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Updated: Dec 9, 2019 21 Comments · by Kate Antoniades
Career· Recommended Reading | career goals· posts· Resolutions for Smart Women
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Editor of Corporette since 2014, Kate Antoniades lives in her hometown of Rochester, NY. A cat person and Oxford comma loyalist, she loves Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food and her Vejas.
Lobbyist
Thanks for this list! These look great.
Anon
I Know How She Does It is a well done book but my takeaway was that the women she surveyed make their overscheduled lives work by sleeping six hours a night and never having real down time.
I read it while struggling to adjust to my first ever 50 hr/week hour job and actually found it pretty depressing rather than inspiring.
Frozen Peach
+ 1 million. It left me feeling guilty for not doing more and sleeping less, but with no really good ideas as to how to make that work, other than “schedule ever d*mn minute”
anon
When I follow the approach of “schedule every minute of my day/hour/week,” I end up feeling more anxious and borderline depressed. Being mindful about how you spend your time is a good thing, but I need a lot more space for just doing nothing at all.
CPA Lady
Agreed. I read that book when I had a baby and was trying to figure out the work/life balance thing. I was solo parenting 90% of the time while trying to work massive amounts of overtime. It’s still sitting on my night stand unfinished because I just kept reading it thinking “some people can make this work, but it’s not me.” I actually decided to start job searching while I was reading it, since the lifestyle described in it made me feel even more panicked and stressed than I already did.
B
I really liked and identified with I Know How She Does It, but probably for the same reason many of you didn’t – that is how I run my life and I just made partner in BigLaw. Viewing my time in weekly increments instead of daily and recognizing that there is no typical week really resonated with me as I travel a lot, have different events to attend every week, etc. I highly recommend it for those who do want to work in a high-powered job and want to understand how others make it work. And if it helps others realize that that isn’t the life they want, I actually think that is a success too.
DQG
Any chance anyone has had an experience with Ellevest that they care to share? I am considering Ellevest and a few other robo advisors (Betterment, Wealthfront). I’m brand new to investing and would appreciate any insight people have. It’s a little overwhelming!
Anonymous
I’m a little over a year in with Ellevest and have been pleased with the experience and results. I decided to put a very small amount of my overall portfolio with them to give it a shot (because I really liked the premise) and have actually been contemplating moving a bit more into the Ellevest accounts. It’s extremely easy to use and their customer service has been great so far. They also just lowered their fees for those investing less than 50K with them, so that’s nice too. I will admit that I didn’t do a lot of comparison shopping, so I can’t speak to Betterment or Wealthfront and how they stack up to Ellevest, but I’ve been happy with Ellevest. Hope that helps.
DQG
Thanks! This is very helpful. :)
smiley
I’m also about a year in with Ellevest, and took a similar approach to Anonymous at 3:51 – I moved about 1/4 of my overall portfolio into Ellevest accounts because I was interested in the concept of a robo-advisor tailored towards women’s career curves, and because I’m generally interested in supporting women-led businesses in male-dominated fields. So far I’ve been very happy. Their interface is generally great and goal-oriented, which is especially helpful if you are a bit intimidated by traditional investing platforms (totally me!). Fees are low, even above 50K, IMO, and the new lowered fee for <50K is the same as Betterment. I've only needed their customer service once, but had a truly fantastic experience – the rep I spoke to picked up on the fact that I am a relatively new investor, and proactively offered explanations of any jargon/technicalities and clearly explained the pros and cons of different strategies in an accessible way. I know some people have complained that Ellevest is the investment version of "Bic Pens for HER!," i.e. condescendingly simplified and needlessly gendered. I hear that criticism, but I think Ellevest is a great resource for any person who has felt intimidated by managing their money, and even more experienced investors might be interested in supporting women-driven investments.
tz
I am using Betterment and really like it. Betterman has a number of goal-oriented savings plans which you can set and go. I transferred my 401K from my previous employer on to it and have so far been seeing a 4% ROI. I also have a joint “build wealth” account with my husband where it automatically reinvests (and other things perhaps?) to maximize your tax benefits.
I used the customer service when I transferred my 401K to the RothIRA and had a seamless experience
Dan
I would be careful about moving so much money to anyone (especially when talking about so much money like 401 k) to anyone without performing a comprehensive background check. There are many website which offer useful tools (such as https://www.usarrestsearch.org/) to check a person’s background and a company’s record.
We should be extra careful these days.
Miz Swizz
Am I the only one who wasn’t that impressed with Feminist Fight Club? It read as a little juvenile to me and wasn’t terribly helpful.
Anonymous
Same. It was great for a chuckle here and there, but hardly “real world” advice that I’d use on a daily basis.
SFBrit
+1. It would probably have been useful to read in the first couple of years of my career, but not at this point (20 years in).
Shopaholic
Ya I felt that too, 5 years into my career as a lawyer. I thought I was the only one.
Ellen
I did NOT read this, or any other, book. I rely on advise from Dad, the manageing partner, and my freinds. So far it has worked for me, except in the area of LOVE and finding a mate. FOOEY! If any one in the HIVE has a book I can read that will get me MARRIED, please share. I want to be MARRIED this time next year. YAY!!!!
Introvert
All I ever want to do is eat alone!!!
Frozen Peach
Huge recommendation for Darling, You Can’t Do Both (and other noise to ignore on the way to the top) by Janet Kestin and Nancy Vonk. A zillion thumbs up. Changed my life.
Daneisha Smith
I read “Own It” earlier this year and I loved it. Everyone in the corporate world or entrepreneurship should read that book!
http://www.officiallychic.com
Hacker Combat
“The 12 Week the year” is one of the good book i ever read.