Starting a series on women and personal finance — please send me your stories

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I just stumbled on your blog. It's always great to read personal finance advice for women, so I'll be checking back in the future to see what comes of your feature series.

Hey Ramit, I emailed you earlier today, just wanted to say thanks again, I'll let you know how things go about the job, but I referenced you today in my blog, so I just thought I'd give you the heads up.

Dang.

Too old.

I'm sending you an e-mail either tonight or tomorrow.

Also, I noticed you're reading books on women and personal finance - have you read Money, a Memoir? It's a good insight into the internal turmoils many women have with money, wealth, work and security. Reading this book, I had a handful of moments where I thought "Hey, I remember that." When you're reading it, keep in mind that the book is heavily slanted towards middle-class Baby Boomers, that a lot of these attitudes are changing with our generation, that not all women are affected equally by these things, and that the author comes down pretty hard - but I still recommend it.

As a 30 year old woman who reads your site, I don't believe young women have a different relationship with money or different goals/needs/whatever. Not in this day and age. Especially your 18-30 year old readers, who are informed and I'd bet are mostly all wage earners (or will be, when they leave college) on the same track as the guys in their lives. Obviously individual women will have a rake of stories and issues, as individual fellas do, but looking at my friends, colleagues and family - the women, the men, it's all the same jumble of mistakes and goals. Having said that, there are any number of wonderful female personal finance bloggers out there who could perhaps help you with a guest post or some well-written opinion.

Add us to the female % of your readers.

I understand that many women might have a different strategy for finance than a man. Life and professional choices might differ which would change financial strategy.

But I don’t like it when it’s assumed women know less about finances than a man. . . . seems condescending, so hopefully you’re articles will not go in this direction.

I'm too old for your profile (at a decrepit 35...) but I know that I'm single and am planning to count on only myself to provide for my retirement. However that doesn't mean I don't understand what I'm doing! But I do think that lots of people in general assume they're going to have a financial partner in life, and so it might be interesting to read about what single people should do differently.

I've successfully nagged my younger sister into saving for retirement (she's 31 and has more saved than I do already, so I have dibs on her couch when we're 70); now I'm working on getting my 24-year-old brother to start saving (he has MUCH higher student loans than I do/did).

You are making a mistake with the age limit on this as most financially secure and independant woman financial investors are over 40.

Hey Jenn,

I disagree with the assumption that most financially secure and independent women investors are over 40. I began earning enough to invest at the age of 21. Also, I put about 30 percent of my take home salary in mutual funds on the advice of my investment guru.

However, I will mention here that I am the only one in my circle of friends from college(we are all 24) who managed to do any significant investing, even though I'm also the only one that has to pay rent, utilities and groceries.

If you're doing a series about women and personal finance, do it for all women, regardless of age and drop the age limitation on profiles.

Slightly OT, but there is a recently published HBS case about Madam C.J. Walker, one of the first black female entrepreneurs. She was born in the middle of the US Civil War, and created a beauty products for black women.

Linky: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5662.html

I think cable financial news is partly to blame. Sometimes the macho testosterone emanating from cable investment shows makes me think my television is about to blow.

Suze Orman is focusing on women, but I prefer to turn off cable television to find female investment thoughts on numerous qualtiy blogs and forums such as this one.

I think Suze Orman is focusing on women, but only for the same reason that Ramit might be - to get some additional followers.

I don't want to knock the idea before I see the implementation, but I just don't see how women's finances are different than men's. One of my favorite things about investing is that it doesn't matter who is doing it - saving and investing wisely yields results. Balancing your personal budget and getting positive cash flow helps you to build wealth. I don't see how gender matters.

My girlfriend and I watched the Suze Orman special on women and money together, and I think she would've thrown the tv through the window if she could've. Suze basically overgeneralized women and assumed they were all nurturers and protectors, etc. and treated them like they were all selfless creatures who always gave their money away to make others happy. A lot of pandering, really. It all looked like a giant self-help sales pitch with no financial substance. Don't even get me started on her 'Save Yourself' plan...

Ramit, I hope you handle it better on your blog because my girlfriend can definitely throw my laptop out of the window.

I'm 24 and I've got the numbers aspect of my financial life sorted out - but I'm still battling some emotional issues with money. The major issue for me is how thorny the money topic is when it comes to dating. If I were married, the guy and I would have to work it out or consider a divorce...but when we're just dating, both of us gets hurt b/c there's little impetus to come to a compromise.

I'd be interested in doing a profile.

[...] I’m launching a short series on women and personal finance as announced here. Why? Part of it is wanting to balance out the ratio of male and female readers. Part of it is [...]

I agree with the other posters, women's concerns and issues with money are very similar to men's. A women who didn't receive proper financial education at home didn't receive it for the same reason men didn't -- their parents never had a proper grasp of money and therefore were unable to teach it to their children.

I've noticed that there are still a lot more "frivolous" things marketed towards women than men. This is changing more lately, but it's still skewed. Women have tampons/maxi pads, make-up, plus all the "special for her" items. I don't think that these items are at all different than the ones marketed for men. Most fashion magazines are geared towards women and have a very aggressive "trends" schedule.

I'm starting to work on managing my money better. So far, I put aside 10% of my gross wages, plus I own a triplex with my fiance. I used to spend more without thinking, putting money on the credit card when I ran out of money in my bank account. Now I have to change that habit and it's hard. I'm lucky enough to have inherited investments, but it's hard to stop myself from spending it all.

It doesn't help that I'm getting married this year and we've had to do some extensive renovations on the triplex. But that's not really an excuse, since it's only going to get worse with time.

My husband would send links to your blog after while I added you to my RSS. Now his wondering if I am actually reading it! hehehe

Hi, I think the articles should encompass all age groups and not 18-30yrs. I also disagree with the notion that women are not taking care of their finances. I work with a multinational organization within Nigeria and I can confidently say that in a team of 26 men, I'm the only woman who does not rely on my salary before I can eat. I save 70% of my monthly income which is invested in the stock market, private placements, mutual funds and money market. I have a tidy sum socked away for retirement. I just clocked 30.