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Coffee Break: Neon Trench

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woman wears bright multi-colored trench coat with light blue button up and light blue jeans

Ooooooh… I love this. I know the beige trench is a classic, but it's so boring (and, for some of us, beige makes us look like corpses). This bright, happy trench from Boden definitely takes care of that — it's light, lively, and so unusual.

Particularly if the rest of your wardrobe is minimal (cough, all black), this would be a great pop of color in spring, summer, and fall.

The trench is $510, available in sizes 2-22 and 2P-12P.

Hunting for a lightweight jacket for your commute? Classics include the designer trench ($$$$), as well as this affordable reader favorite raincoat, this classic packable raincoat! Know your office before wearing a jean jacket with your outfit, but if you're on the hunt, this one is a bestseller every year. Check out some of our latest, trendy favorites for 2024 below!

light blue raincoat
Ilse Jacobsen
red packable raincoat
Cole Haan
woman wears oversized white trench coat with drapey lapels
Reiss
Eddie Bauer black trench coat
Eddie Bauer

Sales of note for 1/16/25:

  • M.M.LaFleur – Tag sale for a limited time — jardigans and dresses $200, pants $150, tops $95, T-shirts $50
  • Nordstrom – Cashmere on sale; AllSaints, Free People, Nike, Tory Burch, and Vince up to 60%; beauty deals up to 25% off
  • AllSaints – Clearance event, now up to 70% off (some of the best leather jackets!)
  • Ann Taylor – Up to 40% off your full-price purchase; extra 50% off sale
  • Banana Republic Factory – 50% off everything + extra 20% off
  • Boden – 15% off new styles with code — readers love this blazer, these dresses, and their double-layer line of tees
  • DeMellier – Final reductions now on, free shipping and returns — includes select options like Montreal, Vancouver, and Venice
  • Eloquii – $29 and up select styles; extra 50% off all clearance, plus ELOQUII X kate spade new york collab just dropped
  • Everlane – Sale of the year, up to 70% off; new markdowns just added
  • J.Crew – Up to 40% off select styles; up to 50% off cashmere
  • J.Crew Factory – 40-70% off everything
  • L.K. Bennett – Archive sale, almost everything 70% off
  • Rothy's – Final Few: Up to 40% off last-chance styles
  • Sephora – 50% off top skincare through 1/17
  • Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
  • Summersalt – BOGO sweaters, including this reader-favorite sweater blazer; 50% off winter sale; extra 15% off clearance
  • Talbots – Semi-Annual Red Door Sale – 50% off + extra 20% off, sale on sale, plus free shipping on $150+

155 Comments

  1. I just found out that my boyfriend, a grown man of 34 years old with a bachelors degree and a mortgage, does not have a savings account. He keeps all of his money in a single checking account. I’ll also add that this is the SECOND boyfriend I’ve had where I’ve found this out. First one was a grown man of 28 years old. My brain is struggling to compute this new information.

    1. Does he have a 401k or other investment accounts? I have a small ‘fun money’ savings account at my bank but all of our serious savings/investments are in things like 529s, 401ks, pension plans, ETFs, etc. not at my main bank.

      1. +1

        I don’t have a “savings” account. I have a small account used for checking that I transfer $$ into from my investment accounts as needed. This is because I try to keep my money in the highest money making vehicles I can. So my “savings” is in high yield money market accounts at Fidelity right now.

        Or do you mean he hasn’t saved anything for retirement yet? If so…. I’d move along…

    2. my brother used to do this!!! he was just under 30 and had 3 ivy league degrees and 8 years on wall street under his belt… $500k sitting in a chase checking account. not even FDIC insured. sigh. (i was terrified he didn’t have a 401K set up, or just had the $ going into a cash settlement fund, but he fortunately did. but when we set it up in Mint he was so confused and asked, “is this… mine? does it belong to me?”

      (one of his degrees was from Wharton in economics, also!!!!)

    3. I don’t find this strange if he has extra funds in his checking account or has savings in other vehicles. Now if he doesn’t have any savings at all, it’s a different story.

      1. Of course if he has a huge sum of money just sitting in a checking account and hasn’t bothered doing anything with it, it wouldn’t be the best use of his money.

    4. If he has retirement accounts, that doesn’t seem super unusual or concerning to me? I’m 39 and only opened my first savings account in the last couple of years when interest rates went through the roof. Before that we put as much as we could into retirement accounts and 529s for our kids and only left over enough to pay our monthly bills and since that was a pretty small amount of money (<$10k at it's peak, running average probably more like $3-5k) we just kept it in a checking account.

      If he's 34 and no retirement savings, definitely concerning.

        1. Fair point, before opening the savings accounts we probably had an extra $10k (intended for unexpected home and car repairs) in checking, but interest rates were so low back then that it didn’t seem worth moving that amount to a savings account. My husband’s job security is about as good as it gets and we’d be fine without my salary, so we’ve never felt like we need to have six months of living expenses saved. We also both have substantial 457 retirement accounts that we can access without penalty upon separation from our employer, so that’s another form of backup savings for job loss, although we intend to not touch them until retirement.

          1. Not to nag, but there are ways to be parted from your income other than job loss, most notably via illness or accident. Presumably you have LTD insurance for that.

          2. Yes we are well-insured for death and long term disability. I don’t think (for most people) a cash emergency fund replaces insurance. It’s typically only meant to bridge a 3-6 month employment gap.
            It’s probably more accurate to say that the 457s are our emergency funds, since we have immediate, no penalty access to that money if either of us stopped working, including because of death or disability.

        2. I’m not the poster above but we generally keep between $5-$10k of cash on hand and the rest is in investment vehicles, some of which can be tapped more quickly than others. I’m in my 40s and have yet to run into an emergency that needs more than that, immediately, in cash.

    5. That’s just throwing money away when interest rates for high-yield savings accounts are over 4%.

      1. It depends on how much liquid money you have. If the money being directed to the savings account each month only slightly exceeds your monthly bills, you need to be on top of moving money between savings and checking when bills come due, and even a few overdraft fees can cancel out the extra interest. I do it because psychologically 4% interest rate is hard to ignore, but it’s a gigantic PITA and I’m not really convinced it’s worth it for, at most, a couple hundred bucks per year.

    6. I’ve never had a savings account and I’m older than your boyfriends! In my defense, rates on savings accounts used to be super super low and it never seemed worth it to me to have the hassle of another account for a few cents a year. I also only have one credit card.

      1. You can open a new account online in literally 10 minutes with the money transferred within days. Do the thing!

      3. Very similar over here. While I have a savings account, the interest rate on my checking account is significantly higher (I’m with a credit union) so I don’t bother moving money into the savings account. I do have (and fund) separate tax-advantaged retirement accounts.

        I did create a CD ladder last year when rates were higher than my checking account, but the CD rates appear to be cooling off now so it’s not worth the hassle to me to keep that going.

    7. I didn’t have a savings account until I was about 35. No one told me to do it, and I had all my money in checking. You don’t know what you don’t no.

      2. I do not mean to sound harsh, but as an adult, saying no one told me to do it or to take charge of my finances is a very sad excuse. No one told me to open the accounts I have but I spoke with friends, did my own research, and figured it out. No one told me is not a good enough excuse.

    8. I personally love my HYSA, but I know plenty of people without savings accounts. They keep liquid cash in a checking account and have various investment vehicles.

      Honestly a non high yield savings account is not offering anything more than a checking account and I know plenty of people with regular yield savings accounts too.

      I echo the posters that say as long as he has savings I think it’s fine that he doesn’t have a savings account.

      1. Right, I think people here are equating “savings account” with “high-yield savings account.” A standard savings account earns only slightly more interest than a checking account; it’s not really an important distinction. With interest rates being what they are these days, it’s a good idea to have your money earning something rather than just sitting there, but it’s the interest rate that matters, not the “savings” vs “checking” label. There are lots of savings accounts with terrible interest rates.

    9. OP here. He has one 401k through his job. Other than that, he has a massive sum of money just sitting in his checking account. No plan.

        2. Yeah, it’s not the best use of the money and I think it’s totally fair to point out that the money would be doing more for him in a HYSA, but your pearl-clutching seems over the top. It’s not a moral failing and doesn’t indicate fiscal irresponsibility. I’d see it as a good sign that he’s saved a lot, even if he’s not optimizing it.

        3. Eek, that scares me. I never keep too much in my current account (the one my debit card works with) so that if my card details get stolen, they can’t drain it all. I thought that was basic knowledge (or perhaps we get different advice here in the UK).

          It was always recommended to me to keep the bulk of my “reasonably accessible” savings in an account whose details I don’t give out (you give out your current/checking account details for direct debits and via your debit card). So I have various savings account pots that are not linked to my debit card and that I don’t use for direct debits or standing orders.

          1. It is basic knowledge (although some people never get access to that). If your checking account gets compromised (which is all too easy with checks and Venmo), say goodbye to savings.

          2. Honestly I never thought of this. I keep maybe 40% of my savings in my basic checking since my savings account that the same bank gets practically no interest. The other 60% is in a high yield savings at a different institution.

      3. Yikes. On the one hand, saving is good. On the other, this suggests a level of financial illiteracy that would be hard to deal with in a long-term relationship.

      4. More than is covered by FDIC protections? That would bug me but isn’t as much of a red flag.

        1. Yeah if it’s more than FDIC protections I’d be worried. If it’s not, I’d try to encourage him to invest some of it but I don’t think it’s a red flag

      5. I mean, really no plan or kind of a vague “in 3-5 years I’m going to need to buy an engagement ring/fund a wedding/down payment on a house/new car” kind of plan? Definitely should be in a HYSA right now, but in my early 30s I had a lot of cash because I knew big purchases were coming up.

    10. Really shocked by the responses here. I have five savings accounts, allocated toward different goals.

      1. Good for you? No one is saying savings accounts are bad, but different people do different things.

      2. Yeah I have 8 HYSAs (emergency fund + several sinking funds for different purposes) but most of my non-retirement “savings” are in different investment vehicles.

        I could see someone keeping what I keep in HYSAs in their checking rather than using a HYSA. Yes, it feels like throwing money away to lose out on that interest, but I only keep ~15k in HYSAs so it’s not an insurmountable loss

      3. Why not put them in laddered CDs? What many of the posters (myself included) isn’t saving towards a specific goal but not optimizing the returns through higher interest rates. We stick the expected amounts for taxes/vacations/etc. in CDs this way.

        1. Laddered CDs are so much work, and every Tim I’ve looked the interest rates are comparable to my HYSA

      4. Not to disparage your system, I just find it strange to hear that people create entire separate savings accounts for different goals. Perhaps if the total is over the FDIC/relevant insured amount, but otherwise I just have one bucket and save for all the things in there. No need to shift funds around in case of emergency, no keeping track of five different balances, etc.

          1. For sure! And a spreadsheet is exactly how I track different savings goals for the funds I have in my one account.

          2. I would give up so much $ just to avoid having to mess with spreadsheets on my own time.

    11. Well, I was in massive debt at age 28 when I graduated from law school. I could barely make it through the month on my paycheck. A coworker convinced me to put 10 dollars a month into the State retirement account and increase the amount when I got raises.

  2. Do colleges these days look at disciplinary actions like in-school suspensions? Is there an opportunity to explain?

    I’m a mentor to an 8th grader in a newly arrived immigrant family. Because of their economic situation, the schools the family’s kids go to are kind of rough. I’m trying to explain to the 8th grader how important it is for him to be on his best behavior and study hard come 9th grade in the fall. He very much wants to go to college.

    In particular, there are often fights between kids from this immigrant group and kids from another culture. There have been at least two fights on the school bus that the 8th grader’s gotten in trouble for, but bus video shows that he didn’t throw the first punch, but he did still receive ISS because he did hit back. He’s small for his age, and it’s not like he can just walk away on a school bus. I worry this dynamic will get worse, not better, in a few months when he’s in high school.

    The family’s whole situation is a challenging one, and I’m trying my best to guide the 8th grader as he’s the first entering high school in America and has big dreams.

    Actually, now that I think of it, is there any sort of webinar or resource that can catch me up on how admissions work these days? Or anything targeted to first gen immigrant families that’s easy for them to understand?

    1. Seems like all of this would be the subject of a college essay. The challenges of being an immigrant kid, dealing with physical aggression from other cultural groups (including consequences if he receives them), etc. That’s his chance at an explanation.

      FWIW lots and lots of kids who get suspended for various reasons get admitted to college. Maybe it won’t be any Ivy, but he’ll get into college somewhere.

    2. With a kid that age, I would focus more on how it could impact him before college is even a possibility, like he could get involved with the justice system.

      2. Yes and honestly, it should be drilled into him that he SHOULD NOT be talking to the police under any circumstances. It’s all well and good to say “the police are your friends,” but the reality is that may or may not be true in any given situation, and nobody, least of all a minor from an immigrant group, should be talking to the police without counsel present. It should be impressed on both him and his parents that NOBODY should talk to the police without a lawyer. The only thing that anybody should ever say to the police is “I respectfully invoke my right to remain silent.” If that’s too much, “WIth respect, I will remain silent.”

    3. Do you know what high school he’s going to attend in the fall? If there’s any way to get information about the school, what it’s like, etc., that might help in terms of how to prepare him for the social scene and the possible consequences of fighting.

      If I were in your shoes, I’d also encourage him to get involved with a club or a sport, some kind of extracurricular where he gets a chance to meet a broader swath of kids.

    4. Admittedly my school didn’t have ISS (we had demerits, detentions, Saturday detentions, suspension, or expulsion), so I’m not sure if they reflect on a record the way out of school suspensions do. Anything related to violence (such as fighting) was a suspension or expulsion.

      However, even if they don’t count against students for college obviously it’s in the student’s best interest to avoid all major trouble – he shouldn’t be okay with an ISS just because it will impact him getting into college. Therefore, I’d encourage him to consider an ISS as serious as an out of school suspension.

      I do think the recommendation to get involved in a sport or club is a great idea.

    5. I’ve dealt with my children being bullied. Their public school spent their time denying there was a problem and each time my children were reacting after being provoked they received a punishment. It was terrible for their confidence and self esteem.

      The children are at Catholic school and the school administrators have come to me each time they have identified my child of mine being bullied or struggling socially with middle school girl drama. They are on top of it.

      Can you help this child get into a magnet or charter school. What are the possibilities for a scholarship for the local private schools?

  3. Fun/silly afternoon question – what is your go-to backyard bbq party outfit? I have one coming up and I want to look put together but totally effortless and cool. Of course, that takes work and planning! It will be hot and probably humid – DC labor day. I don’t love shorts on me and a dress feels really fussy right now. Any ideas?

    2. 1. Linen drawstring pants with a t-shirt or tank top. Sandals.
      2. T-shirt dress with sneakers or sandals
      3. shorts and a linen/crinkle button-down top

      1. Oh, just seeing you prefer no shorts or a dress. Sorry for the reading fail! An easy jumpsuit could work, too.

    3. something unfussy since you may be sitting who knows where (grass, deck). But if you’re ruling out shorts and dresses that’s kind of a lot of options. Dark color cropped linen pants and a tee?

    4. I’m a romper/jumpsuit fan. I have an Athleta one that has pants but is a tank style top.

    5. You mean Memorial Day? I’d go for linen dress. When I lived in D.C. I basically liked to wear as little clothing as possible when it was hot and humid.

      1. I just got an adorable linen dress from Quince with beautiful pin tucking details and it’s all I want to wear when it’s hot.

    7. either athleisure skort or resort type skort from Lilly Pulitzer or whatever
      or linen pants either wide leg or cropped. i have some athleisure wide leg ones from old navy that are also surprisingly cute and wrinkle way less than linen.
      i’d also wear a long maxidress in cotton, something very easy – lands end, amazon.

      1. OP here – whoops totally meant Memorial Day, not Labor Day. I’m a planner, but not that much!
        I’m open to dresses, just the ruffle puffs seem a little too fussy for me as a petite curvy person and probably just my personality. Thanks for the recs so far!

        2. A dress doesn’t equate with ruffle puff! I wear dresses all summer and would never, ever wear a ruffle puff.

    8. If a dress isn’t an option, I’d wear wide leg linen trousers, a fancy cotton crop top from Cara Cara, and Oran sandals

    9. Seersucker ankle pants, a woven linen or cotton sleeveless shell, and whatever cute but comfortable sandals. Woven, not knit, top because knit sticks when you perspire. If it’s daylight, a straw hat, not because I particularly like hats but because it keeps me so much cooler. Accessorized with small hoop earrings and a vodka tonic.

  4. I can’t decide if Corporette is serious today, between this trench and the AM’s cardigan…

    1. I love the pattern/color. Won’t get this one because I haven’t been successful with Boden sizing and I’d want it in wool for fall/winter not summer/spring. But I’d buy that fabric in a heartbeat and make my own if I could.

    2. I really like this coat, not that I need a coat. And there’s no way I’d spend $500 on anything from Boden.

    4. I wore a sundress in almost this exact colorway/pattern in college. Loud plaids in bright colors were very popular in the 90s/early 2000s (see Rayanne from My So Called Life) and it seems to be coming back around again. I think it’s fun!

        1. Heh I read that as JFC.

          Which is what I said to myself when I saw this morning’s cardigan…

    5. The bright side is that I’ve had to cut back on shopping this year due to other goals and the items here don’t tempt me. this is a safe space to waste a couple of minutes and i come away feeling better about the clothes I already have. i bought a non-clothing item posted here recently and clicked through the link to show some support though.

      If I spend time on tiktok i get too inspired and want to buy all of the things. the algorithm is just too good.

    6. Today’s coat is one of the best items this year for me, in terms of colours and patterns.

  5. Any thoughts on an app that may be useful if the goal is to gain weight while watching sugars and carbs and also cholesterol. I hope this board will be a resource for food and cooking related questions in upcoming weeks but for now I feel like an app may help me figure out what I’m getting or not. Underweight and I really need to work on that but given that I’m older now, it isn’t as easy as adding three burgers a week and a box of cookies into the rotation. I did things like that in my 20s and even early 30s and it would bump up the weight but cholesterol would also go up a fair amount. At that age every dr would say NBD. But IDK I don’t want to do that now being a decade older. Same with blood sugar – empty carbs certainly help the weight but with a family history of diabetes, I just don’t think it’s a good idea.

    Thankfully discussed it with a very supportive PCP yesterday but kind of overwhelmed.

    1. I like MyFitnessPal for tracking macros, which I assume you will want to be doing.

    2. I really like the app MM+ because you can choose what macros/micros to track, set goals for, etc. the downside to MM+ is that you have to primarily enter your own information, but since most apps don’t have things like sugar/fiber it’s just as well.

    3. Don’t know about an app, but I would be eating all the nuts and all the avocados.

    4. MacroFactor is an app I use for tracking and they also have a gain and loss function. Breaks everything into macros and adjusts weekly based on weigh-ins.

  6. I haven’t tried it yet, but hear chronometer is good for tracking stuff like cholesterol (I am hoping to start using it soon to track micronutrient intake)

  7. What would you wear on a date to a baseball game? Evening game, it’s already in the 80s here but may cool off to the 70s or 60s.

    Size 12, want to look cute and flirty but also am aware that I sweat like crazy so want to stay cool.

    1. Shorts and a short sleeve top with flutter sleeves. Cute sneakers. No foundation (due to sweating), or powder foundation if you must.

    3. I’d wear casual wide leg jeans that end above my ankle and a light linen shirt, maybe with a tank underneath in one of the team colors. And light colored sneaks.

    4. I’d do wide leg cropped linen pants, casual platform sandals, and cute a team shirt

    5. And whatever you pick, wear the team colors or at the very least avoid the opposing team’s colors.

      Honestly I would Amazon Prime myself a cute team tee and wear it with a cute skirt or longish shorts.

      1. I love you SA so I mean this with all the kindness, please lets not amazon ourselves cute stuff for such one time/sporadic events. I need to work on this myself too but I am just coming off a meeting with a family whose young daughter.. (can’t say more for confidentiality reasons) but believe me you will be very upset and agree with me.

        2. I don’t understand the second half of this post, other than to infer that maybe it’s a shopping addiction of some sort which is of course an awful thing.

          Point taken about amazoning stuff for one-time events but I have a wardrobe of local sports team tees/jerseys (Lakers, Dodgers, a couple of colleges) and I feel like that’s a legit part of my wardrobe that gets worn more than you might think. Once I amazoned that Dodgers tee, I was pretty much set for life for baseball games.

          1. Yeah I think having a shirt or hat for all of the local teams is really useful, something that will get worn a lot, and therefore not wasteful

    6. My go to baseball outfit is a team jersey and shorts, or a sundress in team colors. Denim jacket for the evening. I also have team dangling earrings for my local sports teams and wear bold lip color.

  8. Thoughts on wearing clogs with flares? I want a bit of a heel or at least some height.

    1. I love that look. Clogs do not work on my foot (I have high insteps/arches) but I love it on other people. Very 70s chic.

  9. What are we wearing to arena concerts these days? Classic rock band, if that matters (not T Swift sort of show or fans).

    1. I see the Eagles recently and everyone was in casual attire (also the crowd skewed slightly older, so lots of band tees and other comfort wear). I personally wore a nice black top and black leggings with cute black and white sneakers, and dressed up the look with jewelry and black eyeliner with a bold lip.

    2. Some shows are costume shows – Beyonce, Taylor, Pink. For non-costume shows, wear jeans and a T-shirt and cool sneakers.

    3. Having gone to many classic rock concerts in the last year – dress code is solidly jeans with a concert t-shirt (either from a previous tour or this tour because we now have spending money) plus keds/vans for gen x/elder millennial and hokas for the boomer crowd.

  10. I’m thinking about getting my mom a house cleaning gift certificate for Mother’s Day but have no idea how much to put on it. I’d like it to be a surprise because she will refuse otherwise (due to cost) – but I know she’d really love it once presented. I’m thinking cleaning for the main floor which is a kitchen, family room, living room, dining room, sun room, den, and bathroom (total home space is 3000+ sq ft). She is in NOVA. How much should I load on to the gift certificate? Thanks!

    1. Where is the gift certificate coming from? A specific cleaning company? Maybe you could find a well reviewed cleaning group in her area (the leg work is half the gift!) and ask them their recommendation/going rate/contract with them for the job, pending your mom’s schedule

    2. Yeah, I feel like you could buy the certificate for the service, rather than a dollar amount? Anyway, our independent cleaning lady charges $180/week for our 3000 sq ft house in LA metro area. A service would probably charge more but $150 or $200 should be enough.

      1. that is WAY low. I would expect to pay $180 for like a 2BR apartment.

        I agree with the suggestion to get a gift certificate for the experience rather than for a certain $.

        1. FWIW, rates depend on frequency. I pay $140/week in SF because it’s weekly. It would double for less frequent visits.

    3. I would find the company local to her that has good reviews, call them to find the cost for a spring cleaning of a house of that size, and then prepay the total cost as a “gift certificate”.

      1. This. And add in enough cash for a cash tip in the envelope with the gift certificate.

  11. Ideas for a splurge birthday gift for a friend that will arrive by Saturday in DC? No food or alcohol. As for general likes/dislikes, assume she’s a fellow reader.

    1. Politics and Prose does a signed first edition subscription. I’ve both gotten it for myself and given as gifts several times.

    3. A surprise visit from you with a fun weekend planned? If that would be her thing and you think she’s generally available this weekend.

  12. “corporate space buns” yes or no? i saw a tiktok tutorial and remembered how when i was 22 i felt too old for space buns

    1. I think you should wear them to work if your job is to be a contestant on Top Chef or similar. Otherwise I’d say no.

    2. I can get behind space buns as long as the rest of the outfit it simple, never seen it done successfully, but I think it could be.

    3. Pretend someone was firing you. Do you want that boss wearing space buns? You have your answer.

    4. Space buns read the same as pigtails to me, but every post I comment on today I get told that I am wrong, so YMMV.

    5. It is very Princess Leia still. Do you work at the home office of the Renaissance faire? Maybe OK then.

    7. Sorry, too princess leia for me. that said, if you work in tech and particularly if you are a designer (e.g., the men wear fashionable baseball caps indoors), then i think people might think it’s super cool.

      1. I was imagining some delicious, airy confection provided as a delicacy by a corporate employer. Alas, my fantasy has been dashed.

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