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Mastering Money Together: Financial Strategies for Couples & Parenthood with the Founder of Her Personal Finance
91 Plays1 year ago
Update: I recently launched my newsletter, The Sheconomist, and would love for you to subscribe: sheconomist.com - I share so many tools and resources that help young, high-achieving women with radical money and career self-advocacy.
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Eryn Schultz is the brilliant mind behind Her Personal Finance. After graduating from Harvard Business School, Eryn embarked on a mission to bridge the gap between corporate financial literacy and personal finance management.
In our conversation, we talk about navigating student loans, investing with confidence, and redefining financial strategies for couples. By dissecting the nuances of combined finances, Eryn offers practical advice for couples seeking financial harmony while preserving individual autonomy.
Listeners gain exclusive access to Eryn's perspective on hiring financial advisors and understanding the impact of fees on investment portfolios. With a focus on transparency and fiduciary responsibility, Eryn demystifies complex financial jargon, empowering individuals to make informed choices aligned with their long-term goals.
This episode concludes with a deep dive into financial preparedness for parenthood, as Eryn shares personal anecdotes and essential tips for navigating the financial implications of starting a family.
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Transcript
Reframing Women's Approach to Investing
00:00:00
Speaker
I think that there's a lot of work to be done to help women reframe. Investing can allow you to be risk aware and is often that buy and hold that doesn't take a lot of time per month. Women are much more comfortable with that, which is why I think that there is data from places like Fidelity that when we do invest, we get better returns. And so it's just kind of pushing people to get over the edge so that they are comfortable starting.
00:00:29
Speaker
I'm Tamina and I'm extending a heartfelt invitation to you as we join forces in reclaiming economic power for women in a world that is often structured against us. We'll dive into the minds of accomplished female leaders, investors and entrepreneurs to equip you with the confidence and knowledge to build wealth for yourself and other women. So buckle up, get ready to learn and be inspired to take action.
Meet Erin Schultz and Her Financial Journey
00:00:56
Speaker
Welcome back, everyone. I am so excited for today's conversation with the one and only Erin Schultz. Erin is the founder of Her Personal Finance. In 2015, she graduated from Harvard Business School and realized that her and her classmates were better equipped to manage a corporate balance sheet than their own finances.
00:01:18
Speaker
Through our online classes, Erin has helped hundreds of students decide how to balance paying off student loans with saving for retirement, figure out how much cash to keep on hand, and finally feel confident investing outside of a 401k or retirement savings account.
00:01:36
Speaker
Erin has spoken to women's groups at Amazon, Mass General Hospital, Harvard Business School, and Kellogg Business School. She has also been featured in a number of different publications, including Forbes, NPR, Fortune, Real Simple, CNBC, and BuzzFeed. Erin, I'm so excited to have you on. Welcome to the show. It's so exciting to be here and have loved kind of
00:02:01
Speaker
watching you grow on LinkedIn and love also that I got to speak at LinkedIn earlier this year, which I think is kind of how we first connected. Yeah, absolutely. Love it. So many synergies here, so many mutual passions. It's always so great to be able to connect with like-minded people. I always like to
The Power of Online Communities for Women
00:02:20
Speaker
say oftentimes my internet friends or even
00:02:23
Speaker
bigger supporters of my work than some of my friends from like high school or college or even family members who might not necessarily always know what I'm up to. So really appreciative of your support and just looking forward to be able to continue each other over many years to come.
00:02:43
Speaker
I hope so too. And that totally resonates some of my best friends in real life are not people who spend a ton of time online. So there's so many people that I've connected with and built really strong relationships.
Unlearning Risk Aversion in Investing
00:02:54
Speaker
And I would say you're one of the people I enjoy reading your content and we talk about similar things.
00:03:00
Speaker
Exactly. All right. And I'm excited to dive in. But Erin, before we talk more about your experience and your business, because I like to start with the same question for all of my guests, I wanted to start our conversation today by asking you the following question. As we
00:03:19
Speaker
grow older and we involve in our personal growth and our professional growth, we often tend to unlearn certain beliefs or perceptions that we've previously held. Curious to hear from you, is there something significant that you have unlearned in your journey towards advocating for gender equity?
00:03:39
Speaker
Yes, and the one that jumps out to me is about risk and being comfortable with risk. So often, and I put myself in this category, this idea of, I don't want to invest because what if I lose it all? It's something that I know I've felt at different points in my life, and I think a lot of women feel, and I think there's an idea. A lot of financial advisors or financial planning will start by asking you your risk tolerance.
00:04:06
Speaker
I find women, and I, again, put myself in this category, will often say, oh, I'm conservative. I don't want to take risks. And I think that that's actually a attitude I've had to unlearn, because especially for people in their 20s and 30s, I can't afford to not take risks when investing. And investing in the stock market is inherently risky, but we also have 200 years of market performance that say,
00:04:34
Speaker
the market pretty consistently hit 7% adjusted for inflation. And so kind
Misconceptions and Financial Independence for Women
00:04:40
Speaker
of unlearning this idea that cash is saved and cash is where I'm going to keep my money and feeling comfortable investing because women invest less than men has been
00:04:51
Speaker
been a big learning for me and when I try to help other women also feel comfortable saying maybe this is inherent to my personality that I'm risk averse but this is rather a lot of the messaging given to women about money and investing.
00:05:06
Speaker
So glad you brought this up, Erin. And it really resonated with me because honestly, I'm tired of that narrative of like, oh, women are just not as successful because they're more risk-versed. And actually a couple of months ago, I had an amazing conversation with another podcast guest. Her name was Julie Castro Abrams. She is the founder of How Women Lead and How Women Invest.
00:05:31
Speaker
And she completely challenged that narrative by saying, no, women are not risk averse, women are risk aware. Such a small and like subtle difference, but it does make all the difference. And you and I both know women are actually
00:05:51
Speaker
the better investors. And there is a variety of different reasons, but one of the reasons is women are more likely to diversify their investments, right? Not necessarily because they don't think that they cannot succeed by investing in one or two
00:06:10
Speaker
asset categories, but oftentimes it's also because they want to invest alongside their values and vote with their dollars. And there are so many amazing opportunities to vote with your dollars, right? So I think this is a very, very interesting
00:06:27
Speaker
topic that we could probably spend an entire episode talking about, but really appreciate you kind of challenging the status quo. And in your work with your clients and coaches, try to take a step back and really challenge that notion because there's so many
00:06:49
Speaker
narratives out there, especially as it pertains to the world of finance, investing, the stock market that are simply wrong, misconceptions. And as a result of those misconceptions, I think the barrier to entry for a lot of women is a lot higher than it actually is because you and I both know that just getting started with setting up
00:07:11
Speaker
brokerage account or 401k, that is usually the most challenging part of it. But once you've
Managing Couples' Finances
00:07:18
Speaker
set up your monthly recurring deposits, your automatic paycheck deductions, it's very hands off afterwards. It's really astonishing whenever I share with some of my coaches and my community members that I probably don't spend more than an hour or two per month managing my personal finances and they don't want to believe it. And I always tell them, look,
00:07:41
Speaker
It took me a while to figure out in the beginning, reading up on the power of compound interest and how inflation and all of that stuff impacts my opportunities to generate generational wealth. But it's really that getting started part and that mental reframing I think is so, so important. And that's why I love that you shared that with our listeners today.
00:08:01
Speaker
I appreciate that it's something that resonates with you. And I think that there's a lot of work to be done to help women reframe. And I'll say one more thing on this. I think sometimes people think investing is a Wall Street bet and that stuff wrote in a movie that just came out about GameStop. And that is gambling, in my honest opinion. Investing is boring and can allow you to be risk aware and
00:08:27
Speaker
is often that buy and hold that doesn't take a lot of time per month. And I think women are much more comfortable with that, which is why I think that there is data from places like Fidelity that when we do invest, we get better returns. And so it's just kind of pushing people to get over the edge so that they are comfortable starting.
00:08:46
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Again, we could talk about this whole topic for an entire episode, but want to pivot a little bit because, Erin, obviously there are so many different directions that we can take this conversation. But as I was preparing for our conversation, I thought to myself, okay, Tamina, what is currently top of your mind as it pertains to your own personal finances? So selfishly, I wanted to start out by covering the topic of
00:09:12
Speaker
couples and money first, because I know this is also a big focus area of yours. So to give a little bit of context, you know, my partner of five years and I recently had a conversation about what combining finances might look like in the future after potentially getting married. And while neither of us is currently in debt, we both invest a lot and we have both well-paying jobs in the tech industry. As a feminist who is very vocal about all of this stuff,
00:09:41
Speaker
know, women's financial independence, investing in the stock market, that thought of combining finances with a man and giving up full autonomy is pretty daunting to me. I'm not going to lie. And I know that you have a great workbook on your website that people can purchase and we'll make sure to link to it in the show notes. And that workbook guides couples through a series of very introspective questions to figure out how much
00:10:06
Speaker
a couple of lines or diverges on this topic of money. So I'll definitely make sure to work through that with my partner over the next couple of weeks. But still, someone who always preaches not to rely on other people, especially not men, to manage your personal finances. Again, that thought of giving up control over my money and net worth I've worked so hard to build over the years is really freaking me out a little.
00:10:29
Speaker
Because let's be real, as women, we simply have to think about money differently. We live longer, we often earn less, we're more likely to take a break from the workforce for caregiving purposes. And I would imagine that some of our listeners feel the same way I do.
00:10:44
Speaker
I'm curious to hear from you, Erin, how would you recommend someone like me who values freedom and independence above all approaches this topic without making her partner feel like she doesn't trust him or her? Because at the end of the day, it's nothing personal, it just goes back to feminist values. I still appreciate you sharing that. And I think a lot of people feel very uncomfortable combining finances.
00:11:08
Speaker
And so if you zoom out, there's sort of three high-level strategies that couples take. One is completely combined, which is honestly what I think many of our parents who were in traditional relationships did and is the model we've seen. And as women, we've seen some of the pitfalls of people who went through divorce and
00:11:30
Speaker
not know where all the assets were or taken a pause in their career and their husband was the primary red winner. So I think we've seen some of the pitfalls of totally joint. There's also totally separate and I just did an Instagram poll on this and it was kind of fascinating.
00:11:48
Speaker
Because something like 25% of the people who responded to the survey out of over 100 said that they are in a committed relationship or married even, and they still use Venmo or Splitwise for all their expenses. And I will say I'm also not a fan of completely split finances.
00:12:07
Speaker
And some of the reasons people gave me for it is that it's very clear who's money is who's money. And if you need to walk away, there's not a lot of combined assets. I think the pitfalls of that are first, there are some goals that should be shared goals like retirement. I teach a 10 week class and I always
00:12:29
Speaker
If you saved for retirement and your partner didn't, you're not going to make them live in the closet or eat ramen and not go out to dinner with you because they didn't save for retirement. So there are certain things that should be joint. And then second, if you're married or even in a common law marriage, unfortunately, marriage is a financial contract.
00:12:49
Speaker
So I think sometimes you think, oh, we're Venmoing each other. Therefore, if we needed to walk away from this relationship, no harm, no foul. That's actually not true. And so I think it kind of gives people a little bit of a false sense of financial independence that might not.
00:13:05
Speaker
be there. And so that leads to the third model of how you could combine finances. And this is my favorite. This is what my husband and I do, which is we have a joint account that we pay our shared expenses
The Role of Prenups and Financial Autonomy
00:13:17
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from. And we have a joint credit card associated with that account. So everything for our household, we have a son. We're not then mowing each other for our part of his child.
00:13:27
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Some people do that. I'm not trying to knock it. I just also think it adds more complexity, especially if you want to have children, which not everybody wants you, but a lot becomes joined to that point. But we also still have separate accounts. And one thing I think that happens if you're combining your finances when you're older is that you both have a 401k from work. That's inherently separate. You're both coming to a relationship with assets. It's more of a, I've heard people say,
00:13:56
Speaker
It's more of a merger than a startup situation. So especially if you're being married or combining finances in your late 20s or 30s, I didn't get married until I was 34. So that was very relevant for me. You know, we have separate brokerage accounts. Those are not combined. I'd also say before getting married, considering a prenup,
00:14:17
Speaker
We don't have one and it's actually something I think I probably regret a little bit only because if you don't have a prenup, you're basically defaulting to your state's way of separating finances if you were to ever try to split. And so while prenups not super romantic, it's basically putting into writing in advance.
00:14:38
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how you would want to separate things if there are differences between what the state law defaults to and how you would want to do things.
Empowering Women in Financial Decisions
00:14:45
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So I'm a big advocate of some things combined, but not everything. And what some couples do is they both have a credit card that they spend on that they don't have to hold each other accountable for that money. They put a certain amount into their joint account for joint expenses, and then they have separate credit cards and separate kind of money they're allowed to spend.
00:15:06
Speaker
don't have to be accountable to their partner on. So I think there's lots of ways to make it work, but I'm a fan of not having everything combined.
00:15:15
Speaker
I love that and thank you for providing all of the different models or the most common ones out there. And I'm sure there is no true one size fits all and everyone has to mold it to their individual liking. Maybe a quick follow up question there, Erin. Oftentimes, and I'm talking about heterosexual relationships right now, oftentimes the default option is for
00:15:40
Speaker
the men to manage the finances, right? Not necessarily the budgeting part. We know that I think in the United States, at least 75 to 85% of all consumer purchasing decisions are being made by women. So women have a lot to say in that regard, but when it comes to saving, retirement, investing, all of that stuff, money that is supposed to work
00:16:03
Speaker
for us while we are sleeping, that often still tends to be managed by men. And I just wish more women had an active part in all of that. How can women in heterosexual relationships advocate for themselves to make sure that they also contribute to these decisions that are being made in our relationship?
00:16:24
Speaker
Education to me is such a big part of it because I think money is such an intimidating topic and if you feel like your partner knows more than you can be really scary to try to assert yourself. But I'm a big believer that you don't want to completely outsource management of the money.
00:16:41
Speaker
to your partner because it's too big of a decision and the majority of women will manage their own finances at some point either because they outlive a partner or because you are single at some point in your life and it's also just a little scary to say like I'm gonna make my retirement and if I'm comfortable at age 90 and have the health care I need I'm not gonna put that totally in the hands of someone else.
00:17:04
Speaker
So I think there's a lot of things you can do to get educated. The easiest is probably, you know, Spotify premium, just added audio books. There's a bunch. I mean, Sethi has one. There's one called The Simple Paths to Wealth that I'm a huge fan of.
00:17:20
Speaker
It's $12, that's an investment in yourself. So many personal finance podcasts like this one, Money with Katie is another great one. And then I also teach a 10-week class and a lot of that for me is to give people the frameworks and tools so that they can
00:17:38
Speaker
decisions. One of my favorite things one of my students ever said to me is that when they were picking their 401k investments their husband was looking to them to figure out what to do because they'd taken my class and they understood the financing bill. And then if none of that works for you, hiring a financial advisor. To me financial advisors like a personal trainer. You do not have to have one to get in shape.
00:17:59
Speaker
But if you know that's the only thing that that is going to work for you is having a person that is holding you accountable to managing your money. I think that's a great option. I would just say work with someone who's not going to tell you what to do without taking you on the journey with them. And I'm also a big fan of working with certified financial planners, CFPs. I just became a CFP. It took two years of my life. It is a very rigorous
00:18:27
Speaker
certification process and if you're going to trust someone with your money, make sure they're one of the best.
00:18:33
Speaker
Well, first of all, congratulations on becoming officially certified. That's a big milestone, especially doing that on top of your job already. And I know you have a son, so I'm sure a lot of time, energy, nerves were invested into that process, but you can be very, very proud of yourself.
Understanding and Mitigating Management Fees
00:18:52
Speaker
And so many of your future students and coaches and clients will be able to benefit from you having gotten that certification. So that's wonderful.
00:19:00
Speaker
Since we're already on the topic of outsourcing and seeking professional help, women are more likely to outsource the management of their personal finances. And as you pointed out, there's nothing wrong with that. And I would certainly agree that consulting a professional
00:19:16
Speaker
can oftentimes be a great option, but only as long as that financial advisor actually has a fiduciary responsibility. So that means that they're acting in their client's best interests and are not just a salesman or women who's trying to sell you. So they increase their own commission splits. So that's number one. And then also I always recommend to my community members that you should be paying
00:19:40
Speaker
financial advisor and hourly rate as opposed to a percentage of your portfolio. Oftentimes, you know that 1% management fee comes up and while that might sound very small, 1% not the end of the world and then I don't have to deal with all of that. In the world of finance and compound interest, a 1% management fee could easily cost someone multiple six figures over the course of a lifetime. It does add up so much.
00:20:08
Speaker
Erin, I would love for you to break that down for our audience in more detail and share some recommendations for how someone can go about finding a financial advisor or coach or planner that they can act with trust. I love this question and you don't even know this, but as I have officially set up my own registered investment advisory firm and have started to work with clients one-on-one in a financial planning context as part of just becoming a CFP,
00:20:35
Speaker
I've actually very consciously made the choice that I'm not going to manage assets. And there are a lot of people who I really respect who are very experienced financial planners who have adopted a different business model. But I will say that
00:20:51
Speaker
I don't love the way that fees impact individuals investment portfolios and so that is a big reason why I have chosen to be an hourly planner and I think a lot of times people also will charge a flat fee for financial planning. You're not necessarily paying them hourly but it's something like
00:21:13
Speaker
$4,800 or $6,000 for a financial plan. So it's not cheap, but you also know if you're working with a fiduciary, ideally a fiduciary certified financial planner, that they're putting your best interest first and that's time that's being spent helping you demise your decisions, your portfolio, etc.
00:21:35
Speaker
So just to go a little deeper on the impact of fees, basically when you're paying a management fee, it nets out from your portfolio returns. And so what I think is really confusing to people about this is that you're not paying your advisor this fee annually. You're not going to feel it, leave your bank account.
00:21:57
Speaker
And so it's very sneaky in that way because it doesn't necessarily show up in the way that we think traditionally about these. And
Investment Strategies for Tech Workers
00:22:07
Speaker
what this will look like is it basically taken out of your investment portfolio. So if you started with $50,000 and I call out sometimes some of the older kind of investment houses like Edward Jones, Raymond James, and a lot of people are paying to manage their IRA,
00:22:25
Speaker
You might not realize you're paying this 1% fee, but let's say you have 50K and an IRA, and you're contributing the maximum $6,500 to an IRA every year, and you're paying that 1% fee to a portfolio manager over 40 years. So if you're 30 today and you do this till you're 70, that's about 556K. It's basically the equivalent of instead of I used a 7% rate of return there,
00:22:55
Speaker
Instead of getting a 7% rate of return, you're getting a 6% rate of return. And again, you're not going to pay this as money out of your bank account, but it's coming out of your returns. And so instead of those returns compounding and earning interest for you, you're actually paying that as a fee every year.
00:23:13
Speaker
And as a result, it's not necessarily a bad thing to pay someone to manage your money if you know that it was going to sit in cash, if not, but it is really important to understand the fees that you're paying and be aware of the impact that they have on your portfolio.
00:23:31
Speaker
I love how you broke that down and how you kind of explained to our audience members that those management fees are something that is not very tangible because as you pointed out, it's not like as if they're sending you an invoice at the end of each year. Hey, just FYI, we just took out XYZ number of dollars or euros out of your
00:23:53
Speaker
portfolio, it's not like that. So it's more about we need to think about the opportunity cost that is really associated with leveraging someone that you compensate based on like a 1% or 1.5% management fee on an annual basis.
00:24:09
Speaker
I know that a lot of people oftentimes would learn about management fees or compound interest or inflation, maybe in school and economics class. But what I find oftentimes, and this goes back to what we mentioned in the intro where you said, Hey, you went to arguably
00:24:26
Speaker
the best or one of the best business schools in the world, right? And everyone knew how to interpret and read corporate balance sheets, but oftentimes it's really difficult to apply that theoretical knowledge to our own personal finances. And as a result of that, things like management fees, compound interest,
00:24:46
Speaker
inflation are significantly more difficult for us to conceptualize and how that impacts our lives, not just in the here and now, but in the years and decades to come. So that's why I think it's so important to break that all down. So love that.
00:25:03
Speaker
There's so many things I want to add on and say that I have really evolved my perspective on having someone manage their money over time. I know you have an audience, some of whom work in tech, and I've had a good number of people that I've worked with who have significant amounts of company equity. And I think to your point, sometimes we know what we should do, or we understand, we've learned these concepts in the abstract. When we're applying it to our own money, it's scary because
00:25:32
Speaker
there's consequences to it. And it's actually probably scarier than making a choice at work that's not going to impact how comfortable you are in retirement at 90. And so if you are sitting in half your portfolios in company equity and you're like, oh my gosh, I'm just paralyzed with what to do, pay someone for professional help and it's okay to have them manage your money. But I also am a big believer that
00:26:00
Speaker
For 95% of people in their 20s and 30s, you're just putting money in your 401k, which is where almost everyone should start. It is set up for you through work. There's a default investment choice. Your company is a fiduciary to you. They have to manage the 401k in a way that is in trying to optimize your best interests.
00:26:23
Speaker
And so start there. You're going to save money on taxes, either by contributing pre-tax or Roth, so it doesn't have to be complicated. And most people, you can contribute $23,000 to a 401k next year. That is way more than most Americans are investing.
00:26:39
Speaker
So start there and don't worry about all the rest until you're a really high earner, you know, over a hundred each. Or you have a good problem. You have $100,000, $500,000 in company equity and you're like, what the heck do I do with
Personal Considerations in Financial Planning for Families
00:26:53
Speaker
this? Definitely. And I love that you pointed it out because we certainly have a lot of people.
00:26:57
Speaker
including my own coworkers or people that I've worked with in the past who work in tech. So for them, this whole notion around company equity is very relevant. And even for me, and I've been very, very honest about this with my community, when I started investing through company benefits at age 24, when I started working in tech, I think at that point in time, 80% of
00:27:19
Speaker
My investments were in my own company and over time I've increasingly decreased my dependency on my own employer. But for me, I probably personally have a bit of a higher risk tolerance than the average person. And then also I'm still pretty young. I was 24 when I started out, right? So if that's the tank, which would have been unfortunate.
00:27:43
Speaker
I still would have had decades to make up for that potential loss, right? So I think it's always important to also reflect on where you're at in life. For example, if I'd been 24 and I had already had children or had someone else to care for, maybe I, or I likely wouldn't have been as
00:28:02
Speaker
risky in my investment choices. So I do think it's always important to keep that in mind. Keep your inherent privileges all also in mind because again, it might look very different for someone else my age who might also work in tech but has different circumstances. So I love that you brought that up specifically around tech.
00:28:22
Speaker
All right, Erin, let's pivot one more time. And this is also something that I've been quite open about on this podcast. Someone who was diagnosed with premature fertility decline at age 28, and who is very passionate about that intersection of women's health, women's reproductive health, and financial independence.
00:28:42
Speaker
after having gone through three egg freezing cycles myself. I really appreciate you also putting a big emphasis on financially preparing for a baby. And I'd argue that at least in the United States, most people are very much aware that childcare is ridiculously expensive. So that is usually very much top of mind.
00:29:03
Speaker
But I'd also argue that most couples don't think about potential fertility challenges and those financial implications. And fertility is unfortunately on the rise. So I think more and more people should actively be thinking about that. And I know that you yourself had established a baby fund before you and your partner were trying to get pregnant. Interested to hear from you, what are some of those financial decisions that couples should make before having children to set themselves and their future family up for success?
00:29:33
Speaker
We'll first so appreciate you sharing your story because I think the more people talk about infertility, the more we normalize that it's so normal to have dumps in the road. We had to miss carriages before our first child, which was incredibly painful.
00:29:51
Speaker
also incredibly expensive and the bills are very triggering because sometimes you don't get them until six months to a year later so it's difficult to kind of move past that pain of it but I think that the good news here is that the same things you should be doing to build your financial future are the things that you should be doing to get ready for being
00:30:13
Speaker
So I paid off my student loans before we had a kid. That was so important because as you said, childcare is very expensive. And so if you have a student loan payment and $3,000 a month in childcare, $2,000 a month in childcare,
00:30:31
Speaker
makes a lot harder. The second one is if you can have started saving for retirement, have an emergency fund before baby. I think it's interesting I was really blessed to be a young healthy person in my 20s who didn't go to the doctor very much. Now it is almost rare that we have a month that we don't have some kind of health care costs. My husband still never goes to the doctor but
00:30:56
Speaker
My son just started daycare. I didn't know you could have mucus come out of your eyes. I thought he had pink eye and they're like, no, it's just gold. That's like fascinating. So the bigger your household is in pregnancy also, so many medical bills associated with pregnancy.
00:31:14
Speaker
Ag freezing, IV atmosphere, even just prenatal care, especially if you're over 35, you know, I got to carry the scarlet letter of advanced maternal age. So all of those things are expensive. So just the more you can have your financial house in order, that I mean,
00:31:33
Speaker
have a six month emergency fund, have C for retirement so you're not under a lot of pressure to catch up in those years where you have a lot of childcare costs. Pay off any debt that you have and maybe one out there that is not as talked about is consider maxing out your health savings account when you're younger. These are eligible to you if you have a high deductible health care plan and if you're single,
00:31:59
Speaker
you could put in this year, I think it's $3,850. And HSAs, unlike SSAs, are not use it or lose it. So you put the money in tax-free and you can actually invest those dollars. And it's like a Roth IRA that any growth and earnings come out tax-free. And so if you didn't catch that, I said that they go in tax-free, they come out tax-free. You never have to pay taxes on that money.
00:32:24
Speaker
And then if you do end up having a lot of expenses associated with egg freezing or IVF or miscarriage or just a complicated pregnancy, the NICU stay, whatever that is, you can either use that money for retirement, but you could also use it to help cover some of those costs connected to pregnancy. And so that can be a really powerful tool. And again, you get some tax savings for it.
00:32:51
Speaker
And if you don't need it, you can use it for retirement. So I think HSA's are pretty cool.
00:32:56
Speaker
Well, first of all, I wanted to acknowledge your vulnerability in sharing about your two miscarriages. Thank you for being so open and honest about it. Obviously, it's something very, very personal, but I do believe that it is time that we as a society finally start talking about historically stigmatized topics and miscarriages is a big one there, fertility in general,
00:33:23
Speaker
But I'm also so glad that we're finally being able to talk about things like menopause.
Open Discussions on Fertility and Financial Challenges
00:33:29
Speaker
That's something that is not relevant to me or the majority of our audience members just yet, but it's the same kind of narrative that is shaming women, shaming their bodies, a lot of gaslighting happening in that area as well. So really appreciate you sharing that because oftentimes
00:33:48
Speaker
Especially women, we end up suffering in silence and we believe that there is something wrong with us. But the more I start sharing about my own personal stories, the more women have reached out and sent me the kindest messages of their own pregnancy, fertility, miscarriage struggles.
00:34:06
Speaker
Even though it's not easy to hear that other people, especially when their loved ones are in pain or suffering as well, it does end up raising awareness. It helps educating people and it makes you feel less lonely. And I think at the end of the day, we all deserve to feel less lonely. So thank you for sharing that.
00:34:29
Speaker
Yes, and likewise, and have also found it so powerful. And I think it's important to also share these stories so that other people, especially if there is a good ending, have that hope. I didn't know anyone who'd had two miscarriages. I had one relative who'd gone through something similar.
00:34:48
Speaker
But knowing that you could go through this adversity and still have healthy babies was so helpful to me. And so I share in case someone's going through this and wonders, will I be able to conceive at some point and just to share all the different ways that it can fit. So I appreciate so much you sharing and think it's, as you said, part of a broader movement of people saying, not going to be quiet about this. This isn't a secret. It's not shameful. Just part of being human.
Advocating for Financial Education and Support for Women
00:35:18
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Well, thank you for being part of the change that we so desperately need in the world. All right, Erin, I think we're coming up on time, but I have one final question for you today. I want you to imagine that you have this power that allows you to enact a single universally binding law that every organization must obey and is specifically designed to significantly uplift women's economic status.
00:35:47
Speaker
What law would that be, Erin? I'm so conflicted because one would be about mandatory financial education in the workplace. I think it's great in high school, but it's too abstract. You don't make money then. And I think that would be so helpful. I will say that that would be pretty cheap. And that the thing that I think we need to support more women at work
00:36:09
Speaker
And maybe I say this because I have a young child, but it's subsidized childcare that makes it a lot easier for caregivers to stay in the workforce. Law. I think I recently had a conversation where a mother was sharing similar sentiments, I think, especially again in the United States. This is a big
00:36:30
Speaker
big problem and I shared this on a previous conversation, but I just need to reiterate it as someone coming from Europe. And so even though life is not perfect there either, but childcare costs are heavily, heavily, heavily subsidized by the government, right? So when I share with my family and friends back home that in the United States, if you're living in a big urban environment, I'm based in New York, for example, it can cost you 30, 40,
00:36:59
Speaker
thousand dollars a year just to send one child to childcare and that is mind-blowing. There are people who don't even make that much money and then all of a sudden you start to understand why there are people and let's be real oftentimes it is unfortunately the woman in a heterosexual relationship that ends up staying at home because the math just doesn't add up especially not if you're trying to do part-time work initially to kind of ease into it so
00:37:29
Speaker
just mind blowing to me. So I'm so glad that you brought this up because it's a big challenge and something needs to change in this country for sure. Yes. We have a lot to learn from Europe. Obviously, pros and cons living in the United States. But that one has always been a head scratcher. So I hope over time that will change. But I think our priorities as a country have to change too.
00:37:51
Speaker
Absolutely. Well, wonderful words to close with today. Thank you so, so much, Erin. This was such a wonderful conversation. Thank you for breaking it down for our audience members. Thank you for all the amazing work that you do and providing education and raising awareness. And yeah, thank you for being a fabulous guest on our show today. I also appreciate it. And I appreciate the space you're getting for these conversations and honored to get to be here. Oh, thank you.
00:38:22
Speaker
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00:38:46
Speaker
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