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Plus: Why we need to go back in time to find our focus.
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HerMoney Podcast Episode 354: Protecting Your Finances Before, During, and After Divorce
HerMoney is made possible by Edelman Financial Engines
 
This Week in Your Wallet:
How to Stop Paying a Fee For Your Checking Account

This isn’t how it was supposed to work, folks.  As the calendar turned to 2023, we were among the excited about the fact that three new states — California, Rhode Island and Washington — and a bunch of cities, had new laws that required some form of pay transparency.  Now, you can count us among the disappointed.


Certain sectors of corporate America are throwing out giant pay scales for jobs where required to by law. The thing is, when a pay range spans six figures, like some of those posted in New York and California recently, it’s not really transparent, and no one really wins, especially the women and minorities who have been historically underpaid for — well — forever. The Washington Post’s Shannon Liao recently reported on the huge gaps in some public salary ranges for jobs in California’s video game industry. For example, “Netflix’s gaming studio posted that a senior games producer could earn anywhere from $50,000 to $600,000, while a gaming director of engineering could make $330,000 to $1.8 million.” Some people, Liao says, took to social media to question “if studios were intentionally keeping salary information vague.” Netflix, she wrote, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Looks like we’ll have to wait a while longer for more companies to get on board the pay transparency train. Until then, keep doing your research when applying for jobs to find out what people in similar roles are making. One way to do this is by visiting sites like Glassdoor.com, Indeed.com and Payscale.com, where real salary ranges are reported by current and former employees and even by the companies themselves. And when a hiring manager asks “What’s your salary requirement,” don’t automatically give a number. Instead, ask politely “What’s the salary range for this job?” That way the impetus is on them to be honest. Then you can negotiate up or down the scale from there.   

Stop Paying a Fee For Your Checking Account

When you brace for an economic downturn or recession, every bit of money you can direct toward your savings – including your emergency fund – gives you that much more breathing room in case your income drops due to a job loss. That’s why I was particularly interested to see a new survey from Bankrate that found some 27% (!) of people are still paying to have a checking account at some financial institutions. That’s even when they know free options are out there.

On average, reports CNBC, “fee-paying checking account holders chalk up $24 a month, or $288 per year, the poll found. And as the chances of a downturn grow and hiring looks likely to slow … nearly half (or 48%) say those checking account fees are preventing them from preparing for a recession.” If you are currently paying a fee for your checking account, or a fee to use other bank or credit union ATMs, you have options. And you may not even need to change banks. First, call and ask what you need to do to qualify for a free account. Sometimes, you’re required to maintain a minimum balance or to sign up for direct deposits. But sometimes, you just have to ask. There are also financial institutions that offer free checking as a perk for certain employers, which is something else to check on.

Interestingly, Boomers and those born into Generation X are the least likely to pay checking account fees the survey found. The most likely? Generation Z, the 18- to 26-year olds, many of whom are just starting out. That group pays an average of $25 per month and is, because they’re new to the working world, most likely to have trouble maintaining minimums. In this case, if your current bank won’t work with you, switching institutions now is the right move. Here’s a list of no-minimum free checking accounts .

Focus Pocus

You may have suspected that your smartphone – and basically your smart everything – had shrunk your ability to focus.  Now we know by how much thanks to a new book: “Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity,” by Dr. Gloria Mark.  This nugget gets right to the point: “Our attention spans while on our computers and smartphones have become short — crazily short — as we now spend about 47 seconds on any screen on average.”

While, the WSJ spent some ink over the weekend pining for technologies of yore (ahh, Blackberry), there are a few strategies you can employ to get your attention span moving in the right direction. Like?  Setting a timer to allow for two-minute tech breaks during work hours, turning off the notifications on your phone, email and other forms of work communication after hours, imposing rules about tech at the dinner table, and reading real books, the old-school kind with ink printed on paper. Walks and meditation also help calm your meandering mind.  

Are We Entering a “Richcession”?

In recessions past, poor people traditionally took it on the chin while the wealthy often barely noticed a blip in their summer travel plans. Wall Street Journal reporter Justin Lahart recently wrote that our current economic downturn may play out a little differently for the rich in America. He calls it a richcession, noting that thousands of the tech layoffs in recent months have targeted high earners. “Securities filings show that the median worker at Facebook parent Meta Platforms made $295,785 in 2021, for example, while the median worker at Twitter made $232,626,” Lahart reports. “And layoffs at those places where the typical worker is less well paid, such as Amazon.com, have largely been aimed at white-collar workers.”

There’s also this: Those on the bottom rung of the economic ladder are doing better than in previous tough times, he explains, noting “several rounds of government relief helped them weather the early stages of the pandemic, and now a tight job market is providing them with wage gains that are reducing inflation’s bite.” Lahart also points to figures from the Fed showing “the net worth of households in the bottom fifth by income was 42% higher in the third quarter than at the end of 2019, and up 17% from the end of 2021.” Here’s hoping for a soft landing for those with more, those with less and everyone in between.


Have a great week,

Jean


 
 
 
 
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