The Next Rich Girl

Rise of the Sugar Mama?

Up until 1964, a woman could actually be fired from her job when she got married (and it would be totally legal).

My, how times have changed. (And thank god!)

According to a study from the Pew Research Center, things are changing dramatically:

We found that increasingly, women are more likely to marry husbands who have lower education levels than they do, and lower income levels than they do," says D'Vera Cohn of the Pew Research Center. From 1970 to 2007, husbands whose wives earned more than they did jumped from 4 percent to 22 percent.

And, to top this all off, for the first time in history, a higher percentage of women under age 44 have college degrees than men in the same age group.

Will the 2000s be the century of the sugar mama?

Resolved: Financial and Personal Resolutions for 2010

I know, I know.  It's January 5th.  I'm way behind on posting my resolutions.  But, on the bright side (for me, not you), since most people have already abandoned their resolutions by now, I look like a more inspired, enlightened individual... one who can stick to her resolutions and who will prosper in the year ahead.  

Or maybe I'm just fooling myself.

Anyway, since one of my tips in my New Year's Eve post was to tell the world about your resolutions, it seems like I should do the same.

Here's what I'm trying to accomplish in the year ahead, both personally and financially.  

1. Buy my first home - This has been a dream of mine for a long time.  Seriously, when I was a little girl, instead of dreaming about a fairy tale wedding or having a pony or whatever, I used to imagine the house I'd have.  I think this is partially because my parents are both into real estate, so they would take me with them to open houses "just to look" when I was a kid.  So, it was like I inherited one of their dreams (and they have a beautiful house now, so they're the right ones to look up to!)  Anyway, I've been saving for a down payment for a long time (and somehow most of that down payment savings survived the epic financial crisis of the past year or so).  With the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit (thanks taxpayers!) and the fact that my 30th birthday is just around the corner, everything seems to be lining up for this to happen in the next few months.

2. Earn $5,000 outside of my "day job" - I've been lucky enough to fall into a few random freelance writing projects over the past year or two... enough to show me that I could probably be doing a lot more freelance work if I start to seek it out more actively.  I don't know if I'll ever be able to fulfill my dream of working for myself, but it seems silly to not try to point myself in that direction.  After all, you don't know if you don't try.  And, this will go a long way toward helping me achieve goal #1.

3. Run at least 350 miles this year - I never thought I'd be a runner, but after completing a "couch-to-5K" program back in 2007, I got hooked.  Not only do I feel healthier, I think it actually helps me deal with stress better, keeps me from getting sick as often and helps improve my overall outlook (which can be gloomy - especially when it's so bitterly cold outside).  I ran just over 300 miles in 2009, sort of in fits and starts (one week I'd run 10 miles, then I wouldn't run at all for two weeks).  In 2010, I'd like to be more consistent with my runs.

4. Finish my novel - That's right, I'm more than just a blogger musing about personal finance.  I'm also among the legions of writers working on what they hope will be the "Next Great American Novel."  Of course, in reality, I'd be happy with "A Novel That Is Published."  Either way, I have to finish it first.

So, there you have it.  Four big goals.  What are your resolutions?

Will the Recession Make Men Step Up Around the House?

I've been thinking about this article in Newsweek this week that talks about how the recession may be helping families rebalance.  It argues that now that women account for 40% of the average household's income, men have to take up more of the slack around the house.  They need to do more cleaning, cook more meals, carry more of the parenting weight.  

And this is not just because women now spend more time outside the home, now women have to worry that any time taken off is a mark against her in the workplace.

Because women typically shoulder more of the weight of household management, they are perceived as more likely to allow their home life to interfere with work:

Maternal profiling is real. When a working father takes time off to watch a ballet recital, he's seen as noble. When a working mother rushes out of the office to care for a case of head lice, she's more likely to be labeled undependable. Mothers looking for work are less likely to be hired, are offered lower salaries, and are perceived to be less committed than fathers or women without children, according to a 2005 report by Shelley Correll, now an associate professor of sociology at Stanford University. And according to a 2007 survey by Elle/MSNBC.com, female bosses are twice as likely than their male counterparts to be seen as having family obligations interfere with work.

Step Away From Your Email!

Perhaps it’s because of women’s hard won reputation as excellent multitaskers.  Or perhaps its because we all panic that if we don’t put in our two cents instantly, we’ll be ignored.  But whatever the reason, too many of us have gotten into the nasty habit of being “overly responsive.”

As soon as our Blackberrys buzz or we hear the ping of a new email arriving (the tiny envelope icon lingering in the bottom right corner of the computer monitor, taunting us), most of us drop whatever we’re doing and check it out – eager to respond first... or to at least have the option to be the first to weigh in.

But, I’m here to tell you that it’s time to stop.  Sure, there are times when major projects are reaching completion or you’re waiting to hear back about an important issue with one of your clients, so you need to be instantly accessible.  But, most of the time, you don’t need to drop everything at the first sign of an email communication.  In fact, waiting might actually help you.

Here are five reasons to wait before checking your email for the twentieth time this hour:

Productivity and Unemployment: Is it Time to Stop Working So Hard?

Unemployment has crashed through the psychologically frightening 10% barrier.

In fact, that number is actually just the tip of the iceberg.  When you factor in people who are working part time who would prefer to work full time and the people who've just given up looking for a job altogether, unemployment is actually a staggering 17.5%.

Crazy.  That means that almost one in five people in the U.S. workforce are unemployed.

But, this number is unlikely to change anytime soon as businesses get better and better at squeezing more and more work out of their workers.  

That's right, even though the workforce has been slashed to the bone, productivity is actually up!  It rose at the fastest pace in six years in the third quarter of this year to a 9.5% jump in the annual rate.

Women At the Top Earn Less

If you want to really blow your mind, check out this in-depth look at the male-female age gap.

The people at PayScale.com did a great job of trying to correct the data for outside factors (special skills and certifications, length of experience, company size, etc.) to see how much of a factor gender actually is in determining pay discrepencies:

PayScale found that the pay gap is largely the result of outside factors. Within a specific job, before controlling for outside factors the typical female worker earns pay that is only 90 percent of the typical male worker’s pay; after controlling for these variables, she earns 94 percent of the typical male worker’s pay. For jobs paying below $100,000, the gap narrows further.

This has some huge implications.  Mainly, that wage discrimination is likely the result of the individual choices made by male and female workers (how long to work, where to work, etc.) than on blatant discrimination by hiring managers.

However, there is one subset where gender plays the largest role in determining pay: Among workers earning more than $100,000.

The Recession Sends Women Back to Work

"The recession and real-estate collapse have taken [the option to work away from home] away from women such as Ms. Grenz who could afford not to work during the boom. Thanks to steep layoffs and soaring unemployment among men, more women are returning to the work force."

Thanks to sharp layoffs in male dominated industries, women are poised to become the majority of workers for the first time. "As of September, women held 49.9% of the nation's jobs, excluding farm workers and the self-employed, a rise of 1.2 percentage points from their 48.7% share when the recession began in December 2007. In 1970, women held 35% of jobs."

I've talked about this impending phenomenon before.  I can't help but think that there are two forces at work here.  The first is that male dominated fields like construction where certainly hard hit by the bursting of the housing bubble, which isn't surprising.  The second is that employers have been able to get away with paying women less than men for so long that, in a bizarre way, it's actually begun to almost work in women's favor.  Almost.

When faced with the need to eliminate a salary from the payrolls, why wouldn't a boss keep a women who does the same job as her male counterpart for 20% less? It's almost a no-brainer.  

The real question will be what happens when companies start to hire again.  Will they pay new hires (male or female) the same that they are paying the women already on the payroll?  Or, will men be able to negotiate higher wages?  

Will women finally achieve pay parity only because everyone will start to earn $.72 on the dollar?  I'm not sure if this is what women were fighting for exactly...

Looking for the Silver Lining... Dow Hits New High, But What About the Jobs?

The new high in the Dow Jones Industrial Average has me wondering... "How do you get a job working for the Dow?"  After all, the stock market seems to be the only thing actually "recovering."  

Those of us who aren't day traders (do they even exist anymore? I imagine most day traders - at least those who day traded at home for survival - were destroyed in the financial crisis... but who knows?), aren't exactly feeling buoyed by the rising stock market.  Sure, it's nice to see our tiny little 401Ks rising again, but it doesn't exactly affect our day-to-day earnings in the way a paycheck does.

But, I refuse to be bummed out by the parts of the economy I can't control (namely the jobless situation and the dire state of consumer confidence).  Instead, let's look for that silver lining that must be around here somewhere...

1. The stock market is a leading indicator.

You may have heard this before, but it bears repeating (and explaining).  A leading indicator is an indicator that changes before the rest of the economy changes.  Think of it as a harbinger of things to come.  

The stock market is the most famous of leading indicators - it tends to decline before the rest of the economy declines and rise before the rest of the economy rises.  This is most likely because the stock market itself is forward looking.  People buy stocks because they think that the particular company they're investing in is about to increase in profitability.  If people don't think many companies will profit in the future, the overall stock market will go down.  In that sense, the stock market is really a way to look at the way investors feel about the overall economy.  

So, if the stock market is really a leading indicator, things are looking like they're about to get better soon!

2. Correlations between stock market bottoms and unemployment

But, if you want to really blow your mind (and impress your friends at your next cocktail party), look at this chart.

In short, this chart shows that stock prices tend to bottom out about a year before the stock market bottoms.  If this bears out, the employment market will start to look better around March of next year.  Sure, it's not exactly tomorrow, but at least it means the end is in sight.  We'll see if this bears out again, but, if it does, we can expect the economy to really start improving in just a few months. 

I think, if we've made it this far, we can make it a few months more.  How about you?

Rise of the Female Breadwinners

We all knew this days was coming... nowadays (especially in the aftermath of the great recession) there are more an more women acting as breadwinners of their families - even if the husbands work.

That's right.  The stereotype of man as breadwinner is becoming less and less of the norm as women have started to earn more (or, in my opinion, earn what they should have been earning all along).

In 2007, 25.9 percent of wives were earning more than their husbands in households where both spouses work, according to the most recent data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, reported MSNBC.

I predict that one day soon stories like this will be pretty run of the mill as more and more families realize that typical gender roles don't always apply.  

When Should You Call In Sick?

I'm sitting here at home with a blanket over my lap and a cup of hot lemon tea next to me.  I've been sick for a day or two.  Nothing major... no fever, no swine flu, no flu of any sort.  Just a little tickle at the back of the throat, a few extra sneezes throughout the day, a lingering tiredness.

At my last job, I got 12 sick days a year (seriously, it was awesome - too bad that job didn't pay better!) so I never really thought twice about calling in sick. 

But, I've only been at my new job for three months... it seems too early to be sick.  Especially with so many people out of work - calling in sick seems like a luxury now more than ever.

How to Survive an Epic Commute

With the latest news that the recession has caused the average American's commute to get longer and that more and more people are taking public transportation, I thought it was time to share some tips for surviving an epic commute.

You see, I used to have the commute to end all commutes.  I traveled from downtown Baltimore to Dupont Circle in Washington DC, entirely via public transportation for a total of three years at my last job.  It involved hopping on a bus to the train station, taking the MARC commuter train to DC, then taking the DC Metro five stops to Dupont Circle.  Door to door, the journey took about an hour and a half... each way.  And that's only if everything was running according to schedule.  You can imagine how often a commute like that went like clockwork... not very.

But I survived.  Actually, I didn't always mind terribly.  It was nice to be able to duck out of a meeting a few minutes early with my "train" excuse (mind you, I worked at a very laid back office with very flexible hours - not everyone has that luxury).  And, it was nice to have a little time to myself - to decompress before getting home.  Plus, there's something to be said about physically moving so far away from work at the end of the day.. it's easier to let work problems drift away from your head when there's that physical element involved.

That said, there were plenty of times I'd be walking out of the office at 5 and be depressed by the notion that I wouldn't be home until 6:30 at the earliest.

Here are a few tips for surviving an epic commute:

Recession Hurting Commutes, Marriages

More casualties of the recession are piling up.  Most notably, our commutes are longer and our marriages are suffering. 

Pretty depressing.

Let's tackle the commute thing first.  According to census data, Americans now face an average commute of about 25.5 minutes, the first time it's increased since 2000.  It's no surprise really, with jobs scarce, we're all willing to drive a little farther for a paycheck.  Not only that, with high gas prices and dwindling incomes, more people are willing to carpool or take public transportation, even if it adds considerably to their commute times.

The percentage of people who drove alone to work dropped last year to 75.5 percent, the lowest in a decade, as commuters grew weary of paying close to $4 a gallon for gasoline and opted to carpool or take public transportation.

Even less surprising is the affect the recession is having on marriages, well, on the number of weddings happening anyway.  According to this article:

Nearly 1 in 3 Americans 15 and over, or 31.2 percent, reported they had never been married, the highest level in a decade. The share had previously hovered for years around 27 percent, before beginning to climb during the housing downturn in 2006.

The never-married included three-quarters of men in their 20s and two-thirds of women in that age range. Sociologists say younger people are taking longer to reach economic independence and consider marriage because they are struggling to find work or focusing on an advanced education.

It's funny when you compare these stats to the wedding fever that was taking the economy by storm at the height of the bubble economy.... you remember, the $100K receptions with 300 guests, gourmet meal, martini bar and a full orchestra?  You know, when America's brides were convinced that their entire marriage would be ruined if a dozen white doves weren't released at the end of the ceremony?  I got married during that time, believe me, I remember! 

My, how times change. 

How has your life changed since the recession started?

Recession Lessons: Polishing That Resume

This has been an important lesson for me: Always keep your resume polished and ready to send out.  Even if you think you have your dream job.  Even if you don't think you're in any danger of being laid off.  It's worth it to have your resume in pristine condition at all times... good or bad. 

Partially this is because you should always be looking.  Long gone are the days when people got hired right out of college and stayed with that company until they retired.  Nowadays, it's amazing when someone stays at the same place for five years!  And companies know this and practically expect their employees to jump ship every few years (although there are a few places that have realized that retaining employees pays off in the long run).  Even if you love your job, keeping an eye on the job market lets you know what's out there, helps you figure out what you're worth and keeps you abreast of new opportunities that you might not have even realized are out there!

The other half of the equation is that when the market takes a nosedive (or even if it's just your company that faces tough times) you need to be in the best position possible to find new work.  Trust me, if you get laid off you'll feel an incredible sense of relief that you don't have to start at zero with your resume.  And it's even better if you've already been looking and applying for jobs before you get the axe.  Times are tough right now and it's taking people a long time to find new work... the earlier you start, the better off you'll be.

I experienced this all first hand this past year.  The organization I've worked for for the past three years seemed like it was going to not only weather the economic storm, but it would come out on top.  The word "recession" was foreign to all of us, in fact, our president was actually expanding the organization... hiring new people and taking on new projects.  I felt so lucky to be part of an organization that wasn't facing the same woes that the rest of the world seemed to be... especially since my husband's company wasn't so lucky. 

Job Satisfaction in a Recession

In a recession, it's easy to stop thinking about yourself and instead start panicking about where your next paycheck is coming from (or if it will come at all).  Some of my recent posts over at Women on Business talk about this phenomenon...

First, is loyalty overrated?  Sometimes people, especially women, tend to feel overly loyal to the places we work... even if we haven't been treated right.  It is how we're treated in the tough times that really show how your company values you.

Second, sure, you might not love your job, but you probably can't afford to be laid off right now.  Here are a few tips for making sure you aren't the one who gets that pinkslip.

And, third, a few things to think about as you formulate your next move.  How can you be sure that your next career move is a happy one?  By thinking about what you really want from your career.  Not all of us want the corner office, make sure you think about what will be the best for you.

What Should You Expect from Your Employer?

What with all the ominous meetings, looming layoffs and slashed benefits affecting my work life lately, I've been doing some thinking.  What should we all expect from our employers?  What constitutes just another cost cutting measure?  What constitutes a lack of respect for the value of the work we provide our employers?

I think it's pretty clear that a lot of companies are using this economic downturn to undercut their employees.  Benefits are disappearing, pay is being cut, the concept of a 401k is becoming almost foreign... it's sad when you think that it was just a few years ago when companies were increasing these benefits in order to attract the best candidates.  In the heady glory days of the housing bubble, employees were in the driver's seat.  Now, we're told that we're lucky to even have a job.  But, how many cuts can you take before your job isn't enough to make ends meet anymore?  How do we know when we're getting more screwed than everyone else?