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I’m ready to let you in on a secret. Remember Sam’s Sabbatical Sunday series? Starting a little over a year ago, “Samantha” wrote weekly articles for Women’s Money.  She wrote about why to take a sabbatical, how she saved $100,000, signs of burnout, and how to get health insurance while on sabbatical. You can find the whole series here.  Well, the truth is “Sam” was not Samantha - but me - Elizabeth. For various reasons, a pseudonym was the best choice for me writing those posts at that time. But now, I’m ready to be out. (Not out as gay, I was that many years ago!) But out as someone who left her corporate career behind to take some much needed time to refresh. When much of your identity is wrapped…

When the market is down, it’s worth reviewing everything in your portfolio. Even your child’s 529 plan. Are you comfortable with your allocation of funds? How does your risk tolerance feel given the bear market? Is tax loss harvesting worth it for you?  But I have another more unique strategy to consider: taking money out of your kid’s 529 plan. That’s right. I’m suggesting selling off the college savings fund for your precious child. And not just at any time, but when the market is down! Hear me out. Perhaps you’ve been investing diligently in your son or daughter’s 529 account for the past few years.  Let’s assume you already have invested $30,000 in the account. But due to market timing and the downturn, you now have just $33,000 in…

With inflation extraordinarily high, and interest rates on general accounts quite low, you may be asking yourself “how can I buy more I-Bonds?”  I-bond rates right now are over 9%. Unfortunately, the amount you can purchase is capped at $10,000/individual. So you can only purchase $10,000/year in I-Bonds. If you’re married, your spouse can also purchase $10,000. We use I-bonds as part of our cash management/long-term emergency savings fund.  Since you can cash the bonds in at any time after holding for 12 months, and have to just pay a 3-month interest penalty on them (when held for under 5 years); it’s a great way to keep long-term emergency savings. Side note, I wouldn’t recommend putting all of your emergency savings into I-bonds though as if you need some cash…

I’m a lifelong tennis player and have always dreamed of going to Wimbledon; so when we had flights booked to London during the tennis tournament, I had to go, right? Absolutely. The only problem? No ticket. I spent easily 50+ hours over the months leading up to Wimbledon trying to figure out how to get tickets to the event. I read hundreds of articles, websites, blog posts, forums on TripAdvisor. And yet, I couldn’t bring myself to cough up the $1000+ to spend on a ticket for the famous Grand Slam tennis tournament. I wanted to bring my son, if not my whole family, and the value just didn’t seem worth it for a single day of tennis.  Stubhub Tickets and Amex Tickets to Wimbledon Were Too Expensive When I…

I can't find a scientific survey to back me up on this, but I'm fairly certain that women have less time than men in their lives to do the things they want to do. Or at least they think and feel that they do. Why is this? Women tend to do more of the household upkeep than men do - whether it's cleaning the house or taking a larger share of parenting responsibilities. In the last few years, the struggle women have to do it all has been further underscored with COVID, and increasingly, women have been leaving their jobs. Then there are stories about women in corporate America who seem to actually be doing it all. Maybe you know them; or maybe you read about them.  When you read…