Squashing Financial Inequality

 Rich.  That word has always been powerful for me.  As a kid, it meant the families who drove the big cars and had crisp green yards with pools in the back.  As I entered my 20’s and 30’s it meant BMW’s, Range Rovers, and vacations where you rented entire houses for the week, not a hotel room. In daily life, it looked like never buying no-name shoes or bags and an obsession with owning iconic Tiffany jewelry.  I never stopped to think if those things made someone rich or simply just appear rich, but it felt good to have those luxuries at my fingertips. The problem here, of course, is that in reality these things do not make you rich.  They are fine if you can truly afford them, but affordability is measured much differently than you would think.  

The word rich is much like the word love or happiness.  It means something to you and something else to the person across the table.  It’s all about perspective and individual values.  Women in America have a unique perspective on the word often rooted in extreme disadvantage.  On average, a woman's wealth is 55% to that of men.  Women earn approximately 85% of what men do for the same job, and are expected to make around 1 million less over the course of their careers than male counterparts.  Wow, we suck.  How did this happen?  I think this problem is due largely to women choosing an outdated version of motherhood over careers, and an idea that their husbands or boyfriends should handle their finances.  Women are made to believe they shouldn’t manage money.  The repetitive phrases stating, “I don’t want to learn how”, or “I feel intimidated by all the choices and financial advice on the internet, or banking products to choose from” are nothing more than excuses women hold like badges.  Unfortunately, these ideas are woven into our patriarchal mainstream structure, which I maintain, still exists to keep women ‘in their place’.  The wealth inequality for women, the background, the causes and how to break the cycle is an entirely separate topic and a post for another day.  For now, I just want you to fix the problem and we can discuss the why, later.  

To be truly rich as a woman is to build a safety net for you, by you, and those you hold space for.  What I'm talking about is saving, and not just a few Benjamins under the mattress either.  Your money market account, funded.  Your 401k, maxed.  Your Roth IRA, automated.  And your HSA account is not only maxed but the funds are invested.  Have little ones you’re raising?  They better have a 529 account and a custodial IRA set up for them so you can build generational wealth and pass down opportunity rather than demeaning traditions that leave women trapped, financially dependent and a burden to society’s already tattered safety net.  

Does this sound complicated and like too much responsibility to bear?  Great!  Keep reading because in today’s thought journey I am going to simplify the what, how and why’s behind what I just mentioned, being rich.  Think of this post as a checklist of accounts in order of financial importance, and a brief description of how each account works and where to open them.  I have included links to my preferred financial products, which will result in bonus money for you and I when you sign up for an account or service.  Help me and help yourself, by defining what rich truly is.  Explore the links and get started on a rich path.   I do want to clarify, in case anyone is wondering, this information is for humans not women only.  Not men only.  However, if there is one thing women can do to develop their autonomy and increase their power as individuals in our judgemental society it is to get dirty, detailed and clear as fuck about your money.  No one else is going to do it for you.  Money, power, respect.  This should be every woman's anthem.  Make it yours.  This way something green comes.

To kick us off, I want to shut down the idea that saving and investing is only for the rich, or only an available choice once you have paid off debt, or my favorite excuse, I can’t afford to invest.  To be clear, I do not care if you make 200k a year or 30k a year, the truth is you are leaving money on the table and failing to create the most structurally sound foundation for your future by not investing.  Even $5 or $10 dollars a week or per pay check make a difference in the end.  

So you have a ‘regular person’ W2 job?  You’re already ahead of the game, because that means you likely have access to an employer sponsored 401k plan.  To fully understand the benefit of this account you must have baseline knowledge of dollar cost averaging.  Let’s begin.  Which dollar is worth more?  A dollar you find on the ground during your walk, or a dollar from your paycheck?  The street dollar is worth more, because you did not pay taxes on that dollar.  The dollar from your paycheck was taxed.  Put another way, about ⅓ of your salary goes to various taxes.  What is left is your take home pay.  A 401k, allows you to contribute a maximum of $24,500 in pre-tax dollars annually (as of 2026) to your account.  This means that you have $24,500 full untaxed, unviolated dollars that you can use to gain compound interest with.  Essentially in a dollar cost average account such as a 401k plan, you have the full power of the dollar working for you.  Additionally, the amount you contribute reduces your tax liability meaning you pay less taxes.  For example, if Suzie earns $150,000/year, but she contributes zero dollars to her 401k plan she is on the hook for $33,000, or 22% of her salary owed in taxes.  If Suzie reads this post and then changes her 401k contributions to $24,500, her taxable income is reduced to $125,500 which means Uncle Sam can only have this cut of the reduced income.  Suzie’s new tax liability is $27,600.  That's a tax savings of $5,400.  Those saved tax dollars are now making serious cash in your 401k.  

Now, you might be thinking, why would I put almost $25,000 in a 401k just to save $5,400 on taxes?  So glad you asked!  Compound interest is why.  The Compound Interest Calculator on Nerd Wallet’s website is my favorite tool for seeing things like this on a grand scale.  See the chart below.  If nothing over the annual tax savings is contributed, the account would be worth over $431,000 after 25 years.  That my friends is the power of tax savings and compound interest.  If setting aside $24,500 from your salary each year sounds impossible, keep in mind that you will only see about ⅔ of that money disappear for your take home pay.  That’s because you are already paying ⅓ of that amount in taxes.  Remember, for every dollar you earn you only see ⅔ of it, so by setting aside pre tax funds, you save on taxes, see massive gains due to compound interest and will only see a ⅔ reduction in your take home pay.  For example, contributing $24,500 will only feel like $16,333 contributed because of the amount you already pay in taxes.

TAX SAVINGS GROWTH ONLY

Compound Interest Calculator - NerdWallet

The total picture of this hypothetical 401k looks like this.  Suzie has maxed out her 401k for 25 years, saved over 5k in taxes each year for 25 years and now just one of her accounts is worth almost 2 million dollars.  This example makes the problem of women's financial inequality seem like a mystery. Fortunately, we’re just getting started.  The HSA account is next.

401k AFTER 25 YEARS

Compound Interest Calculator - NerdWallet

You’ve heard of a triple threat, right?  Well the HSA account is the triple threat of the finance world.  This account allows you to contribute tax free dollars, $4,400 for individuals or $8,750 for families as of 2026), the money grows tax free, and you can use the funds to make tax free purchases on qualified health care expenses, such as doctor co-pays, Motrin and cold meds, or prescriptions.  If you’re a finance nerd like me, it’s actually a very cool account to learn about.  Not only does this money enter this account without any tax loss, but you are able to invest these funds, where all of your gains will be able to peacefully grow, tax free.  This account has the same effect as the 401k, in that it saves you on taxes by reducing your tax liability.  That means that the $4,500 tax savings we looked at above will increase.  

For a family who puts the annual max contribution into this account and then invests those dollars, they stand to grow a significant nest egg for healthcare in retirement.  If Suzie then adds the full contribution for $8,700 to her HSA account and does not touch it for 25 years, she will have a medical expense account worth over $600,000 with an average 8% return.  This means that Suzie’s total investments are valued at around 2.5 million after 25 years, and we still have a few more accounts to set up for her.

The key with these retirement accounts is to start early.  We are using a timeline of 25 years to get to these numbers, but what if you started early?  In your early 30’s, or even better early 20’s?  What if your parents knew the power of compound interest and passed on things to you like funds for education expenses or set up a custodial IRA so you have a starting point better than zero?  Doing something like this with as little as $10/week has the potential to make a massive impact on your child’s future.  $10 per week is $520 annually, at a 12% interest rate you could be handing your child almost 40K before their 20th birthday.  Every single person reading this wasted $10 this week and will waste another $10 again next week.  Take that money and make it work for you.  Put something in place that builds confidence, status and provides ability, not excuses.  

Let’s return to Suzie, our new money savvy gal.  She is saving for the future, using compound interest magic to curate a future of prosperity, while saving on taxes.  $7,315.00 annually tax saving to be exact.  That’s a bad bitch flex stronger than a Louie bag and a foreign car.  What should one do with 7k in tax savings?  Make the Wolf of Wall Street applaud your choice by doubling down and invest that cash too!  Where do I put this 7k?  Enter the Roth IRA, my friends.  A Roth IRA is a tax sheltered account where you can invest post-tax dollars, up to $7,500 annually (as of 2026).  This money will grow tax free until you cash it out.  A Roth IRA allows you to access funds prior to the retirement age of 59 ½ with a small percentage penalty.  A traditional IRA does not allow access to the money prior to retirement.  Your Roth is a cozy home for your tax savings so you can build additional security.  

After 25 years of investing the saved tax dollars the Roth IRA would be worth just over $800,000.000, meaning Suzi’s total net worth is close to 3.3 million assuming no debt has accrued.  AT the 3 million mark, one can easily retire unless you have a taste for yachts and mansions.

Now I know some of you might look at these figures and say I’m not making 150k and so the results do not scale, but in reality they do scale to anyone regardless of income.  The contribution limits, APY on accounts and tax benefits do not change based on income.  These are set limits by the IRS, so even an individual making 300k will only be allowed to contribute these same amounts.  The amounts used in the 150k example are the same amounts that someone making 80k is allowed to contribute.  

The idea of being able to invest and how to do so seems to be reserved for trust fund babies, high earners or members of some elite underground club.  The truth is investing is easy to understand, simple to implement and builds a life for you and future generations that is beyond what most folks can imagine.  This is accessible to every single person whether they are self employed or working for a corporation.  Here is what this path looks like for an individual or family making 80k annually.

Salary $80,000

401k contribution- $24,500

HSA contribution (for an individual) -$ 4,400

IRA contribution- $ 7,500

Tax savings after contribution-$7,380

Take home pay before contributions-$ 62,400

Retirement before contributions-$ 0

Take home pay (after contributions and taxes )-$40,800

Retirement after 25 years of contributions-$ 2,826,146.18 ( almost 3 MILLION)

Notice how the take home pay is only reduced by $21,600 between these 2 examples, despite investing over 25k.  That is where the tax savings are benefiting you.  You are effectively taking money from the pockets of the IRS and gifting it to your future self, which in turn will save you money now and later, as well as grow into something beautiful.  Imagine investing as a garden.  AT the beginning of the season it's a pain in the ass.  You have to create a space for the garden, plant and water the seeds and weed out the trash.  However, come harvest time there are delicious choices all because of your hard work and big picture mindset.   

The best part about these figures above is this is likely a lower number than you would see after 25 years.  The numbers do not take into consideration an employer contribution to pre-tax accounts which are very common.  This increases your overall wealth.  In addition to the 3 accounts mentioned above, there are individual brokerage accounts, money market accounts and 529 savings accounts for your child's education.  All of these provide the power of compound interest and the majority allow for additional tax savings.  If you deploy the full magic of all these accounts you are very likely to have tax savings and account balances totaling over 4 million in 25 years. If you and your spouse are both saving like it's your job, then collectively, you could double this figure and pass on something more valuable to your children.  

I mentioned passing on wealth to your kids several times in this post.  But I also discuss the commonality of women's financial dependence and inequality as well.  What do these things have to do with each other, or am I just rambling?  Actually, I believe these two things are so closely related that it is a cause and effect relationship.  Females raised in an environment where pillars of financial literacy, educational gains and lofty career goals are not present and heavily enforced, are likely to fall back to the places and traps carved for women in society.  That is, being a financially dependent female likely saddled by the responsibility of children and housework.  This is not to say all mothers are jobless and uneducated, but I am stating this to illuminate the fact that so much of the resistance women face as adults is of our own doing. Across the globe we give our young men hammers and brief cases and tell them to go build something, while we provide our daughters with play strollers and a Fisher Price kitchen and tell her to make someone happy. This is where it starts.  Our kids.  It is the responsibility as parents to instill the importance of financial gains and the ability to take care of yourself regardless of a chosen career path.  In the end we build weak women who think, they are not smart enough to invest, or they need a partner to achieve financial goals and wealth. This is incorrect.  It is a lie.  If you want your children, boys and girls, to live a successful life they must be able to master the concepts of money and it’s the job of parents to teach and provide.

As you can see from the above examples it is more than achievable to save, invest, get rich and retire.  Money is not evil. Money is a tool.  In the case of Suzi, our financial example, we see how impactful an education, a decent job, and investing can be.  She went from zero savings to almost 3.5 million in 25 years.  These things have the ability to catapult a life of running to catch up to a new place where the finish line is easy to get to,  where you have pride in the empire you constructed, and you have something more valuable than historical gender roles to give the next generation.  You are providing them with a runway, the blocks for their foundation which serve as a doorway to choices not limitations.  Your daughters no longer get married based on a financially disadvantaged decision point, they do so because it creates happiness.  Your sons no longer feel the pressure to provide as a source of identity or self worth.  Collectively, we are able to make moves that are equitable and treat everyone as humans not men and women.  At the end of the day, all of us deserve knowledge, security, and the tools to build a high speed, low drag life that allows us to enjoy the fruits of our hard work and effort.  This is what being rich actually looks like.  Open your mind.

Below is a list of my favorite financial tools, sites and referral links.  Get educated, get set up, and get to the finish line where women and men have the desire to provide a life for themselves, remove barriers and open doors for everyone.  

Nerdwallet:

Offers amazing compound interest calculators, auto and mortgage calculators and many other tools and financial articles.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/banking/calculators/compound-interest-calculator

Fidelity:

Referral code below to open any of the following accounts:

401k
IRA
Brokerage
Individual banking
529 college savings

https://fidelity.app.link/e/rC9HpEgyS1b

Sofi Bank:

Referral code below for checking or savings accounts.  Get $25.00 when you open an account using this link. Sofi also has powerful tools to manage expenses and start investing.

https://www.sofi.com/invite/money?gcp=b9a9d17e-cf98-4fb7-a583-b332177f5289&isAliasGcp=false