The Carrie Finances: Honey, I Shrunk the Budget

Now that I’m in my 30s and my health app has officially launched me into the 30–39 age group, I thought it was time I rewatched my beloved “Sex and the City” again.

In the first episode of season one, Carrie Bradshaw rekindles things with an ex (who has been resurrected a few times) and her best friend Stanford Blatch says “Are you out of your mind? What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Carrie replies, “Oh, calm down. It’s research,” after making a “date” for 3:00 p.m. to inspire her next column.

My own research boils down to what mistakes the characters are making with money, and how I can avoid them at all costs. By the time your 30s roll around, you are expected to have certain things figured out. But I’ve learned that this timeline can be restrictive—and, at times, misogynistic. Women have different reasons to spend money. As much as I would love to have a 3-in-1 shampoo instead of mixing three different ones to get my desired results, the majority of products marketed toward women are meant to only serve one purpose. This means we must buy more and more things to stay socially acceptable as we age. (I resent this fact, but the older I get the more I see it happening.)

When I started tracking my spending at the end of March, I was trying to figure out how I could be budgeting and still overspending. A lot of money went to my short-term goals, but there was still not enough room in my budget for what was needed. I got some new cleansers for my skin, trying to figure out my latest flare up. I was going more places and doing more things, which was good for my mental health but not my bank account. I still struggled to find balance and maintain my no-buy strategy for the year.

Later in season one, Carrie exclaims, “My new shoes shouldn’t be punished just because I can’t budget!” Once I saw the damage of March, I knew April could not be a repeat if I wanted to stay on track with my savings. When I broke my spending down by category (transportation, groceries, restaurants/coffee shops, clothing and pay later payments), I was able to see where the problems were. I managed to reduce the amount I spent on transportation by more than half in April. So far in May, I have been avoiding spending any money on transportation since I know that I have some activities planned for later in the month.

For my May 2024 budget, I am allotted $233 per week. My utilities have been steady with a mild start to spring, and I’m almost done with my monthly loan payments (as of publishing this, only three more to go!). So far, I have come in under budget, but I want to make sure I can keep this momentum going.

When I reflect on how hard it has been to both live my life and not buy things I don’t absolutely need, I think about how I used to spend all day at the mall when I was 12 years old and only spend around $20. Of course, this was the early 2000s, so everything was cheaper back then. The economy was good and even in my naive state I had some semblance of a community. The park, the public library and other places where you can be part of a community and not necessarily spend all your money are considered “third places” outside of home and work. The mall, a café, a bookstore and the gym are also on this list but have become places geared more toward spending money than interacting with others.

You could argue that tipping your barista gives back to the community, especially if you’re a regular at your coffee shop. But this still relies on spending money in order to build a community, instead of using the resources we already have to make connections with people.

Social media could also be considered a third place, but I’m not seeing much community there lately. If anything, social media has gone so far as to replace community with buying things in the way our outside world has monetized every interaction we have with others. In the same way, this transactional way of thinking can hinder us from getting together with others when there is no monetary incentive. Think of a friend charging you for having a home-cooked meal at their house even when they invited you over or sending you an invoice after hanging out in one of those public third places. Yikes!

Grace Nevitt, who gave me the idea for the no-buy year strategy, recently posted a YouTube video about how to discuss it with your loved ones. I never really ran into this issue since I announced it on the blog for everyone to see! But she cites the level of American consumerism and how ingrained it is in our society as part of why she thinks a no-buy year is important. If we can train ourselves to not feel the need to buy something just because it’s new, or because we feel like the world is doomed, maybe we can connect with each other in more meaningful ways than capitalism currently allows.

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My Payday Routine

When I first started working, holding a physical paycheck in my hand wasn’t necessarily the cliché reward I thought it would be. Instead, it was more of a signal that I could buy things again. Back in the debit card days, I would say goodbye to $100 of my paycheck at Sephora almost immediately. I would put some money into savings, and at the time I was paying off some student loans, but it was never strategic.

Having a credit card has completely changed my mindset. Now, payday is a signal for me to distribute the money I don’t need to spend among my goals. With Beyoncé’s voice singing, “Wait, I hear you just got paid. Make it rain energy,” in my head, I open my checking account to make sure the money actually made it in there! You laugh, but one time that happened and I swear the world stood still for a few hours. If you receive a physical pay stub from your employer, make sure the number matches what was added to your bank account.

The first thing I do is type the number on my checking account balance into my phone’s calculator. Then, I determine how much needs to stay in checking for any fixed expenses like rent, utilities, etc. Take a look at what has gone through since your last paycheck to ensure everything looks correct and you haven’t been hacked.

If it’s not a paycheck that needs to be saved for rent, I go to my credit card statement and assess the damage. I subtract my credit card balance from the big checking account number. I almost always pay my card off in full if I have the funds to do so. Sometimes I wish Discover would let me pay off the pending payments too, so I’ll include them in my calculations just for fun!

Now that I have a better idea of what I’m working with after my fixed expenses and credit card are accounted for, I determine how much I can put in savings before my next paycheck. This time, I have $700 available to save. First, I move this amount from my checking account into my emergency savings account since they are with the same bank. Then, I distribute this amount to my high-yield savings accounts.

This is a good time to check in on your savings goals. Right now, my short-term goals of saving up to invest more and moving are the most pressing. My intermediate-term goal of buying property is nicely funded for now, so I’m going to leave my LendingClub high-yield savings account untouched. I set up a transfer so the $700 will be added to my SmartyPig high-yield savings account. This takes a few days to settle, but I like doing all these moves when I get paid on Friday mornings so they can make their way through the system faster at the beginning of the next week.

This money isn’t just going to sit in my account though, it’s going to be distributed to my two separate short-term goals using SmartyPig’s goals feature. This way, I can clearly visualize how much I have saved for each goal and how much more I have to save until they’re both funded. My goal for investing another $2,000 lump sum into my Charles Schwab brokerage account will need to be satisfied sooner than my moving goal. I have $500 out of $4,000 saved up for moving right now, so once my latest savings transfer has settled into my SmartyPig account, I plan to move $200 of it into the moving goal and $500 to start saving up for investing.

Depending on which payday this is, I will also take a look at my spending for the month, but I’ll save my findings for next time when we look at my budget. Stay tuned for more of my investing discoveries!

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Financial Goals to Accomplish by Age 30

If you’re reading this on the day it comes out, I have officially turned 30. I’ve been ambivalent about turning 30 for a while now, wanting to stay 27 forever (unfortunately, I never found a vampire to make that happen). The last time I felt I hit a big milestone was when I turned 19. At the time, I was in college and co-running a YouTube channel with my best friend Ilana. I filmed a video about what people can do when they turn 19, the most exciting of which was being able to drink legally in all of Canada! Inspired by this, I looked at the most common financial goals people should achieve by the time they turn 30. Of course, everyone will be on a different trajectory, but I always find benchmarks helpful when it comes to money.

1. Build and Replenish an Emergency Fund

The decade of my 20s was all about saving, and I’m so thankful I was able to focus on this goal. Building an emergency savings fund is the first step you can take to achieve financial independence. A common guideline is to have at least six months of living expenses saved in this fund, but you can work up to this. I have my emergency fund in my regular savings account that is attached to my checking account. This means it’s not earning me much interest, but that’s quite literally the price I pay for this money to be easily accessible in an emergency. If you end up tapping your emergency savings, be sure to set up a plan for building that fund back up to the amount you maintained before. Whenever your financial situation changes, you should reassess this amount to make sure it will still cover six months of expenses.

2. Pay off Debt

Once you have money saved up for emergencies, you have increased your net worth and also your ability to pay off debt. If you were trying to pay down debt before building up your savings, you would slip further into the red, and it would be difficult to get yourself out of debt in the future. It’s best to focus on your high-interest debt first—anything above 6%—since that interest will compound and add more to your debt if you don’t get it under control. Examples of high-interest debt could be on credit cards, personal loans and private student loans. Federal student loans are usually lower-interest debt, along with mortgages.

3. Maintain a Good Credit Score

Not only do you need to get yourself into a good credit score range (above 670), but you also need to keep that credit score up while you live your life. Your credit score can change at least once a month, but this can vary depending on how many lines of credit you have. You can keep your credit score up by paying your credit card bills on time, keeping your card balances low and only applying for lines of credit that you need. Over the last year, my credit score has stayed within the range of 770 to 780, which is considered “very good.” Maybe I’ll try to sneak into the “excellent” range (800 to 850) during my 30s 😉.

4. Start Saving for Retirement

I know most of us young people don’t even want to think about retirement half the time, but if you are actively contributing to a retirement account, you shouldn’t have to think much about your balance. The best thing to do once you choose your investments for your retirement account is to rarely check it. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but unless you have concerns about your account not making enough or you want to reconsider how your portfolio is allocated, it’s best to just let your investments ride their gains and only periodically check your balance.

One rule is to have at least half of your current income in your retirement account by the time you turn 30, but I’m not sure how achievable this is in practice. Especially with inflation, millennials and Generation Z are struggling to even hit what is considered the minimum. It might be more reasonable to shoot for having one-third of your income saved for retirement by age 30. For example, if you’re making $45,000, this would equate to $15,000 in your retirement account. I can honestly say that I have less than one-third of my income in my retirement account right now, but I have multiple savings and investment vehicles that together would cover this amount.

5. Know Where Your Money Goes

This is just a looser way to say “budget,” but by age 30 it’s important to know how much money you are spending relative to how much you are making. You probably have a general idea when you look at your bank account and credit card statements, but if you still feel a dark cloud over your head when you think about your finances, it might be time to break out the spreadsheets and take a closer look at the numbers. I yo-yo between finding my budget helpful and hurtful, but the truth is there’s no emotion that I’m not projecting onto these numbers. On their own, they’re just numbers. The sooner you face them, the better off you and your money will be.

6. Begin Investing

If you haven’t started investing, there’s no time like right now! For me, the hardest part of investing so far was the beginning. If you’re struggling to figure out where to start, it’s helpful to determine how much money you have available to invest. If you want to go for something easy that won’t take much of your time, put that money into an index mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF). It won’t beat the market’s return, but it will ensure that you have investments making money for your future.

How Do You Score?

By age 30, I have pretty much everything I need for financial stability. Out of the six goals, I would say I have achieved five and a half, for 91.7%, or a grade of A–. This means I have places I can improve in my 30s, so I’ll be focusing more on my goal of saving for retirement and optimizing my budget. If you’re turning 30 soon or you recently turned 30, how many of these goals have you achieved? What has been the hardest one? Let me know in the comments!

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Navigating Finances After Widowhood or Divorce

Back when I started this blog, I had to think about who would be considered a beginning investor. Yes, those in their 20s and 30s who are just starting their careers are prime candidates. But what about women who have been married their entire adult lives and never had to primarily handle their finances? In honor of Women’s History Month, I look at how these women can both literally and figuratively get back on their feet after widowhood or divorce.

The O’Mara Law Group’s Stay-at-Home Mom’s Guide to Divorce covers how women can financially prepare for divorce and manage their finances during the process along with what the legal rights of mothers and children are. In order to financially separate from your former spouse, you must take stock of the accounts and information in your name in addition to anything not in your name that you have rights to. These include bank accounts, retirement savings accounts, tax returns, insurance coverage and Social Security materials. You should also consider any property or vehicles you share with your former spouse—and perhaps who’s going to take the nice espresso machine or the robot vacuum!

Lois Frankel, Ph.D., covered avoidable mistakes women make with money in her book “Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich.” Though some of these mistakes seemed redundant or unhelpful to me on first read, her discussion of not having investments in your name is relevant here: “You might just find it easier to comply than to make waves. Or you might be relieved that someone else is willing to handle all of these affairs for you. The fact is, there is no good reason to put joint monies or property into one partner’s name. Doing so leaves one person open to all the gain—or liability—associated with the investment.”

This advice from 2005 is still relevant today, and perhaps even more so with younger generations often running two-income households. Even if both partners aren’t bringing in the same amount of money, combining your finances and investments shows that you trust each other to spend and save wisely for your family. Where there’s no trust, there’s no relationship.

You may also need to build up your personal credit score after a divorce, especially if you have been a stay-at-home mom for a while. Besides the number of credit cards you have, your credit report will show any student, personal or auto loans in your name, your mortgage and any other type of debt. In Erin Lowry’s “Broke Millennial,” she says to “think of a strong credit score as an insurance policy for your financial life. A strong credit score proves to a lender that you’re reliable, which directly correlates to favorable loan terms.” This will also help if you need to apply for a new apartment or refinance your mortgage.

In order to be independent, you can build up your credit score by taking advantage of pay-later options like Afterpay, Klarna and PayPal Pay in 4. Most of these companies that allow you to pay later also don’t charge you interest if you pay within a certain period, meaning that you will still be spending the same amount of money whether you pay for it all when you buy it or stretch it out over four or more payments. This personally helped me to increase and maintain my good credit score before getting a real credit card.

If you have recently been widowed, there are short-term things you should focus on before moving on to long-term issues. In the first six months after losing your spouse, it’s important to build up an emergency fund to cover unexpected expenses and fuel your independence. This fund could also help to pay for any funeral costs. You will need to create a budget with just you and your needs in mind, something that will take some time to adjust to after losing your spouse.

Assess what your expenses are and the monthly amount you will need to stay financially afloat. Ensuring your mortgage and bills are paid, all financial accounts are correctly titled, beneficiary information is properly updated, taxes are covered and continuous health care coverage is maintained are all tasks that require your attention now. Further down the line, you can review your investments and change any rules according to your life stage. Decisions like buying a new house, moving to another state or changing careers should also be put off until you have had time to think through them and adapt to your new life.

If you are nearing retirement, make sure you have a plan for how you will spend it solo. This could involve moving closer to extended family so you’re not isolated, or having family come and stay with you more often since you will have more time to spend with them. Don’t be afraid to lean on family and friends during this time, especially for help with any financial hurdles. Though you shouldn’t be seeking investing advice from family, a trusted member could accompany you to meet a financial adviser or planner who can professionally help you navigate these hard times.

Take advantage of other financial resources for women here. Read more about widowhood and retirement at AAII’s Retirement Investing.

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How to Decide When You Need a Financial Adviser

Though I have primarily managed my own money and investments thus far in my personal finance journey, I know this level of involvement is not for everyone. Somehow, my detail-oriented brain can handle the information despite its inability to understand math! Plus, I have been exposed to this content all day, every day by working at AAII for nearly seven years. At this point, I dream in financial metrics (a new genre of nightmare!). My goal for this blog is to show you how I make educated decisions in the hopes that you will follow along and learn how to make the right decisions for yourself. But what if you can’t wrap your head around all this stuff?

I have friends come to me asking how they can save better; expressing how they, too, are afraid of going to tax jail; or concluding that they just can’t keep financial information in their brain. Believe me, I’m with you! If you feel like you don’t have the time or capacity to manage your own investments, don’t try to force it. I don’t want you losing your hard-earned money in some stock that Robinhood thinks is a good asset for maybe five minutes. You deserve to put your money to work just like everyone else.

If you’re having trouble implementing your desired investing strategy, or you don’t have a strategy at all, it may be time to look to a professional for help. There are numerous types of financial advice that you can seek. I imagine my fellow beginners will have less than $25,000 or even less than $10,000 in investments. Though advisers usually only work with people who have more assets, a certified financial planner (CFP) or Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) is also qualified to help you.

When you decide it’s time for a financial adviser, there are two main types: fee- and commission-based advisers. You will want to avoid the commission-based professionals, since they will likely try to recommend investment products you don’t need just to make a little extra money for themselves. The fee-based adviser will charge you either an hourly fee or a percentage of your assets. Echoing what Ramit Sethi said in “How to Get Rich,” go for the hourly fee that will only be charged when you meet with your adviser. Over time, even 1% is too much for your adviser to take from your earnings.

If you would prefer not to work with a human being, in true millennial and Generation Z fashion, there are also robo-advisers. Robo-advisers will implement an automated investing strategy based on your answers to a survey. With some, you can choose your level of involvement if you want to have more of a say in what the robo-adviser does for you. According to Ken Schapiro of The Robo Report, the best overall robo-adviser in the industry has also been around the longest: Wealthfront. Be wary of robo-advisers that have just been developed in the last year or advertise that they are using new artificial intelligence (AI) technology. It’s best to use something tried and true in this industry so you don’t get ripped off by the robots!

A good relationship with a financial adviser should strike a balance somewhere between a colleague and a friend, but you should not be asking your friends for investing advice. My parents instilled this in me from an early age, and I remember meeting with their financial adviser around the time I went to college. He was very friendly and helpful, but he wasn’t someone they met or were recommended to work with through a friend. They found him independently, he had verified credentials and already had a long-standing career behind him. You can use the database provided by the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors to find someone reputable. Be sure to also do your own research and read reviews of anyone you are looking to meet with. Good luck, and happy, safe investing!

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Death & Taxes

Last year, I did my taxes for the first time since I started investing. This year, things are both simpler and more complicated, because why wouldn’t they be! I discovered that Cash App Taxes will let me file for free even though I paid some foreign tax on my investments—the one thing that made last year even more of a pain in the tax butt.

Cash App Taxes was hounding me to file my tax return even before my various banks got my forms together, but this was nothing compared to the TurboTax days when I would receive upward of three emails per week until I filed! The easiest part of this year’s taxes was that the account numbers and tax identification numbers for all my banks autofilled, which made the copy/paste process less intensive.

One of the first questions asked if any of the following applied to me:

Thankfully, I am not dead and proceeded to file my taxes!

I entered the interest income I received from each of my three savings accounts: my regular Fifth Third account and my high-yield accounts with SmartyPig and LendingClub. I noticed that my earned interest for SmartyPig was about 10% of the interest I received from LendingClub, which demonstrated how I use these accounts for different things. SmartyPig is used for short-term goals; money is flowing into and out of the account when it’s needed to fund these goals, leaving less money behind to accrue interest. My LendingClub account is for my intermediate-term goal of saving for property; since it has no reason to be tapped yet, it will continue increasing in value.

What made this year more difficult was reporting capital losses for the first time on some of the investments I sold from my portfolio in 2023. Besides the behavioral aspect of “losing,” the process required a lot of manual entry in Cash App Taxes, along with some creativity. (The instructions weren’t 100% clear, but I decided to follow what Charles Schwab provided me.) I had to enter the different lots of shares sold for some of the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) since I bought more shares at two different times in 2023.

I also had a 1099-MISC form for income I received as part of a settlement. Thankfully, this only required a few fields to be entered, so it was nothing compared to the investment part. The extra income likely counted against my tax refund amount, but that money went directly into my savings. This helped to increase the interest income I received from my high-yield savings accounts.

Though I will be receiving the smallest tax refund of my existence, I’m still getting a decent amount. I always have my tax refund deposited in my regular savings account, so I don’t feel the need to spend it. The state of Illinois is once again asking for more money than was already withheld from my paycheck because of the interest I received on my savings. But if I flip it on its head, my smaller tax refund could be a positive sign that I’m increasing my income. Shortly after I filed, my federal and state returns were accepted—so I will not be going to jail!

I’m hoping the process of filing my taxes will simplify itself over time, but I will keep you all updated on the process. If you have any tax horror stories, please share them in the comments below so we can all commiserate together!

Check out AAII’s annual Tax Guide for more.

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Spending on a Goal

I reached one of my short-term savings goals back in December, and the time has come to spend that money! Though I am doing a no-buy year, my short-term personal finance goals still need to be funded for what I know I will need to purchase this year: travel and accommodations, moving and continuing to invest.

My goals are the reason I want to stick to my no-buy plan as much as possible. However variable they might be, compartmentalizing the amount I have to save in order to reach the goals has made the process easier, and it gives me less room to make excuses for not saving enough.

The Saving

This is the first time I have done a more intricate budget for a goal using the AAII PRISM Wealth-Building Process. Created by AAII Journal editor Charles Rotblut, PRISM is a five-step method for aligning my investing decisions with my goals. Whenever I need to be reminded of what I’m saving for, I return to my Prioritizing Your Goals worksheet.

I used my SmartyPig high-yield savings account to save the $2,000 I allotted for seeing my favorite band the Kills in New York. The idea is to accrue interest on my savings over time instead of moving $2,000 from my emergency savings into this goal all at once. I transferred three installments of $500 over two months into my SmartyPig account, and by the time I had enough saved to reach $2,000, I had earned about $15 in interest. At this point, I didn’t need to transfer as much money in my final installment to finish the goal. While I spend on this goal, the amount I haven’t spent continues to earn interest.

The Spending

Once I reached my goal, I started gathering up how much I had spent on concert tickets, transportation and hotels. When a group of these charges came due on my credit card, I moved money from the SmartyPig savings goal back to my emergency savings account to pay it off. I have my credit card connected to my checking and regular savings account, but I don’t want to connect any other accounts to muddy the waters. Logistically, even connecting my emergency savings account is one too many, but I have it as a backup in case of—you guessed it—emergencies!


After spreadsheeting it, I determined how much I had spent planning the trip and how much I had left over for food and anything else I feel inclined to buy while in New York. I can keep this number in my head whenever I spend $14 on a sad sandwich at the airport, or $20 on an appetizer at dinner. Even with New York prices, I don’t think I will spend the full amount that’s left over, which means there will be some money ready to go for my next short-term savings goal: moving!

The Psychological Tax

While having money saved specifically for this goal and spending it was the plan all along, there’s the psychological effect of spending on a goal to consider. Technically, I am lowering my net worth by spending money on this goal. Put into perspective, the entire amount saved is roughly 6% of my net worth. Before sitting down to write this (just kidding, I’m 100% still in bed right now), I decided it would be a good idea to beef up my savings outside of this goal. I calculated how much I could save and transferred some of it to my SmartyPig account, which is separate from the goal I have set up, and some of it to my LendingClub account for my intermediate-term goal related to property. This way, I’m continuing to save as usual so I can build more of a cushion while I spend down part of my savings.

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Preparing for a No-Buy Year

The January algorithms got me: I have watched so many videos about people planning for a no-buy or low-buy year in 2024. This entails only buying what you absolutely need and keeping any excess to a minimum. Grace Nevitt on YouTube suggests making green light, yellow light and red light lists to divide up what you are required to buy in order to survive, what you are allowed to buy and what you shouldn’t be buying and/or buying more of.

Given the green light are things like bills, groceries, hygiene and cleaning products, along with whatever needs to be replaced. The yellow light list is for going out to dinner with friends, checking out museums and engaging in other forms of amusement that are more experiences than material things. The red light list consists of what you will not be buying this year. For me, this means I’m enforcing a one-in-one-out policy on books and records, and I don’t want to buy any subscriptions this year. It’s definitely time for me to get a library card! The whole process of making these lists is meant to give you pause before choosing to purchase something and bring it into your home where it will eventually just take up space unless you give it purpose.

I also watched some videos on Swedish death cleaning, but I’ll leave death out of it for now!

As someone who enjoys physical media, I grew up wanting to hang onto every good book I had ever read and have all my favorite albums on vinyl. But as I get older and schlep my entire life from place to place every few years, I want my material things to be imbued with more intention. I don’t need to have every record by Ty Segall on vinyl—the man is beyond prolific and shows no signs of stopping! Instead, I can just have my favorites on hand that bring me the most joy. In the past I was quite the voracious reader, consuming more than 50 books per year. But in recent years I have slowed down to less than half that, and I recently discovered that I have the same number of books left to read on my shelves as I read in 2023—I truly don’t need any more books this year!

Upon declaring that I was in a no-buy year, I promptly fixed a four-year dilemma and bought myself a new desk. Technically, I have never had a proper desk since I moved out on my own. I had a vanity that eventually became my desk when I started working from home during the pandemic. Bless my dad for helping me put it together—because it was stressful for everyone involved—but the single drawer has never pulled out easily, and the top has always been such a diva to clean. I’m willing to finally part with it to have something functional with proper storage for an adult’s number of papers and problems!

While working on my green light list, I noted other things that I need to replace this year. I could really use a new kitchen pot and pan, but I have something in mind that will do the job of both those vessels and more. Another idea I picked up from these videos is to choose the option that brings the most value into your home. If there’s a gadget that can do more than the object it’s replacing, it will add more functionality and take up less space. I love organizing and decluttering, so this is my bread and butter. One day I will reach the final-boss level of efficiency, and I’ll spend my entire life getting there if I have to!

Overall, buying less in 2024 means that I will have more money to gain momentum on all my goals. Instead of causing dread, enforcing a no-buy year makes me excited to see what my money will do this year. Buying less is also better for the environment, so this ties into my sustainable investing strategy. Instead of having three or four backup toothpastes, I only want to buy toothpaste when I’m close to running out of it to avoid hoarding. I also don’t want to spend more time thinking about what I don’t have, feeding into a scarcity mindset. Focusing on using what I already have and still buying myself a little treat here and there is the goal. I’m choosing to limit any large/replacement purchases to once per quarter. My new desk was my first-quarter qualifier, and the amount of happiness it has already brought me solidifies that I made the right choice.

Do you think you would be able to do a no-buy year? What would be on your red light list? Let me know in the comments below!

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I read this so you don’t have to! Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich by Lois Frankel

This book review exists thanks to former AAII finance writer Matt Bajkowski who fished “Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich” by Lois Frankel, Ph.D., out of a bargain bin for $1, handed it to me and said, “For the blog!” The first thing to know about this book is it was published in 2005, so it’s full of antiquated advice—much of it geared toward married women. However, I thought it would still be a helpful exercise to see what was being touted to women in the early 2000s and if I could learn anything new that I haven’t from the many other finance books that now exist by women, for women.

Frankel covers women and wealth, getting in the money game, taking charge of your financial life, spending your money wisely, learning money basics, saving and investing for future wealth, maximizing your financial potential at work and playing it smart with your money. Chapter one encourages women to define what “rich” means to them. Frankel believes that women are given conflicting messages about money: We are told to spend wisely and save what we can but also be nurturing and helpful to others, creating a “double bind.” To get us out of this double standard, she points out another, “Whereas a woman may be called a ‘rich bitch,’ there are no similarly pejorative terms to describe a man.”

A table in the book presents the differences between how men and women use money. According to the table, men use money to prepare for the future, while women use money to create a lifestyle in the present. Likewise, men ask for “what they want” but women ask for “what they think they deserve.” Though these are a bit absolutist and don’t apply to everyone, I personally think this moment from Mad Men shows the difference even better!


The first chapter also has a self-assessment to determine where you are at on your personal finance journey. Each statement fits into a category that corresponds to a chapter of the book. For instance, #9 is part of the “taking charge of your financial life” category: “I have a plan in place for how to survive financially if something catastrophic were to happen (sudden loss of a job, loss of a spouse or partner, etc.).” Adding up the true statements in each category leads to a total score. My score of 24 landed me in the middle: “You’ve made a good start, but you’re nowhere near the finish line. Focus on those areas where you still have difficulty with becoming financially independent. You’ll find that small changes pay big dividends.”

I guess by 2005 standards, I’m slacking in the personal finance department (probably because I don’t balance my checkbook!). But I’d say a lot has changed since then, even if the low-rise jeans have cycled back into rotation. My higher scores in the “spending your money wisely” and “saving and investing for future wealth” categories signal that I’m on the right track.

It wouldn’t be an early 2000s book without a whisper of “the media” that was beginning to take over our lives. Frankel’s “Sex and the City” reference was a welcome surprise, “If you were to be the media’s ideal representation of the perfect woman, you would be thin, blond, and twenty-five. Kind of like the women on Sex and the City. The only stock you would own would be a ‘stockpile’ of Manolo Blahnik shoes!”

Speaking of women and bad spending habits, the chapter about spending your money wisely has pages upon pages covering the same problem in different fonts: “emotionally driven purchases,” “impulse buying” and “guilt shopping trips.” It almost reads like her publisher wanted her to fill out this chapter with more mistakes women were making to make us all feel worse about ourselves! We have a lot more clarity now around the way women spend money, which practically stimulates the entire economy. Women using their money to create a lifestyle in the present doesn’t have to be a bad thing for personal finance, it just needs to be balanced out with more of an eye on the future.

The discussion I found most fruitful was around giving and how women are taught to avoid being greedy: “Ask yourself whether you have what you want, what you deserve, and what others have. If the word greedy comes to mind, exorcise it from your vocabulary. Women who worry that they’re just being greedy are usually the last ones who should be worrying about it. Greedy people don’t think of themselves as greedy. They simply insist on receiving everything they think is due them—which is usually more than they deserve in actuality, and that’s why we call them greedy!”

As a chronic overthinker who has been told “Wow, you think about a lot of things,” I like to apply this lesson to other aspects of my life. If I’m consciously thinking about something, it means I care about it and I’m willing to allocate my own precious time and brainpower to it. On the flip side, it means that someone who doesn’t think about those things probably doesn’t care or doesn’t have the capacity to handle them. In terms of money, this would mean they are blindly taking advantage of a system that already works for them—they never had to think twice (or even once!).

As a Jewish woman, Frankel also discusses tzedakah and using money to do good: “I’m a huge believer in sharing one’s wealth—whether it’s a wealth of time, money, or resources. In fact, in Jewish households there’s often something called a tzedakah—a small box into which you put money for the less fortunate. Interestingly, the word tzedakah is the Hebrew term for charity … meaning justice or fairness. So it’s not necessarily true that you share money because you are altruistic; rather, you feel it’s the right or just thing to do.”

Despite the overload of anti-shopping advice and some old URLs that no longer go anywhere, I enjoyed seeing how all of Frankel’s ideas fit together. “Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich” emphasizes the importance of financial thinking for women to address the causes instead of the symptoms, but it leans heavily on the idea that women can be rich if they just act a little more like men. I’ve read enough books that discount this idea entirely, so I don’t want to put too much anachronistic pressure on the book itself. If it weren’t for this book and Frankel’s work, women wouldn’t have had this stepping stone to get where we are today in the world of money.

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Adding a New Climate Leader and Evaluating My Net Worth

Happy new year, it’s time to check in on my portfolio! At the middle of 2023, my portfolio consisted of five index exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that fit my sustainable investing strategy. It has been pretty difficult to find investments for this approach, so I have had to learn as I go, stretching some of my rules to fit what is available to invest in. The financial industry is still catching up to the environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement, so some patience is required!

The two troublemakers I decided to keep in my portfolio last year have continued to be unimpressive: the Global X CleanTech ETF (CTEC) and the Global X Wind Energy ETF (WNDY). They have average As You Sow grades of B, but Global X CleanTech still has a gender equality grade of F and Global X Wind Energy’s fossil fuels grade remains at C—both grounds for deletion in my strategy. Though their expense ratios are favorable at 0.50%, they are the two worst performers in my portfolio, down 30.8% and 23.6% since addition.

When I searched for possible replacements for these two ETFs, I struggled to find even one that qualified. I began my quest on As You Sow, but the highest-graded ETFs on fossil fuels were severely lacking in all other areas: deforestation, gender equality, civilian firearms and military weapons, prison industrial complex and tobacco. So many had grades of D or F—a far cry from sustainable. I also used AAII’s ETF screener to see if I was missing anything, but the ETFs I found with low expense ratios had abysmal As You Sow grades.

Finally, I stumbled on the Etho Climate Leadership U.S. ETF (ETHO). It has an average As You Sow grade of B, with a gender equality grade of C. It has an expense ratio of 0.45%, which is below my 0.60% threshold. However, it has an expense ratio grade of C compared to its category. I’m trying to invest in ETFs with expense ratio grades of A or B, but I’m choosing to make an exception in this case. Ultimately, this expense ratio is lower than that of my two deletion candidates, meaning it will cost me less to hold it. Etho Climate Leadership also has decent five-year performance but significantly underperformed the market last year along with most stocks and ETFs.

Since I could only find one ETF to add to my portfolio, only one ETF will be deleted. The worst of the two, Global X CleanTech, has got to go! That gender equality grade of F has been dragging it down for too long, and it’s not even helping my portfolio’s performance—what’s the point?

Though I said in my blog post about reprioritizing my goals that I would invest another $2,000 in my Charles Schwab brokerage account if I made changes to my portfolio, I discovered that I should have enough between the proceeds from removing Global X CleanTech and the cash balance in my portfolio to invest an amount in Etho Climate Leadership that is equal to my other holdings. I’m choosing not to add more money this time because I’m also funding some other short-term goals. However, at my midyear portfolio review, I will invest more money into each position regardless of whether changes are made since I’ve been so consistent with my saving.

Speaking of saving, when I was evaluating my portfolio, I also calculated my net worth. I have been tracking my net worth on a quarterly basis consistently since October 2022. Since then, my net worth has increased by a cumulative 45.6%! I have added around $10,000 to my net worth, and I’m excited to see how the next year goes. Time to get even more competitive with myself!

Given all this traction I’ve made on my overall finances, I wanted to see how my net worth stacked up. According to The Hill, as of November 2023, the median net worth for those under age 35 is $39,000, while the average is $183,500. My net worth is below the median for my age range but not by so much that I couldn’t surpass it before turning 35. This gives me some idea of a goal to set for my rate of saving and increasing my net worth going forward.

Wishing you all a prosperous 2024!

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