career Archives

International Women’s Day started over 100 years ago as a labor movement in New York City.

Women workers in the needle trades began to demand fair wages and workplace limits and protections. Women did not have the right to vote, so to effect change and call attention to the cause, they organized a march through New York City’s Lower East Side.

From the beginning, women’s day has focused on economic equality across every dimension of life, education, and work.

There is excellent news on increasing women’s participation in traditionally higher-paid, male-dominated professions. The now decades-long focus on encouraging STEM education for girls and women has dramatically increased participation in related vocations.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that while overall women’s workforce participation is up slightly in the 20 years between 2000 and 2019, certain careers have seen tremendous inflows of women. The number of women becoming veterinarians has doubled. Women are becoming chemists and other scientists, mathematicians, and dentists at impressive growth rates.

As women enter higher-paid professions at increasing numbers, they lower the gap between male and female salaries. And as women are creating their wealth, they are doing it in ways that reflect their lifelong needs, habits, and goals. These are – and should be – different from men at every life stage.

Here’s our round-up of some things women should consider as they work to create lasting wealth at every stage of their financial journey.

The Early Stage of Your Career

Income has likely increased substantially, but debt is often still significant at this stage. One other danger is “lifestyle inflation” – being careful to live within your means and save for the future is the foundation of wealth. Your goal in this stage is to create financial security as a baseline and then work to build flexibility. You may want to change careers, go back to school, even take time off. Saving and investing can make those choices possible.

Lower Debt. Strategies to lower debt quickly include refinancing to a lower interest rate, paying more than the minimum every month, and automating your payments.
Create a Cash Flow Plan. This isn’t about budgeting – it’s about lining up your money with your short- and long-term goals. Especially if you have lumpy income from bonuses or variable work hours, you’ll want to map out a strategy to put your money to work. Hint: open separate bank accounts to align with goals.
Take Advantage of Employee Benefits. Employee benefits are where it’s at to increase income and reduce taxes. Contribute at least enough to a 401(k) to get the employer match and strive for 15% of salary. Take advantage of healthcare and commuter benefits.
Begin Saving. Saving into an emergency fund is critical. Automate the process until you have 3-6 months of saved income.

The Mid-Career Stage

For most women, mid-career is the busiest stage. You’re focused on work, but you’re also likely getting married, having kids, buying a home, etc. Besides being the mainstay of your partner’s and kid’s lives, you need to be the CEO of your career to be sure you get paid what you deserve and that you can have the career flexibility you want.

Love and marriage (and finances). Yours, mine, and ours is how you create trust and set a precedent for open, honest conversations about money and goals. Begin the conversation before you get married.
Maximize retirement savings as soon as possible. Women have longer retirements. If you’ve left the workforce and your spouse is still working, contribute to a spousal IRA annually to keep retirement saving on track.
Put Investing on a Schedule. Open a taxable investment account and set up an automatic contribution schedule. Be thoughtful and understand your risk parameters – but get invested.
Proactively Advance your Career. Benchmark your career every year. Don’t wait to get promoted or get a raise. You can hire a consultant, build a relationship with a good recruiter, or use Linkedin effectively.

Retirement Planning

It’s finally here! You’ve built a solid retirement savings account; now you’re ready to enjoy your new life. Setting up income in retirement looks different for women than for men, because of their longer life expectancy. Think through:

Social Security Income. Delay claiming social security if possible. This can provide a much larger lifetime benefit.
Consider working for a few years. Social security bases your benefits on your 35 highest-earning years, so replacing an early career year with a much more highly paid later year can bump up your payments.
Life Insurance. If you’re married, think about a spousal life insurance policy.
Long Term Care Insurance. Get a long-term care policy in place.
Estate Planning. Update your estate plan and talk through everyone’s wishes for what will happen as you age. Doing it now while you’re healthy and creating a funding source will help ensure a graceful, happy older stage.

The Bottom Line

Women continue to make tremendous progress on all fronts while guiding and leading us towards a more inclusive world. Taking time to take care of your finances at every stage can put you on the path to lasting wealth.

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The information contained herein is intended to be used for educational purposes only and is not exhaustive. Diversification and/or any strategy that may be discussed does not guarantee against investment losses but are intended to help manage risk and return. If applicable, historical discussions and/or opinions are not predictive of future events. The content is presented in good faith and has been drawn from sources believed to be reliable. The content is not intended to be legal, tax or financial advice. Please consult a legal, tax or financial professional for information specific to your individual situation.

When thinking about your business or career, it might seem odd to make comparisons to a sport. But when you zoom out and look at the similarities, they’re more closely related than you may think.

For example, a common problem many people face as they end their careers and enter retirement is a loss of purpose and a feeling of emptiness. The thing that consumed eight hours a day for the past 40 years is now gone.

Athletes face these same struggles. But they tend to face it much sooner in life. However, some athletes find themselves thriving in life after sports. Those that succeed learned many valuable lessons and picked up traits from their sport that can translate into other areas of life.

Derek Jeter, former Yankees shortstop and first-ballot Hall of Famer, is now CEO and part-owner of the Miami Marlins and co-founded the media company, The Players’ Tribune. Hall of Fame defensive end Michael Strahan took his talents and football knowledge to live TV and has co-hosted Fox NFL Sunday, $100,000 Pyramid, and even Good Morning America.

While your career may not lead to headlines and TV gigs, there are a few ways that you can treat your career like a sport to set yourself up for long-term success.

The 10,000 Hour Rule

In his book, The Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell claims that it takes roughly 10,000 hours of work to master a skill. While the specific number of hours has been challenged by many, the principle will always make sense: to be great at something, you must put in the work.

Athletes dedicate years, sometimes decades, to their craft to be the best that they can be. We shouldn’t treat our own careers much differently.

Over the course of your working career, you’re most likely going to put 10,000 hours of work in by just showing up. However, if you’re intentional about the work that’s being put in, you can begin to propel your business to heights you never imagined possible.

For example, you may want to pursue a graduate degree or additional certifications that allows you to move up in the ranks of your profession more quickly.

Possibly more importantly, putting in the work of connecting with like-minded people on the same path as you might pay major dividends. Growing an alternative skillset could lead to a career change that provides higher potential income and happiness.

When you put in the work, it’s hard not to make progress.

Be Prepared for Uncertainty

Just like athletes devote time to be mentally and physically prepared for competition, an effective way to level up in your career is by being prepared. Whether you’re interviewing for a new job or giving a presentation to your team, preparation is critical and impacts how you perform the given task.

When you’re prepared, you’re more confident. The stress that comes with uncertainty disappears when you’ve prepared appropriately, and with that, the likelihood of achieving the desired result is increased.

Be Accountable in Your Work

Being accountable is a trait that impacts many areas of life, even outside of your career. When things don’t go right, it’s easy to blame other people or external factors.

However, by taking ownership of your work, you’ll stand out from other workers, and you begin to build trust with the people around you.

While being accountable to others is excellent, it doesn’t stop there. It’s also important to be responsible for yourself and your goals.

For example, if you want to get promoted over the next year and you’ve laid out the steps needed to make it happen, stick to them. Too often, we set goals for ourselves, like New Year’s Resolutions, and end up leaving them behind when life gets in the way.

Embrace Your Team

In both the workplace and sports, being successful almost always requires good teamwork.

The backbone of a championship team usually consists of two essential factors: cohesion and communication.

But one doesn’t come without the other.

Cohesion is formed through effective and consistent communication. These two traits then begin to form a solid foundation of trust, leading to better, more efficient work.

Having a good relationship with a team or coworkers can create healthy competition, and a great example of this is the sales profession.

Imagine being a salesperson who works alone, didn’t have a team to fall back on, and didn’t know how the rest of the team was performing. They might get discouraged or lose sight of the end goal. So, there’s a reason that most sales teams operate together – it can create a healthy competitive atmosphere, increases engagement, and keeps everybody’s motives and goals aligned.

Aside from the performance aspect, embracing your team and having an enjoyable workplace makes work that much easier, and the foundation is built through being reliable, offering help to others, and being a good teammate.

The Takeaway

In our careers, it’s easy to lose sight of an end goal and feel like we’re not making progress.

But when you treat your career like a sport and strive to get better, it starts to feel like a natural part of your life, not just another task to check off the list each weekday.