and then wrote about it for all the world to see.
Working on this project made me realize that I’m a bit behind where I need to be with my retirement savings, especially since I’ve been self-employed forever and am single. If you’re self-employed, too, or thinking about joining the ranks of solo workers, here are some resources that can help you get a better handle on your long-term savings:
*Sorry, no video from le TV spot. But my mom and friend Diane swear I did great.
February 25th, 2007
The World Economic Forum’s annual Global Gender Gap report came out this week. Since I’m in lazy Saturday morning mode, I will quote the Seattle Stranger on how my fair country fared:
The good news: Women in the U.S. live longer, are more likely to be literate, and go to school longer, on average, than women in any other nation.
The bad news: The US ranks 37th in wage equality, 20th in labor force participation, and 66th in political empowerment, determined by combining the number of women in ministerial positions (14 percent), the number of women in Congress (15 percent) and the number of years the nation has had a female head of state (none).
Speaking of women holding roughly 2 percent of all top CEO positions in the US, here’s an interesting report from the Harvard Business Review on how “attitudes about women in executive roles have improved over the past 40 years, but not as much as many men seem to think.” Some snippets from the press release follow, quotes courtesy of Dr. K. Michele Kacmar, one of the authors of the study and a professor of management and the Durr-Fillauer Chair of Business Ethics at the Culverhouse College of Commerce at The University of Alabama:
“For the most part, men don’t see their attitudes toward female executives as being a big problem,” Dr. Kacmar said, “and that in itself may be a problem. When men see the business world as being more rosy for women than women do, that perception may not be accurate.”
Also:
“When every single board member has a daughter or a wife or a sister who can educate them on what it is like to be a female executive, then we will see real change in this area,” she said.
I’m just saying…
December 2nd, 2006
To milk last week’s holiday with ignoble origins a tad longer, following are a few recent news items that made me stand on my desk and cheer (that is, on top of the cancellation of the O.J. media blitz):
The Wall Street Journal released its “50 Women to Watch” list for 2006. Interesting Broadsheet notes here on philanthropist extraordinaire Melinda Gates making the top slot.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran a kickass series this month called “The Glass Ceiling: Where a Rise to the Top Stops.” I especially liked the piece on the “Women at the Top” class offered in the University of Washington’s MBA program, which tackles such corporate-ladder issues as dealing with authority (is that a newspaper euphemism for dealing with harassment in the workplace?), balancing family with career, and facing the consequences of leaving the workforce temporarily to raise kids. (Why do we need yet another newspaper series like this? Because as Elana Centor points out on Blogher, the recent appointment of Kerrii Anderson to permanent CEO of Wendy’s brings the total number of women running Fortune 1000 companies to a whopping 2.1 percent. Uh, yay?)
And finally, USA Today has been running a six-week “Young and in Debt” series, which I’m sure most of us can relate to. Check out the live chat today — Monday, November 27 — at noon EST. (Thanks to Boston Gal’s Open Wallet for alerting me to this series.)
November 27th, 2006
The UK Sunday Times ran an endlessly amusing article yesterday, “Trophy Husbands,” about women breadwinners and their underemployed and/or “house manager” husbands. According to one UK survey, 39 percent of women in that country who work full time believe that they earn more than their partners — “believe” being the operative word here, because as one headhunter quoted in the article says, “You could probably get more people to talk to you on the record about how often they have sex.”
The article goes on to say that 1.8 million women who work full time in the UK earn more than their male partners. What’s more, the Office for National Statistics reports that 14 percent of UK men now work at home (i.e., change diapers all day), compared with just 8 percent of women. And evidently the times, they are a-changin’ so much that we now get to witness a surge in male gold diggers, underappreciated househusbands, and women leaving their husbands for their male nannies.
Of course, the crux of the article lies with this statement:
It’s clear that both men and women are struggling to deal with these altered dynamics.
Meaning, men are the new women. Or maybe women are the new men. Or now anyone can be overworked and underappreciated. Or act like a total sexist ass.
Growing pains aside, cultural shifts like this thrill me to no end, especially when they bring women closer to wielding the same power in the business world as their male counterparts and earning the same salaries, if not more. And especially when they help some underappreciative men see what goes into running a household and an army of rugrats from dawn till dusk.
And I’m sorry, guys, I don’t mean to smirk a little at some of the “My! How the tables have turned!” tales in the article, but I can’t help it. It’s kind of like the first time a boyfriend who was more domestic than me whined, “I cook for you, I clean for you, and what do I get in return? Zero appreciation!” I have to confess, I was so giddy over this role reversal (probably because I watched my dad come home from the office and ask my working mom “What’s for dinner?” all those years) that I threw a dishrag at my poor underappreciated hausfrau boyfriend, asked him to drape it from his waist like an apron, and begged him to repeat the statement.
Needless to say, I didn’t get any nookie that night.
November 20th, 2006
Here’s some news you can use: MSNBC contributing writer Vanessa Richardson published a helpful article last week on how women need to do a better job of planning for their retirement, starting in their twenties and thirties. Considering the high divorce rate, our longer life expectancy, and the fact that many of us don’t marry at all, sometimes even — gasp! – by choice, stories like this are much needed.
Some statistics from the article:
According to Allstate’s sixth annual “Retirement Reality Check” survey, which measures Americans’ attitudes toward and savings for retirement, almost half of women — 48 percent — have considered the financial implications of retiring alone, compared with 36 percent of men. Yet when asked who takes the lead in planning for retirement, 45 percent of women and 65 percent of men said the husband or male partner.
The majority of respondents said they are not set for retirement, although men feel a little more optimistic than women. Only 19 percent of women, compared to 23 percent of men, said they felt “very prepared.”
Blech. But not surprising.
On a positive note, the article quotes money maven Barbara Stanny up and down, who always has encouraging advice for women on managing their finances. I was happy to see the article also addressed whether to keep your own kitty on the side, even if you’ve shacked up, and how to present that bit of information to your significant other. Too bad it didn’t go into the ramifications of saving for retirement as a self-employed person, which can be even more daunting.
November 17th, 2006
While we’re on the subject of career change and the possible financial or lifestyle trade-offs that can come with it, I thought I’d share this recent article from CareerJournal.com on when relocating for a new gig is and isn’t worth it.
I relocated when I was 30, but it wasn’t such a radical move — San Francisco to Seattle. I knew Seattle well, having a sister, a college buddy, and an ex-beau up here. So I had plenty of time (years, in fact) to check out le new surroundings before packing everything I couldn’t bear to sell into my Civic and making the 850-mile drive north for good.
I must confess, my move wasn’t solely for the job; it was for the simpler, more affordable lifestyle I’d surmised Seattle would allow me. So when the job ended after a year (it was an indefinite contract job, only somewhere along the way, the company instituted a three-month “break in service” policy that meant I had to leave the gig after twelve months), I wasn’t left thinking, Damn! I moved here just for the job and now I’m hosed. Also, I had my former freelance clients to fall back on for work when I was, for all intents and purposes, laid off. So getting the axe was hardly devastating.
What do you think? Have you ever jumped ship and started anew elsewhere for a job you couldn’t refuse at the time? How did it turn out? What would you do differently if you could hit rewind?
November 10th, 2006
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