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Updated: Feb 6, 2019 90 Comments · by

Suit of the Week: Brooks Brothers

Suit of the Week

This post may contain affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

For busy working women, the suit is often the easiest outfit to throw on in the morning. In general, this feature is not about interview suits for women, which should be as classic and basic as you get — instead, this feature is about the slightly different suit that is fashionable, yet professional. We're picturing the suit-and-trousers combination of this stretch wool Brooks Brothers suit, but the cap-sleeve sheath dress that goes with it is really lovely. I've said it before, I'll say it again: a light gray suit can be very, very versatile, and I kind of prefer it to a winter white, or even to the white pants that every magazine makes you think you need for spring. The jacket (Stretch-Wool Peak Lapel Jacket) is $498, the dress (Stretch-Wool Cap Sleeve Sheath Dress) is $398, the skirt (Stretch-Wool Pencil Skirt) is $228, and the pants (Stretch-Wool Ankle Pants) are $248. Aside from the skirt, which only comes in regular sizes, all come in both regular and petite sizes up to 16. A more affordable option in light gray is from Calvin Klein (jacket + skirt) at Dillards, and this light gray sleeveless sheath dress at Macy's is on sale. For plus sizes, Le Suit has a pantsuit and skirt suit in light gray herringbone, and here's a sleeveless sheath dress in light gray, also on sale. This post contains affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!

Sales of note for 10.10.24

  • Nordstrom – Extra 25% off clearance (through 10/14); there's a lot from reader favorites like Boss, FARM Rio, Marc Fisher LTD, AGL, and more. Plus: free 2-day shipping, and cardmembers earn 6x points per dollar (3X the points on beauty).
  • Ann Taylor – Extra 50% off sale (ends 10/12)
  • Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything plus extra 25% off your $125+ purchase
  • Boden – 10% off new styles with code; free shipping over $75
  • Eloquii – Extra 50% off a lot of sale items, with code
  • J.Crew – 40% off sitewide
  • J.Crew Factory – 50% off entire site, plus extra 25% off orders $150+
  • Lo & Sons – Fall Sale, up to 35% off
  • M.M.LaFleur – Save 25% sitewide
  • Neiman Marcus – Sale on sale, up to 85% off
  • Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
  • Talbots – 50% off 2+ markdowns
  • Target – Circle week, deals on 1000s of items
  • White House Black Market – Buy one, get one – 50% off full price styles

And some of our latest threadjacks here at Corporette (reader questions and commentary) — see more here!

Some of our latest threadjacks include:

About Kat

Kat Griffin is the founder, publisher, and editor-in-chief of Corporette. You can read more about her here.

Comments

  1. Weekend Outfits

    What are your favorite weekend outfits these days? I need inspiration. I’m having dinner with an old acquaintance and want to look good, but not like I’m trying too hard. Pretty casual location.

  2. Anon

    I wish I could put “coddles fragile male egos” on my resume. I have had it up to here with the incompetent dudes I work for today.

    • LAnon

      I know you’re mostly just venting, but I did see a resume the other day that had “EQ/Interpersonal” listed under Skills/Strengths. Initially I thought it was sort of a silly or soft thing to list there… but then I had to admit that it’s a critical part of the role she applied for so I grudgingly admitted to myself that it made sense to list it.

      • Monday

        Yeah, but it’s one of those resume items that can’t be quantified or verified, right? Like when someone writes “works well in groups” instead of listing specific outcomes from their good group work. I thought everything on a resume was supposed to be concrete.

        • Anon

          I think it could work well as a signal, though? In the right circumstances maybe?

        • LAnon

          I saw it as a signal that she felt both that it was important enough to list and that she personally is strong enough to call it out. It will definitely be a good interview question to probe on a little more and get some specifics on why she feels that she has strong EQ.

          The other thing I’ll mention is that it’s pretty obvious when something is just padding on a resume. When you start getting into “proficient in Microsoft office” and “strong multitasker” and “works well in groups” on an otherwise weak or sparse resume, you know they’re grasping at straws to fill space. This particular candidate had plenty of concrete accomplishments and most likely would have moved forward in the process regardless.

          • lily

            I have something about “liased between technical and business groups” or something on my resume because I wanted a way to say that I was good at that, and people seem to like that line.

    • Anonymous

      I will see you and raise you.

      Female here.
      Client transitioned work to a man at another service provider.
      Who proved to be incompetent.
      Who I had to pick up the pieces for.
      Who I am now ghostwriting for.

      I just want to be paid for the work I am doing.

    • Vicky Austin

      That sounds like the beginning of a McSweeney’s article: the hidden resume items of women.

      • Housecounsel

        Vicky Austin, I very much hope someone commissions you to write this.

    • Anonymous

      coddles fragile mediocre male egos

      so, so hard.

      and listening them complain about their wives for decades, at many different employers. so over it

  3. Anononon

    I’ve seen other blogs doing posts about their most popular items based on analytics. I’d love to see that here.

    • Anon

      I think the number of comments and pageviews here have nothing to do with the items posted. People always get very involved when there’s a super controversial question in the comments, not when they love or hate the dress of the day.

      • Anononon

        Yeah, but you can tell how many people bought what, and that’s what I mean.

    • Kat G

      I’ll consider for the future. A lot of the other places use Rewardstyle, which groups the analytics easily so you can see that data, but it’s a sub-affiliate network so the blogger doesn’t get the full commission; it takes more work to see data on the platforms I use the most like Rakuten and CJ. And I didn’t want to skeeve you guys out from a privacy perspective — if memory serves when I’ve looked at the data I can see what items got the most clicks, what items resulted in the most commission (which doesn’t tell you what people buy, and may be a “WTF is Kat posting today” reaction instead of “Ooh I want that” reaction) — but I think I can break it down to the “what are people buying the most” so I can see like 10 orders on one specific dress.

      • Anononon

        Thanks for responding! For some reason, I’ve found those posts really engaging. Plus I assume it would be good for you to get those products in front of us again.

  4. First Budget

    DH and I are making our first budget and I was looking for some advice. He is currently in residency for the next 2.5 years, and then may potentially do a fellowship (1-2 years). We bought a house, max out our Roths and contribute to our 401ks to get company match. He also has a trust fund from his parents that we don’t touch, but it’s a huge safety net and helped us put our downpayment on our house, and will help out as a future downpayment for our “forever home”. How much money should we be saving? His perspective is that in 4 years he’ll be making at least 2x our current household income, so we should enjoy life now and not save outside of our retirement. My family was always conservative and frugal, I think we should save more but don’t really know what we’re saving for. We’re late 20s, plan on having kids in 4-5 years, no debt. I was shocked to go through my 2018 expenses and realize we spent ~700/month at grocery stores and ~350/month at restaurants and bars, but we can afford it, should I be cutting back or just enjoy? What do most people strive to save outside of retirement and why?

    • Anon

      You have plenty of money for your lifestyle, I wouldn’t worry about it. I currently save nothing except maxing my employer-provided 401(k) and contributing $10k/year to my kid’s 529, but I have to pay for daycare and have a mortgage we’re paying down super aggressively. Before the baby, I was saving for a down payment and aggressively paying off student loans. When the mortgage is gone, we expect to have an extra $50k/year, most of which we will save, but some of which will be used for fun stuff like travel. I’m 34 for reference.

    • Anonymous

      I don’t think your grocery and restaurant spending is out of line. The monthly cost for the USDA “liberal” grocery plan for two adults is $766.40.

      If you want to save more, are you maxing your 401Ks?

      • First Budget

        I’m not, but pretty close, and that’s where we disagree. I contribute about 25% and have accumulated ~$70-80k in my 401k and have around ~$20 in my roth. He doesn’t think I need to save as much because again, in a few years he’ll make a ton more, and he’d prefer to eat out more instead of save. It feels irresponsible to me, but of course I’d love to spend more money.

        • Anon

          What you’ve said doesn’t sound outrageous and I think you’re probably fine but if you’re questioning here are the things I didn’t see in your post:

          Depending on the type of retirement plan you can’t just throw more money at it later – you can do x per year and if it’s a Roth IRA you might be limited even more if your incomes are over y. It may be worth getting the specifics of your plan(s) to make the smart choice.

          Also, as others have said there are no guarantees on future income and plenty of obstacles may arise that are beyond either of your control. You don’t have to assume the worst but it’s not unreasonable for you to want to do a periodic assessment with your partner and if he doesn’t get that – well I’d be annoyed too. You don’t have to totally agree on the answer but you should both be open to thinking through each other’s concerns

    • Anonymous

      $700 at grocery stores and $350 at restaurants and bars is really not that much, all things considered. We spend about the same, maybe a bit higher at restaurants in months when my husband and I actually go out to eat by ourselves at “nice” place.

      If I were you, I would probably max out my 401(k), since it sounds like you’re not, and find an amount your comfortable saving to for emergencies, repairs, vacations, etc., but it does sound to me like you’re a lucky one who doesn’t have to worry a much as most.

      • Anon

        +1 I’m single and I’m not spending that much on groceries and eating out, but certainly more than half of that amount.

    • Anon

      I would max out your IRA and your 401k accounts but would not worry about saving any substantial amount above that. The amounts you provided don’t seem out of line to me. You already have a significant safety net (a trust fund!!!) and will be making a higher HHI in a few years.

      • Anon

        Yeah, this amount of grocery spending is normal for affluent people but you should be maxing your 401(k) to protect yourself. The trust fund and his expected higher income are his, not yours.

    • Vicky Austin

      Our saving categories so far are emergency fund, potential car trouble, and vacations. We do a separate vacation fund so that we can enjoy our “fun money” each month without worrying that we’re impacting our ability to travel in the future (and so that vacations are better planned).

      I guess it depends on whether or not you consider his trust fund to BE the emergency fund. It could be. But if “we don’t touch it” would still apply if all your income suddenly went away or one of you got sick, you’d need something else.

    • givemyregards

      I think the answer really depends on what makes you feel secure without feeling scared/deprived? My SO and I spend a similar amount on groceries/going out (and it did take me a while to get comfortable with that, particularly the grocery piece since I was used to spending like $150/month just for me) but we spend a lot of time cooking together, talking about the different wines we like to buy/taste/gulp, having long casual dinners, etc. so it’s really an investment in a lot of other things besides food.

      If you’re maxing out your roths, can afford your house, are contributing to your 401ks, then it sounds like you’re doing a great job!! Residency (and then fellowship) is super stressful (which I don’t need to tell you, because you of course know this very well!) so I think if you’re not the absolute most frugal you can be during this time, that’s just fine. You’re not setting yourself up for financial ruin later in life living the way you are. BUT! If it’s giving you anxiety to not be saving more cash, maybe try to set aside a small amount of money each month that isn’t necessarily an untouchable emergency fund, but is more of a slush fund that you’ll generally leave as savings, but if you want to have a nice dinner out or go on vacation, you can tap into it and that’s okay, too.

      • First Budget

        Thanks for the nice comment about how hard residency is even though I’m not the doctor (: That makes sense, it’s what I try to do currently but I get some guilt when we indulge and dip into that portion of money even though that’s what it’s there for. I felt bad telling my husband we maybe needed to cut back on his nice beers and whiskey because that’s how he relaxes after an awful call. Also nice to know others spend around this at the grocery store!

        • Anonymous

          He’s the one making no money. His nice whiskey shouldn’t be at the expense of your retirement savings. Once you’re maxing out your 401k he can buy fancy whisky.

          • Anon

            +1. Your husband is asking you to raid your retirement to fund his lifestyle. That’s not ok. (And I’m generally of the mind that if you’re putting anything in retirement in your 20s, you’re doing well. Retirement is a long way off. But I don’t like your husband’s attitude. It seems to be a bit of “what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is ours.”)

          • First Budget

            Sorry that came off wrong. I definitely spend more money than him, also I love whiskey, and more so, I love entertaining friends. I do all the grocery shopping, so I pick up his favorite beers frequently (unprompted) whenever I remember. We share all expenses, and aren’t thinking of which retirement to fund, just saving in general. We’re working on creating a budget together, he’s not demanding I promise!

        • givemyregards

          Oh gosh, First Budget, I wish you hadn’t gotten jumped on for the nice booze comment! I think it’s nice to indulge your partner’s faves (uh, particularly if you like it, too) and the way I try to think about these things is that they’re partially financial issues, but they’re also communications issues. My partner loves to spend money on that stuff, too, but it occasionally stresses me out (even though we’re totally fine financially) – I’ve found that what makes me feel better is just talking to him about it and having the feeling acknowledged. That nullifies my anxiety and allows me to better enjoy our fancy bourbon, haha.

          And for people saying don’t bank on future earnings…I mean, that’s true, but it’s not like you’re throwing total caution to the wind! If something bad happens you’ll figure it out! AND (sorry I’m responding to everyone’s comments here) – I work with a lot of really nice, happy, well adjusted fellows and MDs. So don’t borrow future trouble on that front. Just keep doing what you’re doing and what feels right to you and it’ll work out the way it’s supposed to.

          • First Budget

            Haha thank you! I really appreciate your response, I’d just like to learn to budget before we (potentially) handle a salary jump and your comments took away some of my worry.

    • Rainbow Hair

      I don’t know much about trust funds (we got married with about zero assets each) but one paranoid thing you might want to think about is… presumably if you get divorced, the trust fund isn’t a marital asset/doesn’t get split? While savings you as a couple accumulate would, I think. (I am *so* not a family law lawyer, but this is my general impression.) I wonder if that is a point in favor of doing some saving now, just to have it there…

      • Betterandbetter

        Similarly-along other risk mitigation lines-I think it’s unwise to count chickens before they hatch. Not saving even more when you are already saving a reasonable amount for retirement is one thing (and 1000 dollars a month on food seems not nutty to me) but making decisions about how you should live a certain way now because you THINK you will be making orders of magnitude more YEARS from now seems unwise. Also you’re both young enough that it’s very possible that the health care system in this country (I am assuming US) will be very different when your husband is mid career and doctors’ compensation expectations may drastically change.

        • Anon

          Yes, not to mention who knows what might happen personally! Maybe one of you gets injured or some other big life change happens that you weren’t expecting and all of a sudden you’re not on that path to make that higher income anymore. I agree that making your CURRENT budget decisions based on what you think is going to happen in the FUTURE is unwise.

        • anon

          Also, I didn’t know this until recently (lawyer, family full of lawyers), but apparently in a lot of states, Drs have non-compete contracts. So you may be pushed out of a job, or lose a job, and depending on how flexible you are in moving, it may be quite a while before you can find another job.
          For me, comfort is maxing out all retirement savings, having 1 yr of liquid take-home pay (we didn’t have this until a few yrs after we graduated), insurance to cover mortgage for 2-3 yrs if something happens to one of us, and consistently saving enough each year that with a low-reasonable rate of return, we will have enough to live off from ages 65-100. I really recommend the book ‘I will teach you to be rich’ by ramit sethi. His advice is solid for someone entering the workplace w/ some money.
          FWIW- your spending habits are not out of line for what we spent at that stage in our life. That doesn’t make them right or wrong, but I feel like it’s not a bad starting point to build off of.
          Also- good point people on the trust fund- that would almost certainly not be yours in divorce proceedings (and potentially even if your husband died depending on how it is set up).

      • First Budget

        I haven’t thought about this (i’m naive, newly wed so of course we’ll be happy forever!) but we never signed a prenup and I have more retirement savings than him. Our plan is for me to be a SAHM but I’ll admit, this site (and my job) has me unsure if I want to do that when the time comes. I don’t want to be foolish, but also since he’ll eventually be the breadwinner I’m worried in the back of my mind (what if he gets hurt or something happens and he can’t work anymore)

        • Anonymous

          Hmm. As the wife of a doctor (11 years post-fellowship), I’d strongly caution you not to bank too much on your husband’s future earnings and his trust fund because doctors can turn into raging jerks post-training. Especially if you plan to be a SAHM, you should put as much as you possibly can towards future retirement savings because you’ll have more limited opportunities for tax advantaged savings if you leave the workforce. I’ll also throw out that being a physician is extremely stressful, and I know it helps my husband immeasurably to know that he’s not the sole breadwinner and that I mean it when I tell him he can quit at any time.

          • First Budget

            Do you find it more stressful than residency? That makes me so sad, we keep thinking that this is the hardest few years of his career and it’ll only get better. FWIW he’s in Ophthalmology which is supposed to have an easier lifestyle.

          • Anonymous

            I’m married to a retina surgeon. The hours aren’t that bad and are better than residency, but he has to make decisions every day that could result in a patient losing his/her eyesight. Some doctors seem to be able to turn off when they leave the office, but my husband is one of the ones who can’t.

          • Dahlia

            First budget- it’s so funny because I was sitting next to the wife of a medical student on a train yesterday who was saying to me that she can’t wait until medical school is over because residency will be less stressful! She was horrified when I said that I don’t think that will be the case…

            Attending life is different from residency, but its not easier. My residency occupied a crazy amount of my time (this was before work hour restrictions, so we did the traditional 36 hour in-house shifts, and up to 84 hours straight on call). I also struggled during residency with the emotional lability that comes from years of significant sleep deprivation, and I had a lot of anger related to my feelings of powerlessness. My now-husband put up with a lot of mood swings and tears! I think residents are less abused now than I was, however, and my residents now are usually gone by 6 pm and have a night float system so your husband may or may not be facing those same stressors.

            I work far fewer hours as an attending, but the stresses are much higher. You are the only on responsible for your patients- there is no one else coming on call and taking over your responsibilities. One of my partners just flew back halfway through a trip to care from one of the his patients who needed very complex surgery. You are truly on call 24/7/365 no matter where in the world you are. If you need to leave town, you need to find someone with an equal skill set you can trust to cover your patients- and in fields like mine (I’m a microvascular surgeon specializing in head and neck reconstruction) there are only 2 people in my city with this skill set including me. It’s probably easier if you are a GP or an internist and there are a lot of people around with your skill set. Ophthalmologists sometimes work in large groups which would be much easier. Being the sole ophthalmologist in a community I think would be hard.

            There is also a lot more stress related to decision making. In residency you’re not the end of the line- someone is watching over you. As an attending, you’re it. You make the decisions that determine in people live or die (or if they lose their vision). I didn’t expect that to feel much different, but it really did. Complications are a fact of life, but when they happen, they now happen to people you are responsible for and often have a long relationship with- people who trust you with their lives. It’s a much bigger burden. I don’t think anyone turns it off, I think some people are just better at compartmentalizing and at bravado:)

            The money is obviously much better as an attending. For me, I had to then face all that debt, so it ate up a lot of my salary for the first 2.5 years. But now that I’m out of that, it affords me a better quality of life. I’m still grateful for my husband’s job, because we know that if either one of us got injured or lost our jobs, we could live on the other’s salary without major issues. Common reasons surgeons become disabled are back injuries, hand injuries, vision changes. In most medical systems, you get paid based on your productivity, so a period of low or absent productivity can be a big problem. If you are both going to depend on his salary, make sure he has great disability insurance.

        • anon

          Prenup wouldn’t matter here- in most states inheritance’s and inherited trusts are exempt from marital property and would not be split on divorce unless there was somehow commingling of assets in the trust (depends on state though- this is the case for sure in CA). You might also not be entitled to anything on his death depending how it is set up. You guys may want to use some of the money to set up a trust/will of your own to cover contingencies that you can. :)

      • Been There

        I came here to say exactly this. I don’t know that I’d couch it that way in your discussions with your husbands, but this should be a consideration for you. I’ve been on the other side of this– I received a small inheritance after my ex husband and I were married. My financial adviser insisted on putting it into an account in only my name and advised me against paying off marital debt with it because my state doesn’t consider an inheritance like that to be marital property unless the couple treats it as such. I thought that was so silly because we’d been married almost 10 years by that time, and were super in love. Welllll… he ended up cheating on me and leaving a couple of years later. Was I ever glad that I had that extra safety net he couldn’t touch.

    • FYI

      Some employers offer a Roth option on 401ks. Given that your fiance’s income is about to skyrocket it is probably a good option for you.

    • Walnut

      Do you have an emergency fund? Vacation fund? Car replacement fund? How about a brokerage account to throw cash into in case life throws you a fantastic opportunity? And also, take a hard look at what it might take to max out your 401k as well.

      At the end of the day, does your budget reflect what’s important to you? If eating out and enjoying the social experience is the priority, then don’t also spend a giant pile of money on clothes and personal care, for instance.

      • Anonymous

        This. It seems like you’re caught in this false dilemma where the only options are eat out or save money. If you want to eat out more AND save money, why not just cut back in some other lifestyle area? You guys have a LOT of money, so surely you can make lifestyle choices that don’t cramp you much at all, still eat out, and still save?

        • First Budget

          No, I agree with your take, I was just wondering if we should be saving more instead of enjoying ourselves so much. I was also horrified we spent $11k in “shopping” and even though $2500 was on clothes/shoes, I decided for 2019 I was going to loosely stop shopping for our wardrobes. I meant for a general “how much do you save outside of retirement” question. But framing our budget displaying our priorities is a great idea.

    • Anonymous

      What do I save for outside of retirement? Home repairs/renovations, travel, and then I save more for retirement, because I don’t want to be that lawyer who’s still working at 65 or 70. I want to retire early. But what you’re spending on groceries doesn’t seen excessive. I do agree with everyone that you shouldn’t plan current budget around future projected income, because you just never know.

    • First Budget

      Thanks for all the responses, I’ll continue my 401k savings and potentially try to max that out. From the standpoint of trying to protect myself, does that mean I just don’t care if my husband’s 401k is just at the company match? I’m not willing to live so cheaply to max out both, but had thought maybe we’d even out the savings between both 401ks, but from this discussion I guess I’ll only do mine? And any extra money outside of retirement savings will be vacation/cushion because we treat the trust as our emergency fund and home repairs/etc if we have to. This is definitely a strange way to me to think about finances and protecting myself – we haven’t even had our 1 year anniversary yet!

      • Anonymous

        Yes I would only focus on your 401k. He has his trust fund so he has less need to fund his 401k. Retirement accounts are one of the things that will almost never be split equally in the event of divorce, so that’s something where it’s a huge benefit to have the funds in your name.

        • Anon for this

          In my state, if you are married for more than 10 years, anything that’s not “separate property” (a narrow category that includes things like inheritances or gifts from family) is split 50-50 upon divorce. That includes retirement accounts. When I divorced I had to give my husband funds out of my retirement account that went into his, to make things equal.

      • Anon

        If you’re going to rely on the trust for emergencies, it’d be worth a consult with a local family law lawyer on how much you can rely on the trust if something were to happen and if there’s anything you can do to increase your chances of being able to rely on the trust.

        If your husband dies or leaves you or becomes incapacitated or starts making bad decisions, will you have access to/control over the trust? If his parents decide that he shouldn’t have access to the money for awhile? What about if you’re pregnant and have young kids at the time?

      • Anon

        I would try to max or your 401k … but you are doing good for your income if you contribute 25% of your income now. Unless you live in an incredible lcol place, you are likely already saving significantly more than you would be able to if single because your fixed expenses are split between 2 and you are using your husband’s trust for home down payment, etc.

    • Anonymous

      This is not directly related to your concern, but make sure you both have good long-term disability insurance. That’s huge peace of mind.

    • rosie

      They look like extreme cap sleeves or something. Not sure it would be comfortable or fall right (sleeves sticking out like a cape seems like a weird look).

    • Anon

      I think it can look fine but the dress is too small on the model and the sleeves hit too deep into her pecs.

  6. Anonymous

    This morning’s post about job applications reminded me of a PSA I wanted to share. Please be sure to update your resume, including your bar licenses, before you apply for a job. My office recently hired an attorney who was admitted to practice in a few jurisdictions. Apparently, years ago, while at their last firm, attorney let one bar licensure lapse/not renew because that state isn’t relevant to attorney’s practice anymore. Unfortunately, attorney forgot to update their resume to delete the lapsed state before applying to my firm. The firm caught wind that attorney “lied” on their resume and had to terminate their employment. The attorney was well liked and everyone who worked with them is very sad to see them go especially under these circumstances. Don’t forget to read these little details very very thoroughly before you send out your resume!

    • anon

      Point taken, but that hardly seems like a reason to terminate someone you otherwise like and want to have around. If it was necessary that be be licensed in that state, then that might be a different matter, but surely that would have come up in the interview and atty would have mentioned that that license had lapsed.

    • Anonymous

      Depending on the state, an inactive license may still be a “license” – you just can’t appear in court without reactivating. I am still “licensed” in a state where I am inactive and a member of that state bar, but I do not practice there.

    • Anon

      Thanks for the reminder! I just renewed an appellate court membership that I’d forgotten about (used once, probably won’t use again for another decade or two).

  7. anon

    We just had a meeting where someone stood up and said that someone harassed had a duty to confront their accuser. This sounds awful. What does the hive think? Advice please …..

    (FYI: I’m reposting another person’s post from the morning’s thread, because I’d like to see it get more traffic)

    • Vicky Austin

      I really don’t understand how being the harassed one means you have been accused of something. Is it supposed to be a duty to accuse the harasser? Or a duty to confront someone who has accused you of harassing them?

    • Inspired By Hermione

      Agree with above, but also, I come from a DV perspective and “what the f” was my first thought.

  8. Anon

    Speaking of retirement savings, I work for the state government and have a mandatory 401(a) where I have to contribute a small amount of money and an optional 403(b) where I contribute the IRS max and my employer contributes some set percent of my salary. Am I correct that I can also open an IRA? Which is better, Roth or traditional? I know the basic difference that Roth is post-tax, traditional is pre-tax, but I’m still not sure which is better for me. HHI is $150k now, I would expect it to grow gradually but not dramatically over our working lifetimes. I would expect to take out less money in retirement until we need nursing-type care. And is there any reason not to use Fidelity, which manages my other retirement accounts?

    • anon

      I have fidelity (through my employer) and vanguard and prefer vanguard- I think the fees are generally lower & it’s easier to move stuff around. I would DEFINITELY do roth IRAs, most of us here can’t because we make too much (over $193k for 2019), but it’s a great option since you are under the income cap. I wish I would have done more earlier in my career when I as under the cap.

    • Anon

      A traditional IRA can be pre- or post-tax, which would depend on your income limit (I’m over the limit, so I can’t do pre-tax for traditional IRA). If you are over the income limit (the $193k noted above is for married filing jointly for 2019), then you can do a backdoor roth, where you put post-tax money in a traditional IRA and immediately convert it to a roth IRA. For the conversion, if you have any pre-tax money in an IRA, you have to pay taxes on what you convert on a pro-rata basis.

      Without doing a backdoor roth, there’s no point to do a post-tax IRA, as you lose all of the tax benefits of an IRA.

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