03/14/2022: Weekly Briefing
Reflecting on International Women’s Day this past week, it reminded me that I have had mixed feelings about finance things that are marketed specifically to women (newsletters, events, groups, etc.). On the one hand, I have found that they can be helpful. They have given me a space to be recognized as a unique voice within the men-dominated industry. It also allows women to come at finance with a different perspective, where things like the ‘pink tax’ and cost of pregnancy and infertility (especially in the US!) can be very top of mind.
On the other hand, I get immediately indignant when I sometimes hear about ‘finance for women.’ I interpret it as an inherent judgment that women aren’t smart or quick witted enough to discuss finance with men. That we can’t be good at it without coddling and hand holding.
This especially infuriates me as I think the actual issue is that the finance industry has used convoluted jargon to maintain its moat. It’s not that we aren’t capable of it, it’s that many people in the industry–frequently, men–talk in circles and drop non-stop industry jargon. (Believe me…I’ve worked with a lot of them.) The industry has an incentive to make financial concepts seem complicated so you feel like you need to hire an advisor or portfolio manager to help you through it.
Sometimes a specialist is helpful; for example, if you’re training to get in shape and want to use the help of a trainer to keep you disciplined, on schedule, and focused on your goals. But sometimes it’s perfectly fine to manage your workouts on your own, maybe with the help of an app, friends, or solo.
I’ve felt really conflicted about this dichotomy. When I started Wallet Street, I intentionally did not single out women as my audience. For one, gender is more fluid than just men & women, and I take issue that my content has to be geared to one or the other. As my therapist says, it can also be both, and.
When I set up my website, I avoided using any colors traditionally associated with women-targeted marketing, like pink and purple. Instead, I focused on writing clear content for all types of readers. Some of my readers work in finance/crypto, and some are in completely other careers (medicine, journalism, non-profit, among others). Some are retired and others are just starting out their careers. I am really proud of that diversity.
But lately I have been second guessing myself. As I’ve worked on growing Wallet Street’s subscriber list, I’ve thought about narrowing my focus to just women. I thought maybe the newsletter would take off more that way…? But before making a decision I decided to put out a poll. Here are the results.
I was very surprised at how split the results were. It validated my perspective that I’m probably not the only woman who feels conflicted about this, and it tells me that women should not be lumped together in one group. (Which shouldn’t be surprising! There are a lot of us. Shocker- we don’t all think alike.)
So for now I will continue my mission to untangle financial spaghetti to all.
What are your thoughts?
Other comments:
It’s been 10 years since I lived in Brazil which is WILD to me. Feels like no time has passed at all, and yet so much has happened. Click here for my bonus post about it.
401K rollover journey: The latest update in my journey to consolidate 401K accounts is that 2 out of 3 accounts have successfully been deposited! I still have 1 left, but am getting a second wind with the momentum of having the other 2 completed.
Articles: I’ve heard from many of you that you’re struggling to open links to articles. Click here for articles.
Money & Crypto
How people make money from staking and yield farming in crypto. Honestly, I still don’t think I fully understand farm yield farming. I think I’ll need to reread this article a couple times.(Wired)
Amazon annouces 20-for-1 stock split (next week I’ll talk more about how these work) (WSJ)
Public acquires Otis, platform that allows you to be a partial investor in things like art, sneakers, and NFTs (Crunchbase)
StateStreet to custody crypto (CoinDesk)
FTX to start using Stripe for payments verification (Stripe)
Etc.
Apparently Daylight Savings was yesterday, which I found out well into the afternoon.
📺 TopChef is back and taking place in Houston this time…which Padma said is the 4th largest city in the US. That kinda blew my mind. I’m embarassed to say I never realized how big it is.
It’s Girl Scout cookie season (yay!). These are your favorites:
Podcast Pick of the Week
🎧New Yorker cartoonist David Sipress talks about achieving his childhood dream to have his cartoons in the New Yorker and how he comes up with. This made me deep dive into the best New Yorker cartoons.
Disclaimer: All opinions are my own. The content on this site and on the podcast does not constitute financial, legal, accounting, tax, or investment advice.
