But as she got older, she began to realize that mastering money was her ticket out of poverty and abuse—and she set out to learn as much as possible about business, personal finance and building wealth.

Today, she’s helping others do the same with Empower HER Money, a podcast about financial independence and entrepreneurship. Duncan is also a financial consultant for the private investment firm Drive Planning and author of the book Empower YOUR Money: 101 Simple Ways for Female Entrepreneurs to Create Financial Freedom.

Her journey hasn’t been easy. But Duncan hopes that, by sharing the many lessons she’s learned along the way, she can help other women take control of their finances and build the life they want—just like she did.

“It took me a long time to tell my story,” she says. “I was embarrassed about growing up in poverty and the childhood I endured. But actually, it was a blessing…. When you grow up with money, you don’t always appreciate the work that goes into it. [My upbringing] taught me how to work hard and understand the value of a dollar. It drove me forward. I thought, ‘If I just worked harder, if I just had more education, then I would be able to accomplish things.’”

‘That’s what makes them happy’

Duncan’s childhood was filled with hardship. Even so, she was always an entrepreneurial kid. She remembers going door to door with her cousins, trying to sell origami creations for 25 cents apiece.

In high school, she saw that her peers lived in nice houses and drove their own cars to school while she was stuck taking the city bus. This only further fueled her desire to change her situation. “I thought, ‘They must have more money than we do. That’s what makes them happy,’” she says. “I had this idea that money was important, and so I should learn more and study it in school. That’s what started me on my financial journey.”

Heart-centered investing

When Duncan turned 18, she signed her own lease and finally broke free from her troubled family situation. She put herself through college by working multiple jobs. It took five years, but she graduated with a degree in accounting and finance from California State University San Marcos.

One of those jobs was at a bank, which opened her eyes to the inner workings of the nation’s money system. While there, Duncan began working for a female financial adviser, who taught her about investing—and, more specifically, about the unique way women tend to approach finances.

“As women, we’re heart-centered. And I could just tell when she sat with a client, she cared about them and they could feel that from her,” Duncan says. “When someone knows you care about them, then they’re going to listen to what you have to say. If you miss that piece, then you become a salesperson, which is what a lot of men in our world do.”

Duncan got her real estate license in 2007—just as the Great Recession hit and right before the housing market crashed. But that was just another hurdle to overcome. Working alongside her now-ex-husband, she helped build a thriving real estate business in Tampa, Florida.

As the couple’s income grew, they prioritized reinvesting in themselves and their business. They hired a coach, read library books, watched YouTube videos and attended every training course available through their brokerage. They also actively networked with other professionals, even those who were outside their field, to glean helpful insights and tidbits.

“No matter where you are in life, no matter what business you’re running, you have to invest in your own education,” Duncan says.

Helping others

Though her marriage ultimately ended in divorce, Duncan got a chance at a fresh start. She moved to Miami, where she started and grew a successful insurance company. She sold that business in February 2023 and had planned on retiring but quickly grew bored, as entrepreneurs often do. Duncan began booking speaking engagements and realized she had a passion for sharing her own hard-earned knowledge with others. Her college-aged daughter suggested she try reaching an even bigger audience by launching a podcast.

That was in June 2023, and since then, Duncan has put out more than 200 free episodes. She invites female entrepreneurs onto the show, where they talk about their successes and challenges, as well as share tips for listeners. Her private investing work is another avenue for helping people reach their financial goals.

“It has taken me a long time to get to where I’m at, which is why I’m so passionate about teaching women about money,” she says. “I break it down into simple steps so they can create their own goals, take action and work toward financial freedom. I can be their cheerleader and help them along the way.”

Duncan’s advice for achieving financial success

1. Get familiar

Before you can improve your financial situation, you need to have a solid understanding of your income and expenses. It might seem daunting, but Duncan recommends printing out three months of bank and credit card statements and then setting aside 30 distraction-free minutes to comb through them. “Because what you’re going to find if you haven’t done this is that you’re wasting money,” she says. “And if you find things that are not serving your financial goals, like subscriptions, cancel them.”

2. Pick one lane

If you’re curious about investing but don’t know where to start, Duncan suggests focusing on just one strategy that interests you. “Maybe you love cars, so you’re going to invest in antique cars,” she says. “Pick one lane, [then] spend the time to educate yourself.”

3. Align your values

Before you go into business or invest your money with someone, do your due diligence. “Ask them questions about their values,” she says. “We don’t know how someone’s going to react until crunch time. Ask them, ‘What would happen if we had a downturn in the market? How would you respond?’”

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2024 issue of SUCCESS magazine. Photo by ©Daria Loff

The post Entrepreneur Angela Duncan Shares Her Inspiring Journey to Financial Success appeared first on SUCCESS.

Why do people opt to divorce later in life? Certainly, longevity plays a role. Since American women live an average of 79 years, some women may opt for divorce around age 50 rather than living another 29 years in an unhappy marriage.

Gray divorce and financial dynamics

Nancy Hetrick, a certified divorce financial analyst and the founder and CEO of Smarter Divorce Solutions, says she also often sees clients aging differently—men tend to choose more sedentary lives while women remain active and more engaged later in life. The Women’s Liberation Movement has also had an impact, she observes. “When I meet with these women independently, they’re like, ‘I’m done. I’m done being someone’s slave. [And] I’m done being someone’s caregiver. I’m done being told what I can do and what I can’t do.’”

Additionally, Hetrick saw the COVID-19 pandemic playing a role in divorce rates—when partners were isolated in the home, relationship dynamics came into clear focus.

While divorce can be financially disruptive at any age, the stakes are higher among this age group, which is closer to or is already living in retirement. In this phase, splitting income and assets can have more perilous impacts for divorcing peoples’ abilities to support themselves—particularly women.

Chris Chen, a Boston-based certified divorce financial analyst with Insight Financial Strategists observes that his clients’ primary concerns are whether there will be enough money to support themselves after divorce. “In most of the cases, the wife is the one who makes less money,” he says. “And she’s very scared about what is going to happen afterwards.” Divorce, Chen adds, is therefore “an act of courage.”

The financial dynamics of divorce can also play out differently among those experiencing early gray divorce—between age 50 and retirement age—and later divorce during retirement—age 67 and older. However, there are some common approaches.

Gray divorce among 50-somethings

People in their 50s are likely still earning an income. Because of this, their divorces look different than those of people in retirement. “They’ve been planning [for] retirement as a couple,” Hetrick says. “Now they each have half as much money. But they’re still that close to retirement. So now they’re behind. They may have to work longer, [and] they may have to save more, to even get to the point where they can retire.”

Although some may think child support isn’t relevant in this age group, Chen claims that because women are increasingly having children later in life, child support for minors can still be a divorce discussion point for 50-somethings.

In this age group, even if one spouse earns more than the other, alimony is less likely to be awarded. Nor is it a long-term solution. “Alimony is going the way of the dinosaur,” Hetrick says. Divorce was once seen as the breach of a lifetime contract. Alimony was intended to make someone whole based on that contract.

“Fast forward 50 years. Women are not financially dependent on men anymore,” Hetrick adds. “And multiple marriages are the norm. Now it’s not ‘til death do us part;’ it’s ‘marriage until it’s not fun anymore.’ So, in almost every state now, alimony is awarded on a rehabilitative basis, just long enough for the recipient to become self-sufficient.”

Gray divorce and self-sufficiency

Judges determine the amount needed to be self-sufficient, not the divorced person. But that award is not necessarily tied to the marital standard of living. Alimony is seen as a runway to another future and may only be granted for a short period of time. This is order to allow the recipient to go back to school and earn a certificate or degree that makes them more employable or find stable employment. 

“Health insurance is a key consideration for people in this age group,” Hetrick says. Often, one spouse carries the health insurance through their job. When a couple divorces, one spouse is left without insurance. If they divorce before the spouse is eligible for Medicare, that person may face formidable insurance costs. And often, because of their age, they may have ongoing or chronic health conditions to boot. Budgeting for health insurance is vital when determining spousal support and whether the division of assets will cover future expenses.

Gray divorce among retirees

When retirees divorce, neither is earning income. So, spousal support exits stage left. And the division of assets steps into the spotlight. If the division of assets isn’t sufficient to support each partner in their retirement, the divorcing parties must get creative.

Hetrick notes that another key issue is Social Security. If one partner spent a significant amount of time at home with children rather than working, their Social Security benefits can be significantly less than their spouse’s. This is even if they were later employed. That may not be equitable. So, sharing these benefits can be negotiated as part of the divorce agreement.

Marital housing

Housing is also vital to agree upon. If one partner stays in the marital home, a reverse mortgage—which Hetrick assures are now fully regulated and insured and are no longer the scam vehicles they were in the ‘80s—may become a viable option. The partner leaving the marital home may also want to consider a reverse mortgage purchase with the equity the home has gained. “It’s just a really wonderful piece of flexibility and creativity for these couples,” she says.

However, Hetrick also encourages older couples to consider if staying in a large home is the best path. A condo or independent living situation may be a better solution for this phase of life. “Maybe this is actually an opportunity for both of them to kind of reimagine the last phase of their lives,” she says.

Updating estate planning is also essential. If one partner remarries after a gray divorce without an up-to-date estate plan, their new spouse may be able to lay claim to all their assets. This can leave both their previous partner and all adult or minor children from that previous marriage in the lurch.

Recovering from gray divorce

Chen says that no matter his clients’ age groups, he asks his clients three questions:

1. “Where are they [financially] today?”
2. “Where are they going to be [financially] at the time of divorce?”
3. “Where are they going to be [financially] 15 years after the divorce?”

To answer these questions, the divorcing partners must first understand how much they earn (gross pay vs. net pay), how much money they have in assets (including retirement accounts) and how much equity they have in their home. Assessing the partners’ financial earnings and assets is a requirement of the legal system. It’s also a valuable exercise to determine how to divide resources.

Dividing assets

Partners must also discuss asset division. This may be dramatically influenced by where they live. Community property states divide debts, assets and property equally, while equitable distribution states take a broader view on splitting financial holdings fairly. 

“Whether couples arrive at where they want to be 15 years post-divorce is the measure of the financial success of the divorce,” Chen says. But getting there requires planning. Whether it involves advocating for alimony as a bridge, claiming a divorcing spouse as a dependent on health insurance, renting out the marital home to tenants as an income stream and downsizing. Or any other creative steps. Whatever the path, a financial divorce expert is a vital guide.

“[For] people getting a divorce over 65, this is the population that it is imperative that they involve a financial specialist,” Hetrick says. “Mistakes there are deadly—it can really set them up for some disasters.”

Photo courtesy of Prostock-studio/Shutterstock

The post How to Recover Financially From a Gray Divorce appeared first on SUCCESS.

Managing money anxiety isn’t always just a matter of making a budget or choosing the right investments. Money is interwoven with our emotions, from happiness to concerns, and these emotions affect the decisions we make.

What’s a financial therapist?

Financial therapists help people navigate their feelings about money. According to the Financial Therapy Association, the field is “a process informed by both therapeutic and financial competencies that helps people think, feel, communicate and behave differently with money to improve overall well-being through evidence-based practices and interventions.”

These certified therapists can approach the field from different perspectives. Some may be certified financial planners or other types of financial professionals, while others may be licensed counselors first. Each becomes a certified financial therapist to inform their practice and add tools they can use to help their clients navigate the complex relationship between money and emotions. As Simi Mandelbaum, founder of Prospr Financial Wellness, says, “I marry spreadsheets with the therapy couch.”

What does a financial therapist do?

Mandelbaum says as a financial therapist she takes a step back from budgeting worksheets to talk to clients about their money personalities—and about how their approach to finances, such as spending or saving, impacts the subconscious ways they make decisions. “Studies show that [decision-making] is 90% emotional and 10% logical,” Mandelbaum says. “We are emotional beings.” She gives the example of walking by a bakery, smelling something delicious and buying it—regardless of any previous commitment to not eat out that week. “When people don’t understand their own money mindset, their thinking is just a numbers game. And very few people… actually stick to logical components… it’s often not a long-term result because it can’t be. We’re not driven by numbers,” she says.

That’s not to say there’s no place for spreadsheets in financial therapy. “Numbers are super important… because the numbers represent what your values are today,” she says. Knowing where her clients spend reveals whether their expenses line up with what’s important to them. With these values in mind, she can help them develop a budget. “It’s all going to help us create a personal cash flow system that works for you, as opposed to a system that’s just a lot of good points and makes sense, but will not work in reality,” she says.

She guides clients through identifying their money personalities and values via a series of thought games that distance them from their particular (and stressful) circumstances. For example, she may ask if when dining out they feel the need to pay for others, have others pay for them or split the check—to help identify whether they feel drawn to care for others, be cared for or be independent with money.

She says departing from what clients have seen and heard about money in their childhood or through adult experiences is difficult. “Creating our own path is not natural. It’s hard,” she says. “If you don’t have a mentor to look toward, you don’t know where you’re headed; you’re grasping at something.” Financial therapy helps people “realize where they’re at and where they want to go to create a better future for themselves,” she says. 

Key sources of financial anxiety

Mandelbaum has personally experienced financial stress. Her time as a single mother and breadwinner for five children caused anxiety and taught her about her own money mindset. Her desire to share her real-world lessons inspired her career pivot from the health field into financial wellness. She says she hears three causes of financial anxiety most commonly from clients:

1. A shift in income, up or down
2. High debt
3. A new phase of life, such as getting married, having a baby, or retiring

Confront your changing income

Money equals happiness, right? Not necessarily. More money can also be stressful. A Princeton University study published in 2010 found that, on average, emotional well-being increased as income increased—to a point. At around $75,000 per year, it seemed to plateau. A subsequent 2021 University of Pennsylvania study found that as income grows, happiness continues to grow for some, well beyond the $75,000 threshold. But a more recent study from both teams of researchers identified numerous complexities reinforcing that money just doesn’t buy happiness for everyone. “It’s not just how much money [they have], but how they feel toward that money that’s going to make the difference,” Mandelbaum says.

Drops in income can also lead to anxiety. She walks clients through potential debt solutions to find ones that will cause the least stress for them. Some people feel more comfortable trying to earn more, while others wish to cut back. Money mindset determines the best tactic for that individual. 

Learn how to rethink debt

Mandelbaum says managing debt requires looking at the cause: Is it debt someone has carried for a long time, or is it revolving debt from impulse spending? Is it debt from a medical or other type of emergency or a student loan or debt from overspending? Determining these factors affects the approach not only to paying off debt but to keeping it off. “We first want to see the person’s personality, see how they are, see what would be the best approach to handle that debt,” Mandelbaum says. 

Manage the stress of combining finances 

Mandelbaum’s clients often come to her for help at one particular phase of life—when combining finances with a partner—which can cause conflict and, you guessed it, stress. “I always say there’s no way that my husband can be my head. It’s never gonna happen. If I have that expectation, we will never be happy,” she says. The key to less stressful financial interactions with a partner involves recognizing that each has a separate reality—and often a separate money personality—but that they share goals.

Each of these sources of financial anxiety share a cause: uncertainty. Mandelbaum says uncertainty in any area of life is one of the hardest things humans confront. She helps clients navigate uncertainty by having them identify areas of their life they can control—and those they can’t. “At some point, you realize you think you have more control than you actually do,” she says.

She also coaches clients not to ignore or banish their worries, but to accept the presence of these thoughts while lessening their impact. She even advises talking to the part of themselves that feels anxious. “Once you realize that it’s not you, it’s part of you, but it’s not you, then you can talk to [the] worry… and the judgment zone in your head,” she says. She teaches clients to try to identify if the source of their anxiety is real—or if it just feels that way. “We don’t always have to take those feelings seriously,” she observes.

Photo courtesy Beautrium/Shutterstock.com

The post How to Manage Financial Anxiety, According to a Financial Therapist appeared first on SUCCESS.

She was just 24, earning $90,000 a year (“More money than I had ever seen in my life!”) as a government contractor in Washington, D.C. when she realized that she was making almost $25,000 less than the average salary for her position.

Williams had taken on more responsibilities at her job a few months prior. A colleague left the company, doubling her workload, and the company had no plans to replace him. Burned out and buried under work, she knew it was time to take action. She researched the market to discover what a job with her new scope of work would pay. Spoiler alert: Way more. 

Facing unfair compensation

When she brought her findings to her boss, he told her that she had to be with the company for at least a year before she would even qualify for a raise. And, then, it couldn’t be more than a 3-5% increase. It was “a rude awakening” for Williams to discover that she was not being fairly compensated and that an accepted offer is often difficult, or impossible, to change.

Williams decided to look for a new job and negotiate her pay for the first time in her life. At her initial interview, a recruiter asked her what her salary requirements were. She was about to say $105,000. That’s when she took a breath and asked, “What is your budget?” When the recruiter answered “$115,000,” she realized that she had almost undercut herself by $10,000 dollars.

“That was the moment… I was very much impacted by pay transparency,” says Williams, now 27. Williams loved the job and felt well compensated. “But I just couldn’t shake the experience and couldn’t move on from it,” she says.

Williams decided she wanted to help others get paid what they deserved. She began creating videos on her own personal TikTok account, sharing her experience, her salary, her negotiation techniques and how she found her market rate. Her videos went viral.

A TikTok Star Is Born

“I just had this light bulb idea,” she says. “Let me go out on the street and ask people how much they make—because people obviously want to know this—and what better way to show the value of transparency than by talking to strangers?”

She and her husband, James Daniels, filmed her first interview in Georgetown in northwest Washington, D.C., on April 16, 2022, and posted it later that night. By the next day, it had already gone viral. Three weeks later, she quit her job to pursue her new influencer career full time; her husband joined her one month later. Her channel, Salary Transparent Street, had 1.3 million followers at the time of publication, and she usually shares around five to six new videos a week.

Williams had tapped into an audience hungry for this shadowy information—knowledge that had been buried by corporate gatekeepers for ages: Just how much were people actually getting paid?

Breaking a ‘Taboo’

“Pay transparency is taboo because corporations have told us it is,” she says. “I think it’s a matter of working people being victimized by capitalism and corporate America because employees are the only ones who benefit from pay transparency.”

In fact, women and minorities are positioned to benefit from pay transparency most of all. If you identify with any group who is affected by bias in any form, “you are probably gonna be affected by pay secrecy,” Williams says. But, by openly discussing salaries, people become aware of pay gaps in their field based on gender, race, disability, age and other factors. This awareness can empower marginalized groups to better advocate for themselves and negotiate more effectively.

According to Williams, pay disparities on an institutional level are due to individuals deciding salaries, rather than companies establishing specific, predetermined pay structures that create a more even playing field. She believes that setting pay structures can provide more pay transparency and fairness. “I think a lot of corporations see [calculating salaries] as ‘Houdini Math,’” she says. “[But,] it’s really just making sure that you understand what the pay bands are for different roles in your organization, from a high end to a low end.”

Williams cites companies like the software company Buffer who are doing this well. A fully salary-transparent company since 2010, Buffer openly shares their formula for salaries and compensation directly on their website. However, for those companies who are slow to change, many local and state governments are passing laws to force them to adapt.

Legislating Pay Transparency

Currently, several states and jurisdictions have pay transparency laws. Williams cites California, Nevada, Washington and Colorado as leaders in the movement. Williams, herself, was asked to testify in support of new Washington, D.C., legislation for pay transparency, which was signed by Mayor Muriel Bowser in January. The law requires all employers to list the salary ranges in job descriptions, and they are prohibited from asking about employees’ previous salary history. Williams testified on behalf of a similar law in Virginia.

Williams sees salary transparency as a nonpartisan issue. “[It’s] not a left or right issue,” she says. “It’s a pro-worker issue.” Williams’ goal is to get as involved as possible with different legislation; she hopes to travel to some red states and lobby their representatives to see the value of legislation like this as a bilateral bill.

A push for pay equity

But, even if you live in a state without any pay transparency laws, Williams has created a valuable resource that can help you earn more. Together with her team, she launched a comprehensive salary database in July 2023, available for free on her Salary Transparent Street website, where you can search over 10,000 salaries—for positions ranging from nurse to IT director to accountant—in all 50 states.

Williams says the database is a way of taking their street interviews one step further, as they can “only be in so many places at once,” she says. “Our database is really cool because it builds in the contextual factors needed to do correct market research.” Data points include things such as years of experience, educational background, location, even industry and company size. All information is submitted completely anonymously to protect privacy.

“[The database] is our way of taking pay transparency to the next level and really turning our brand not just into a media platform,” she says. “But into a technology that helps people with their market research…. Having confidence [in negotiation] comes from doing that market research…. It makes the negotiation 10 times easier because it lets you spot a good offer and a bad offer. Once you know how much you’re worth, it’s easier to negotiate within that range.”

How to Get What You Deserve in Your Next Negotiation

Here are Hannah Williams’ top three tips for negotiating your best salary:

1. Just do it.

Many job seekers are scared to negotiate. Anytime you are offered a salary, whether for a new job or a promotion, think of the first offer as a suggestion. If you accept the first offer, you are almost certainly leaving money on the table.

2. Come to every conversation prepared with market research.

Understand what your market rate is for your position and location. When in doubt, talk to others in your field and check out the database on Salary Transparent Street. Your market rate should have a $20,000 range from the middle to the top. Giving yourself that wiggle room affords you space to negotiate.

3. Start high.

It’s easier to work down from the top of your range than from the bottom. So, aim high.

Bonus: Don’t focus solely on base salary. Smaller companies often have less money to work with, but they can often make that up with other benefits such as paid time off, 401(k) matching and a hybrid schedule. Get creative. 

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2024 issue of SUCCESS magazine. Photo by @Brandon Showers/Courtesy of Hannah Williams

The post Unlock Your Earning Potential with Pay Transparency: Insights from Social Influencer Hannah Williams appeared first on SUCCESS.

And since there are no trees growing free cash and no dollar bills raining from the sky into our purses and wallets, most of us live in a world of budgets. But the good thing is, when you take control of your money, you take control of your life, too.

Here are 40 quotes to inspire you to really appreciate your hard-earned money.

Making Money Quotes

• “Finance is not merely about making money. It’s about achieving our deep goals and protecting the fruits of our labor. It’s about stewardship and, therefore, about achieving the good society.” —Robert J. Shiller

• “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”— Warren Buffett

• “There is a gigantic difference between earning a great deal of money and being rich.” — Marlene Dietrich

• “Financial freedom is available to those who learn about it and work for it.” —Robert Kiyosaki

• “Change your focus, from making money to serving more people. Serving more people makes the money come in.”— Robert Kiyosaki

• “Making money is a hobby that will complement any other hobbies you have, beautifully.” —Scott Alexander

• “Making money is easy. It is. The difficult thing in life is not making it, it’s keeping it.” —John McAfee

• “Money is usually attracted, not pursued.” —Jim Rohn

• “Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.” —Andy Warhol

• “The key to making money is to stay invested.” —Suze Orman

• “The time making money should be greater than the time that you are spending money.” —Sophia Amoruso

• “Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will.” —Nelson Mandela

Related: How to Create a Budget in 6 Simple Steps

Saving Money Quotes

• “A simple fact that is hard to learn is that the time to save money is when you have some.”—Joe Moore

• “The habit of saving is itself an education; it fosters every virtue, teaches self-denial, cultivates the sense of order, trains to forethought and so broadens the mind.” —T.T. Munger

• “Financial peace isn’t the acquisition of stuff. It’s learning to live on less than you make, so you can give money back and have money to invest. You can’t win until you do this.” —Dave Ramsey

• “A penny saved is a penny earned.” – Benjamin Franklin

• “It’s not how much money you make, but how much money you keep, how hard it works for you and how many generations you keep it for.” —Robert Kiyosaki

• “The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it in your back pocket.”—Will Rogers

• “If you would be wealthy, think of saving, as well as of getting. Away, then, with your expensive follies, and you will not have then so much reason to complain of hard times.”—Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth

• “How many millionaires do you know who have become wealthy by investing in savings accounts? I rest my case.” —Robert G. Allen

Related: 9 Smart Spending and Saving Tips

Quotes About Money And Happiness

• “Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt

• “It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy.” —George Horace Lorimer

• “Making money is a happiness. And that’s a great incentive. Making other people happy is a super-happiness.” —Muhammad Yunus

• “A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.” —Jonathan Swift

• “Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one.” —Benjamin Franklin

• “Money is in some respects life’s fire: It is a very excellent servant, but a terrible master.” —P.T. Barnum

Related: 10 Money Habits That Are Leaving You Broke

Inspirational Quotes About Money

• “Money is multiplied in practical value depending on the number of W’s you control in your life: what you do, when you do it, where you do it and with whom you do it. I call this the ‘freedom multiplier.’” —Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek

• “You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you.” —Dave Ramsey

• “If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.” —Edmund Burke

• “Many folks think they aren’t good at earning money, when what they don’t know is how to use it.” —Frank A. Clark

• “Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• “Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. It will give you the means for the satisfaction of your desires, but it will not provide you with desires.” —Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

• “Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.” —Norman Vincent Peale

• “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.” —Maya Angelou

Spending Money Quotes

• “Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.” —Will Rogers

• “Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are.” —James W. Frick

• “Never spend your money before you have it.” —Thomas Jefferson

• “Spending money is much more difficult than making money.” —Jack Ma

• “I don’t believe in spending money lavishly, now that I’m making money.” —Ansel Elgort

• “Do not save what is left after spending; instead, spend what is left after saving.” —Warren Buffett

This article was updated July 2024. Photo courtesy of Dobo Kristian/Shutterstock

The post 40 Money Quotes to Help Maximize Your Wealth in 2024 appeared first on SUCCESS.

The media and social media were generally outraged. Glamour wrote, “The math is not mathing” and quoted a Twitter post that said Clark would qualify for low-income housing in San Francisco on that salary. By contrast, the NBA’s number one draft pick will receive over $10 million. According to an NBC article, Clark will earn $338,056 in total in the WNBA over four years. However, last year’s number one pick in the NBA draft (Victor Wembanyama) signed a $55 million four-year contract.

The widely shared counterargument to the discrepancy is that women’s professional basketball doesn’t sell as many tickets or draw as many viewers as men’s. It’s yet to be seen if Clark will change that narrative. In the end, the country didn’t cry too much about Clark actually ending up in poverty (according to this Sports Illustrated article, Clark has a pending continued partnership with Nike, which is worth up to $28 million), but the principle of the matter persists.

“What fans (old and new) should learn from this is that to ensure pay equity is achieved for the WNBA, as well as across the women’s sports landscape, there needs to be significantly increased media coverage of women’s sports, high valuation of broadcast media rights, powerful sponsorship investment [and] consistently packed venues at all levels of the women’s sports ecosystem,” says Danette Leighton, CEO of the Women’s Sports Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to expand access and opportunities to sports for girls and women. “This intentional investment must grow in every aspect of the business.”

Clark’s pay brought attention back to a centuries-long issue: the wage gap and inequitable pay between men and women. Here’s how far we’ve come in resolving the wage gap and the work still to be done.

Stalled progress on the gender wage gap

According to the Pew Research Center, the gender pay gap “has barely closed in the United States in the past two decades.” The center reports, “In 2022, American women typically earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men,” a fractionally small increase from two decades earlier, when women earned just 80 for every dollar.

At least it’s improving, right? Not quite. According to the National Women’s Law Center, the 16-cent difference between men’s and women’s wages means that “women, regardless of their race or ethnicity, would lose $399,600 over the course of a 40-year career.”

Equitable pay is required by law

You might remember when you learned in high school social studies class that equitable pay is actually required by law. So what’s the issue? “The Equal Pay Act, which established that men and women would receive ‘equal pay for equal work,’ has been the law of the land since 1963, but its impact historically has been diminished due to a lack of real enforcement,” says Robert Sheen, CEO of Trusaic, a workplace equity technology company in Los Angeles. “There are also several reasons employers can give to justify apparent pay disparities under the Equal Pay Act,” he adds.

The Equal Pay Act is partially unenforceable due to the secrecy of pay conversations and employees’ reluctance to share rates. “Employees don’t know because there remains a cultural phenomenon to be secretive about pay,” says Daphne Delvaux, Esq., attorney and founder of San Diego-based Delvaux Law, a law firm devoted to women’s rights at work. She is also the founder of “The Mama Attorney” account on Instagram, which works to help educate and advocate for women in the workplace. “Often people believe that discussing pay or generally talking about money is ‘unprofessional.’ Employees also have a privacy right when it comes to their pay.

“People are not obligated to disclose their pay when asked by a peer. However, companies often take this too far and impose policies that employees are not allowed to discuss pay. These policies are unlawful. Employees are allowed to talk about their pay.”

She adds that “employees usually don’t talk about their pay. Unless a man volunteers his pay or a woman accidentally finds a pay stub on a desk, she won’t know what her male peers are paid, and she won’t be able to advocate for more pay as she won’t have a benchmark to compare herself to.”

Wage disparities by industry

Are teachers as likely as doctors to see wage discrepancies? Are the Caitlin Clarks of the world facing the same pay differences as those in other types of work?

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research studied the “20 largest occupations for women,” and determined that the ones with “the worst pay inequities” were: 

• Financial managers, where women only earn 71% of what men earn
• Retail salesperson—72%
• Education and childcare administrators—79%
• Administrative assistants—80%
• Managers—81%

This graph from the U.S. Department of Labor shows some roles in which women typically make more than men (such as tutors and personal care and service workers) and others that are about equal.

A Forbes Advisor study determined “real estate brokers have the largest gender pay gap, with men earning 60% more than their female counterparts. Coming in second place is personal finance advisors, where men earn 58% more than women in the same role.”  

In addition, mothers and women of color are at higher risk of pay inequities, Delvaux says.

How to change the gender wage gap

Employers and employees alike can work toward wage gap improvements. But pay changes might simply reflect a change in societal values.

Unfortunately, the issue is complex and there’s no quick fix. “Women historically have lower starting salaries, [which are] caused by numerous factors, including… [less] experience with negotiating salaries, [more] time spent out of the workforce and [fewer] opportunities for advancement,” says Tara Bodine, a fractional HR consultant and founder of True North People Consulting in Massachusetts. “If we did fix the pay discrepancies today, I would argue that we would find ourselves in a similar situation, as the root cause behind the gender pay gap is deeply rooted in gender norms.”

But even within the broken system, there are some action steps. Employers need to “take time to educate their employees” on their total compensation package, Bodine says. “Companies should take the opportunity to teach employees at all levels about business financials. This education provides a level of experience and exposure that helps employees support the business vision and understand how they fit into the strategy.”

She adds that everyone needs to “get comfortable with negotiating salary and advocating for the full value of what [they] offer. This important influencing skill starts with confidence and believing that you are worth the money and your role.”

So as Clark battles for viewers to create systemic change in sports and coworkers talk about salaries over lunch breaks, more awareness and eventual change might happen.

“Equity is not a ‘nice-to-have’ but a ‘must-have’ for everyone,” Leighton says. “For society to win, we must fight for it and invest in it—in sports and beyond.”

Photo credit: CalypsoArt/Shutterstock.com

The post What Caitlin Clark’s Starting Salary Says About the State of the Gender Wage Gap appeared first on SUCCESS.

Since then, Scanlon has contributed to Bloomberg Opinion, The New York Times and New York Magazine and is credited with coining the term “vibecession,” which argues that how people feel about the economy has more impact than you might expect. Her book In This Economy?: How Money & Markets Really Work is a layperson’s guide to a conversation typically dominated by academics. 

Q&A with economic commentator Kyla Scanlon

SUCCESS: What made you decide to create finance content? 

Kyla Scanlon: It kind of began when I was in college—I had this blog called Scanlon on Stocks where I talked about my trading experience. The whole goal of the blog was to help educate people on the markets because I felt like that was really important. 

I graduated and moved out to Los Angeles to work for a company called Capital Group. And then the pandemic happened. I made the decision to leave Capital Group to focus on financial education. I grew up in Kentucky and didn’t really know anybody who worked in finance or studied the economy. 

If you don’t understand how [the basics of economics] work, it’s hard to exist in the world and not feel confused. So my content began with that in mind. 

S: Your website says you look at economics with a human-focused lens. What does that mean to you? 

KS: If you look at traditional economic theories, they oftentimes will treat consumers as variables in a dataset. What I try to do is focus more on the people who are driving the economy. So I coined the term “vibecession,” which is that how people feel about the economy tends to outweigh the data. 

When you’re talking to people about these big esoteric topics, you have to center them in the discourse. At the end of the day, people are the economy—the actions that people take are what drives consumer spending and government spending. 

S: When did you realize that you needed to write a book? 

KS: It wasn’t a big revelation where it’s like, “There has to be a book about this.” There’s a lot of very good beginner econ books like Economics in One Lesson by Harry Hazlitt, but that was [originally] written in [1946]. I wanted to provide a compilation of sources that people could turn to. 

It takes things from esteemed economists, cultural researchers and philosophers and ties it together into a book that will hopefully give access to the information people need to understand the economy. 

S: What is the main takeaway you would like people to have from this book? 

KS: [This book] is meant to be a toolbox, so [readers] can understand what inflation is, what the housing market is doing, what the labor markets are doing—all of those things to understand media headlines better and hopefully make better decisions about their own economic path. 

S: Are there any misconceptions about the economy that need to be addressed? 

KS: I think a lot of people misunderstand things like inflation. So when we say “inflation is going down,” that doesn’t mean the prices are going down; it just means that prices are going up slower. Or if you look at certain labor metrics, the strength of the market is not best measured by the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), it’s probably better measured through a metric called quits.  

There are so many confusing parts to the economy in terms of how we measure it, how we talk about it—like GDP probably isn’t a great indicator of economic power; it’s just an indicator of how much people can spend or how much the government is spending. There are endless misconceptions about the economy because we’re not really taught what it is. 

S: Is there anything I haven’t asked that you would like to add?

KS: The biggest thing is who the book is for, which is anybody who wants to understand the economy. And the importance of understanding the economy, especially in an election year, where we have this very big decision upcoming. What do the different policies that are being set forth actually mean for you and your future? 

When you ask about misconceptions, we do have a misconception that the economy is not something that we have to understand, but I definitely think that we do. It’s something that we live in every single day. 

Note: Scanlon also has a newsletter that addresses changes that may become outdated after the book is published. 

Photo by NATNN/Shutterstock.com

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Now, von Tobel is helping set other parents and their children up for financial success with a new children’s book, Money Matters: A Guide to Saving, Spending, and Everything in Between, published by Rebel Girls.

“I very much wrote this as a fellow parent trying to do my part to empower parents everywhere,” she says. The book is an in-depth guide to earning, saving, spending and everything in between, from creating a budget to getting started with investing to starting your own business. 

The pages are full of colorful illustrations of girls chowing down on pancakes and dumping out their piggy banks, but the advice in here isn’t watered down; this is a practical, real-world look at financial planning from a certified financial planner (or, as von Tobel introduces herself in Money Matters, “basically a doctor of money”).

Like so many things in life, when it comes to talking with kids about money, Alexa von Tobel says it’s not about what you say so much as how you say it. 

Use the right tone and language when talking about why money matters with kids

“Tone is the most important thing I want parents to focus on,” she says, referring to a University of Michigan study that found the tone you use around money can influence children as young as 5. “Meaning that by age 5, the tone of how a house operates around money does have a pretty sizable impact on how the child manages and thinks about money in their life going forward.”

Alexa Von Tobel encourages parents to speak about money in a positive way. Even when financial matters around the house might be stressful, as they often can be, it’s important to not let that negativity seep into conversations your child can hear. She suggests keeping it as matter of fact as possible, and talking about money “in a way that is very can-do,” with clear and straightforward statements like, “money is manageable,” “I can be strong with my money” and “money is something I can handle.”

That focus on tone should also be applied when you talk about earning money—in other words, how you talk to your kids about work. If you’re making a habit of speaking about your job negatively, saying things like, “Ugh, work is awful, I hate it, but I have to leave you and go to work,” your child is internalizing a simple message: Work is bad. 

That’s not setting them up for success, von Tobel explains, since just about everybody needs to work to pay their bills. She makes sure to discuss work in a way that is positive and in terms they’ll associate with fun. For example, “Hey, you know how you like doing puzzles and you have fun doing puzzles? Mommy loves puzzles… but her puzzles are bigger, and they involve building companies and working with people and solving big challenges.”

Make saving and spending money easy for kids to visualize

Visual tools can be incredibly effective for younger kids who are just beginning to learn about how money works. Alexa Von Tobel’s kids have three piggy banks: a huge one, which is for college savings, a medium-sized one, which is for bigger items they might want to save up for, like a bike, and then a much smaller one, which is for everyday treats and purchases. The idea is that they can see, with their own eyes and not in some abstract way, that bigger purchases will require them to save more money, and that the money they squirrel away in their banks actually will add up.

“And they get it: ‘The big one, I need to fill more into that one,’” she explains. “It’s a visual representation.”

Not long ago, she found herself in a situation many parents and their kids end up in. They were at Target, and her daughter, then age 4, really wanted a toy; von Tobel was not going to buy it. They were at an impasse until von Tobel held her arms out wide—a visual aid—to indicate the number of quarters it would take to purchase the toy, which was more quarters than she had at the moment.

“We had a moment where she actually relented and was like, ‘OK, Mommy. I understand.’ I realized it’s about using visuals so that they understand how big the amount of money is, or how expensive something is. It helps them appreciate it; they can take the ‘no’ better,” von Tobel says.

Use tangible money to teach financial literacy for kids

Our money may be more virtual than physical these days, but von Tobel also suggests going to the bank and taking out different bills and coins. Using physical money is a way to hone their math skills, and seeing the actual dollars and cents can help kids understand what money actually is. 

When they get a little older, go ahead and open a bank account for them, and show them those numbers! (Though it can help to stress: These are private numbers for our family to know.) Letting kids see their money and being able to watch it grow can be a powerful thing, and it helps emphasize that saving, especially for big things like college, is hard work—that money doesn’t just appear out of thin air, and you have to be committed to saving it over the course of years. 

When to introduce more complex financial topics to kids

Of course, different financial concepts will make sense at different ages—your 5-year-old might understand being strong with money better than interest rates—so when does it make sense to start introducing some of those more complicated financial factors?

According to Alexa von Tobel, “As soon as second grade, when kids are learning the basics of math, addition and subtraction, they are intellectually capable of learning all about the big parts of money.” As early as age 8, 9, 10, a child can grasp the most important principles of money: saving, investing, borrowing, compounding interest. 

And as your kids grow, the conversations around money will continue to evolve. If your child has an entrepreneurial spirit, for example—perhaps they’ve started a lemonade stand or they sell bracelets, like one of von Tobel’s daughters does—there are additional ways you can set them up for lifelong financial success. 

“Here’s my biggest, most powerful piece of advice: As soon as your child starts earning money… that money can actually go directly into a Roth IRA for retirement,” she says. “You’re basically giving your child an extra decade of retirement investing, which is incredibly important.”

This has to be external money your child earned—it can’t be allowance money—but you’re able to open a Roth IRA for them, and they can make small deposits as their business grows.

In Money Matters, von Tobel even has empowering advice for discussing less feel-good aspects of our financial world with your kids—for example, the pay gap. Rather than focusing on pay inequity, she manages to turn even this into a positive: Your work is important, and you are equal.

“It’s a simple concept, but the fact that your work is equal at all times… it’s just a powerful framing,” she says. “It doesn’t matter who else is around you, in all shapes and sizes, your work and your effort is equal to everyone else’s.”

Photo courtesy of Alexa von Tobel.

The post Alexa von Tobel Explains How to Teach Kids Financial Literacy in New Book Money Matters appeared first on SUCCESS.

“Think about how you were spending your time six months ago,” Mahlum says. “If you’re trying to scale and you’re spending your time the exact same way, something’s wrong. You’re never going to get there.”

When Mahlum started Solidcore in 2013, which now has over 100 studios across the U.S., she had $175,000 in savings. And when she says she put all of it into the business, she really means all of it. She was adding up every expense and weighing where to splurge on a wise investment and where to save a few grand. For example, instead of paying $10,000 to have wood pallets installed as a studio wall backdrop, she ordered pallets from a website that was giving them away for free and persuaded her friends to help her sand them down for a DIY job.

“I literally felt like I had just enough money,” she says. “Between the machines I had to buy, the licensing agreement, the lease I had to sign, the security deposit, the construction build-out—I’m like, ‘This is everything, everything I’ve got.’”

Ultimately, it paid off. The first studio broke six figures of revenue in its first month, and she quickly started to scale. She sold many of her shares for close to $90 million last year and is now considering her next venture.

Solidcore founder Anne Mahlum’s top tips for scaling a business

To get the business where it is today, Mahlum frequently reevaluated how she was spending her money and time. In the early days, she enjoyed personally coaching classes, but she soon pivoted to hiring other instructors and negotiating with landlords who would accept higher rent in lieu of huge security deposits that would tie up capital.

Here are some of her biggest pieces of advice for scaling a small business into a full-blown national brand.

1. Know the difference between overspending and investing

It’s important to figure out where to save and where to invest when it comes to talent. When Mahlum first launched Solidcore, she was so hands-on with the business that she personally taught classes. But eventually, that wasn’t a smart use of her time, she says.

“I love coaching—don’t get me wrong—but there are other people who can do this just as good or better than I can, and frankly, I [needed] dozens and hundreds, and now we need thousands of them,” she says. Figuring out that piece allowed the company to grow.

Today, the company has grown so much that it employs a full-time graphic designer. That never would have been a wise use of money when the brand was in its infancy and needed “amazing generalists,” she says.

2. Don’t hedge bets against yourself

Before Mahlum opened the first studio, a friend and colleague offered her a $75,000 investment for a 30% stake in the company. At first, it seemed like a good deal, as it would have given her a bit more wiggle room in the early days of the brand. But she realized that if she was already making a “just-in-case” fail-safe, she was investing in self-doubt rather than a successful venture.

“When anything goes wrong, I’m gonna start to actually put more quarters in that [self-doubt] jar because I’ve hedged my bets,” she says of her thinking at the time. “I’m actually not gonna be as determined or hungry to figure things out if I have this cushion.”

3. Be direct with your team—even when it’s brutally honest

Mahlum says she has often seen people second-guess their choices and ask for her approval when decision-making was an essential part of their jobs. But it’s crucial for employees at the highest levels to exert confidence in their decisions and not constantly ask for approval to “protect” themselves in the event something goes wrong, Mahlum says.

“You have to stop coming to your supervisors for protection over decisions,” she says. “If I can’t see that you’re comfortable making decisions on your own at this level, you shouldn’t be a director.”

4. Write a letter to your money

Mahlum recommends reading You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth by Jen Sincero. One of the exercises in the book is to write a letter to money. “It’s like, ‘Dear Money, I miss you,’” Mahlum says. “‘You never come around enough.’ Or like, ‘Dear Money, you make me feel bad about myself.’” It’s funny, but it’s also a clever way to evaluate your relationship with money and wealth. Mahlum recommends questioning why you want money. “Is it status? Is it freedom? Is it flexibility? Is it opportunity?”

Mahlum’s parents have polar opposite money habits. Her father gambled away their savings, while her mother has squirreled away her earnings but doesn’t feel comfortable spending what she has. Mahlum’s relationship with money has fluctuated accordingly. At 26, she was broke and needed to ask her mom for cash. Now, she’s among the world’s wealthiest women. But what she doesn’t want to do is hold steady and become too risk averse.

“I want to live a big, full, exciting life,” she says. “And if I want to do that, I have to work on getting my life into abundance. I have to be generous; I need to spend—there needs to be balance there. I want a life of abundance, not scarcity.” 

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2024 issue of SUCCESS magazine. Photo by ©VanessaandJohnny.com/Courtesy of Anne Mahlum.

The post Anne Mahlum Turned $175K Into More than $88 Million. Here Are Her Tips to Scale Your Business appeared first on SUCCESS.

Here’s how Tu is shattering the glass ceiling and her tips on how to improve our bottom lines.

Vivian Tu: From trader to bestseller… and financial influencer

As the only daughter of two “very frugal, but very loving Chinese parents,” Tu’s ascent to social media stardom followed a very pre-planned path—at first. After graduating from the University of Chicago, she began working as an equities trader at JP Morgan, trading energy, industrial and materials stocks before pivoting to risk arbitrage stocks. 

A few years in, a new boss—who thought Tu was too “girly” for her role—saw her wearing a long cardigan at the office and bowed to her, calling the sweater a kimono.

“There are some work environments where you can climb the corporate ladder, while there are others where you’ll never get a fair shake,” Tu says. 

She began to explore other opportunities and ultimately left JP Morgan for BuzzFeed and its digital media and strategy sales team. Once her new colleagues learned of her financial expertise, they wanted Tu’s help in rebalancing their 401(k) plans and making open enrollment elections. She began publishing the advice she was giving them online and had 100,000 TikTok followers by the end of her first week. Her first video netted 3 million views. Eventually, Tu left BuzzFeed to produce online financial content full-time.

“While I wouldn’t have wished that moment at JP Morgan on anyone, I’m ultimately grateful for it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have left, as it was my dream job,” she says. “But now I can really change lives for the better.”

Stepping into our financial power

Women are often left out of the financial conversation, Tu says, because finance can feel like an intimidating topic and experts in the field are primarily men. That’s on top of cultural touch points like the “girl math” TikTok trend, which Tu believes infantilizes women’s ability, power and agency. “It’s not cute to be bad with money,” she says. 

Turns out, most women aren’t.

“More single women than single men own homes, they have less debt than men across all categories, except for student loans—and according to Fidelity, women clients’ portfolios outperform those of men,” Tu says.

So how can women drive a stake through those shop-’til-you-drop, simple-minded stereotypes and bolster their financial confidence?

“Talk about it more,” Tu recommends. “As a society, we’re more comfortable talking about sex and politics than we are about money. But you need to be talking to your friends about what they make, what they pay in rent, how they afford vacations. It provides you with so much information and allows you to better negotiate and make demands in the workplace.”

Vivian Tu’s financial do’s:

In the spirit of not gatekeeping good financial advice, Tu shares some additional do’s and don’ts:

1. Read one piece of financial news every day 

Do this to make yourself more financially literate. “The more we read about money, the less intimidating it becomes,” Tu says.

2. Use your 9-to-5 to fund your 5-to-9

Turn your side hustle into a full-time venture. Tu set aside $100,000 in cash from her day job before she felt comfortable quitting to pursue her next step. “I had enough money to cover my expenses for a year in case anything happened,” she says. 

3. Be mindful of your feast and famine periods when creating a budget

“A lot of businesses make a large amount of money in the fourth quarter and have a lull in the first quarter,” Tu says. “So a consistent budget might not make sense in that case, and you should plan to spend less and earn less in the first quarter.”

4. Open up a high-yield savings account

“Many people are still using the bank accounts they opened in college, which earn hardly anything (think 46 cents on every $100), whereas a high-yield savings account can provide up to 4.5–5.5% return, helping you to earn 10 times as much in interest,” she says. 

5. Call your credit card company every six to 12 months to ask for a credit limit increase

Credit utilization is a percentage—how much of your credit you’re using divided by how much credit you have. When you increase the denominator (how much credit you have access to) while spending the same amount, you’re helping yourself achieve a better credit score.

6. Use the avalanche method to pay down debt

First, make the minimum payment across all your debt. Then, put all additional funds for debt paydown toward the debt that has the highest interest rate in order to pay down your debt in the fastest possible time frame. 

Vivan Tu’s financial don’ts:

Just as there are financial security best practices, there are also financial pitfalls to avoid, according to Tu.

1. Don’t cancel your oldest credit card

Credit history length is a big factor in your credit score, which Tu learned when she cut up a credit card in her mid-20s in favor of a fancy new one. Her credit score then dropped by 60 points. “It cut my credit history from eight years to four and made me look like a less reliable borrower,” she says. 

2. Don’t get complacent at your workplace

“You should be getting a raise or promotion every two years. Right now, inflation is close to 5%. When you just rely on your 2 to 3% inflation raises, you’re making less money this year than last year,” Tu says. “And according to Forbes, if you don’t get a new job every two years that comes with a meaningful pay bump, you could be making half as much over your lifetime.”

3. Don’t simply accept terms

Negotiate everything! Tu reviews medical bills and compares pricey services to the Healthcare Bluebook to ensure that everything is error-free and corre. She also locks in introductory rates or deals for two years with her cellphone and Wi-Fi providers and streaming services. At the end of the promotion period, she threatens to leave unless they offer another promotion.

Photo by Heidi Gutman/Courtesy of Vivian Tu.

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