This Week In Your Wallet: Bad News? Hire A D-List Celeb To Deliver It

This Week In Your Wallet:
Bad News? Hire A D-List Celeb To Deliver It

Over the past few months, we’ve been following the news that AI may be coming for our jobs. The new wrinkle? It’s expected to take more jobs from women than it is from men. As artificial intelligence (we’re talking generative AI like ChatGPT, Bard and the like) becomes better at writing, taking orders, designing graphics, filing paperwork and a million other things, women stand to lose the most.

Here’s how it’s projected to evolve: AI is expected to replace 300 million full-time jobs over the course of the next decade according to Goldman Sachs. Right now, eight out of 10 women (nearly 59 million) work in occupations that are “highly exposed to generative AI automation” vs. six out of 10 men (48.6 million). What’s “highly exposed”? It’s a job where 25%-50% of the tasks could be performed by generative AI. Piling on, a new report by the McKinsey Global Institute published last week found that by 2030, almost a third of hours worked in the U.S could be automated — more than originally projected.

The industries in the danger zone? Food services, customer service and sales, as Annabelle Timsit writes for The Washington Post. “Women are overrepresented in these sectors — and hold more low-paying jobs than men — so they stand to be more affected…retail salespeople, cashiers and other low-wage workers — among whom a larger proportion are women — are particularly vulnerable.” Importantly, it’s not just women. It’s also those without college degrees, Black workers, Hispanic workers, as well as the very young and the very old.

So, what can you do if you’re working in a field likely to be affected? Several things can help you to either transition out of an at-risk field, or learn skills to help you succeed in a new one. And if you’ve found these statistics depressing (I know I did) try to take heart in knowing that there are many ways in which AI is changing our world for the better — for example, AI has a 90% accuracy rate at reading mammograms, compared with an 80% for humans. It can also help docs read significantly more tests at a faster clip — if that means more time for docs with their patients, I vote yes.

How “Financially Well” Do You Feel?

Maybe you’re stressed by your money — or maybe you’re totally zen when it comes to your finances. No matter how you’re feeling, HerMoney wants to hear from you! This year’s State of Women Survey is all about YOUR financial wellness, and we would LOVE for you to weigh in and share your opinions! Thank you in advance for spending 10-ish minutes with us — and for being completely honest :) To show our gratitude, we’re offering a fantastic prize (a spa day for two, anyone?), so please enter your email at the end of the survey to be considered. (And FYI, all of your responses will be kept strictly confidential and will only be looked at in the aggregate, together with other responses.) THANK YOU!! ❤️❤️❤️

The 12 Month “Onramp”

While student loan repayment begins on October 1, borrowers can ease into the process via a 12-month onramp — and won’t be penalized for missed payments beyond just accrued interest. What does this mean? Student borrowers who miss payments won’t see their loans go into default, they won’t have their missteps reported to the three credit bureaus, and late fees won’t be charged —but interest will continue accruing, which is why a late payment is still something you want to avoid. On that note, it’s important that this “onramp” should not be confused with a repayment extension — it’s simply some breathing room to ensure a misstep doesn’t prevent someone from buying a house or a car in the future.

As Annie Nova writes for CNBC, the Biden administration wanted to offer a provision that could help ease borrowers back into repayment. This was after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) warned that as many as 1 in 5 student loan borrowers may struggle to make on-time payments when they resume starting Oct. 1. The onramp is slated to run from Oct. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2024.

To start off on the right foot, log in to your student portal and make sure your bank account information is still accurate. Confirm your student loan servicer — there was consolidation in the industry over the last few years, and there’s a chance you might have missed the notification that your loan servicer changed. Once you’re sure everything is set up properly, take a look at your budget and make sure you’re ready (emotionally and financially) to see your loan payments debited from your account. You got this.

How Does She Do It?

Determination, grit, and perseverance — perhaps no one we’ve heard from on our podcast network this year has more of all three than Diana Nyad. At age 64, Nyad became the first person in history to complete the 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida without the protection of a shark cage. (And she didn’t even start training for the adventure until she was in her 60s!) This week, Diana shares how she accomplished her history-making journey with host Karen Finerman on the How She Does It podcast. Follow us so you never miss an episode, and leave us a review!

Return To Office = Return To Sender

As more and more companies are demanding employees return to office (Zoom, really?) “we’re now finding out the damaging consequences of these mandates. And it’s not a pretty picture,” writes Gleb Tsipursky for Yahoo! Finance. According to several new reports, nearly half (42%) of companies who called their employees back saw a higher-than-anticipated number of employee resignations, and a third of companies mandating in-office time say they are now struggling with recruitment.

“Employers knew the mandates would cause some attrition, but they weren’t ready for the serious problems that would result,” Tsipursky explains, referencing a report showing ¾ of employees who how have work-from-home flexibility said they would quit if their employer enforced a return-to-office mandate. So, what’s an employer to do? A focus on “welcoming staff to the office for the sake of collaboration and mentoring” seems to help with attrition rates, Tsipursky writes. In other words, even if you want people back part time, make sure flexibility is still part of the package. And if you’re looking for a job that affords you more flexibility than what you’re being offered, know that it won’t be hard to find. Today, 58% of American workers can work from home at least one day per week, and 35% are completely remote, according to McKinsey’s American Opportunity Survey. So if you’re not happy with your current level of flexibility, crack open LinkedIn or your favorite job board, set your preferences to “remote,” and take a look around. Oh, and if you do decide to leave your current job, here’s one way to deliver the news…

Cameos: They’re Not Just For Birthdays Anymore

The silver lining of the SAG-AFTRA strike? There may be more celebs willing to deliver pretty much any message you have in mind. The platform Cameo allows you to pay anywhere from $1,500 (Kevin O’Leary) to literally $1 (no one I’ve ever heard of) for a custom video. The person you hire will record the message of your choice (within reason, of course, no profanity allowed) and then Cameo will share the video with you. Cameo launched in 2017, and for years the most-requested videos were birthday greetings, anniversary celebrations and the like.

But the latest trend involves hiring D-list celebrities to deliver your bad news, writes Lindsey Choo for The Wall Street Journal. As in: job resignations, apologies, and even divorce. (In the past three years, Cameo got nearly 5,000 requests that used the word “divorce,” and 1,000 that pertained to a job resignation.) Choo interviewed one man who spent $30 for William Hung (of American Idol fame) to offer his job resignation, set to the tune of his song, “Just Do It.” “Fortunately, his co-workers—including his manager—found the video funny,” Choo writes. Whew.

Have a great week,

Jean

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