Mar. 1, 2022 "I Joined The Workforce During COVID And Now I Out-Earn My Husband": Today I found this article by Brianna Bell on CBC news:
“I’m getting a bonus this week.”
I was excited to share this news with my husband Daniel while we snuggled in bed.
He joked, “I’m proud of you, you worked hard for this — can you buy me a new guitar pedal with the money?”
No, there wouldn't be a new guitar pedal. We'd be using the money to book a vacation at a cottage near Georgian Bay.
You see, a few years ago we wouldn’t have dreamed of having enough extra cash to book a cottage vacation over the summer. Instead, we would spend a week in Muskoka at a Christian camp, where my husband worked all week teaching at the youth program. It was a nice break, but it was more of a work trip than an actual trip.
But in the last year our family’s finances have shifted significantly.
At 31, after being married for a decade and the mom of three kids, I got a corporate job. I walked into my new job — well, logged into my new job, thanks to the pandemic — feeling both like a total rookie and far too old to be so new.
The Time Before Full-Time
Many Canadians spend their 20s travelling, furthering their education or exploring job opportunities. I spent mine changing diapers and rubbing lotion on my ever-expanding stretch marks. I found out I was pregnant at 21 and spent my 20s pregnant thrice.
In the gaps of my day I wrote for local, national and international publications. My husband, a pastor, was the main source of our income — this fact prevented us from buying a home, and made for many nights spent tracking our expenses and looking for ways to tighten our budget.
Despite our tight finances, I had never dreamed of having a full-time job. I loved being home with my three daughters and being my own boss as a freelance writer. As my kids grew I spent more time writing, and hoped to earn a decent income working for large print and digital publications.
Instead, COVID-19 hit. It became harder to manage our finances on my husband’s clergy salary — and I became tempted by the idea of the ever-expanding remote work opportunities. With Canada’s inflation rate hitting 5.1 per cent this year, there’s no way we would have survived 2021 without my financial contributions.
Embracing The Workplace
What I didn’t expect was that one year after entering the workplace I’d already be out-earning my husband by 25 per cent. It's been 14 months since starting my first role, and I’ve received multiple pay increases and quickly climbed the corporate ladder.
While my initial role was an entry-level position, I’ve thrown myself into my work and proven myself as a capable employee that brings many different skills to the table. Most of these skills I learned as a freelancer, but some I also learned as a mother — like negotiation, leading others with empathy and multitasking.
Throughout the last year our lives have changed significantly thanks to the introduction of another stable income. We were able to purchase a second car, buy a bigger home and have some wiggle room in our budget for things like high-quality winter clothes.
While our girls have had to adjust to having two working parents, we’re also very lucky — my husband’s job is flexible and I work remotely. Having this current setup makes it that much easier to take turns supporting each other during sick days and day-time appointments. It’s become a delicate dance, but something we are motivated to continue.
Teaching Our Girls Choice
Daniel and I both talk openly about our finances and what we earn. While we’re a little more cagey with our children, they do know that I’ve become financially successful quite quickly. We all know that earning more than my husband doesn’t mean much beyond giving us more security, however it has given me a boost of self confidence and helps me feel like I’m an equal contributor to our finances.
We also acknowledge the fact that Daniel chose an admirable route, working at a church and chaplaincy for an inner-city community centre. He’s always known he will never make a lot of money, but money can’t buy the kind of joy that giving your life to community service brings.
Likewise, I want our daughters to know that women (and especially mothers) can have lofty career goals. Just like it’s not a bad thing to dedicate yourself to the nonprofit sector, it’s also not bad to climb the corporate ladder.
Corporate women in the media have sometimes been portrayed as the villain, women who want too much and refuse to settle for less, or have their priorities out of whack.
I want my daughters to see that you can be committed to your work and still love your family.
I feel like I’m just getting started, and I am excited to continue to chase my dreams and have my family watch and cheer me on from the sidelines. I want my girls to know that they have options — even if that's finding yourself in the corporate world a decade after becoming a mother.
Whatever they choose, I just hope they know how many opportunities they have — and that there’s no shame in making more than your spouse.
I Joined The Workforce During COVID And Now I Out-Earn My Husband | Learning (cbc.ca)
Mar. 31, 2022 "More women are household breadwinners, changing the conversation on finances": Today I found this article by Serah Louis on the Financial Post:
Helena Smith, a personal injury lawyer from Burlington, Ont., is married with three kids and has been the breadwinner of her household for nearly 25 years.
“It’s been a challenge to be the primary breadwinner in a practice that, while lucrative, has periods of inactivity … So I think, in retrospect, it was pretty gutsy for me to take this on with the income for the entire family dependent upon my business,” says Smith, who represents survivors of sexual abuse and victims in personal injury litigations.
“But each family has to do what’s right for them.”
Smith’s husband chose to be a stay-at-home parent while their children were young. He currently does some contract work and helps out with her business, but Smith has usually managed the household finances as the primary income earner.
“I know the amount of money that is coming in. I’m the best one to handle all of this.”
She says having her husband take care of the household has been a huge benefit, given the demands of her job.
Over half of all partnered women reported earning the same, or more than, their spouse, according to a 2021 Wells Fargo study.
Additionally, about a third of millennial and Gen X women reported earning more than their partner.
The new generations’ numbers are one and a half times higher than women from the baby boomer generation (1946-1964) and traditionalist generation (1928-1945).
And half of millennial and Gen X women said they manage the household finances, compared to only 40 per cent of women from the older generations.
While it makes sense that the primary income earner would play a larger role in managing the household finances — what does this look like for women who statistically live longer and earn less than their male colleagues?
Financial planning for a female breadwinners
“The big thing is, career women have a lot to juggle. Just because they are professionals with budding careers, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re still not [putting in] labour at home,” says Jackie Porter, a certified financial planner from Mississauga, Ont.
Many of Porter’s female clients who are primary income earners come to her because they’ve been too busy to tackle their finances while dealing with the demands of their work and families.
They often want to plan for their retirement, but Porter says they tend to take less risk on their investments and focus on having a sustainable plan of action, compared to her male clients.
Sara McCullough, a certified financial planner from Kitchener, Ont., says most of her clients come to her to help manage income and expenses, regardless of how much they earn.
She doesn’t think there are any gender-based differences in her clients when it comes to financial priorities or concerns, however she finds sometimes men need information presented differently than women.
“[Men] are more reassured by seeing software output that shows them, at retirement, your assets are here, and then they run down like this. And it’s like, show me the big picture. And I’ll understand that I can still afford to buy groceries.”
Basically, men tend to focus on the big picture of their assets, for example what their retirement finances will look like.
Women tend to focus on how their finances look day to day, with a more account-focused approach.
“Women, generally speaking are a little bit more, ‘Show me what account I’m buying the groceries out of. And then I will believe the big picture’, right?”
It’s important to have financial conversations with your partner
Both Porter and McCullough said they often help their clients breach uncomfortable conversations around finance with their partners. This could have to do with splitting bills, planning for the future or taking care of non-financial responsibilities at home, like housework and child rearing.
“Even having conversations around things like prenups and postnups or cohab agreements, having a third neutral party come in and say, let’s talk about our financial plan for the future,” says Porter.
Jenny Potter, an executive editor for Food & Home with Walmart Canada, was the breadwinner for most of her relationship with her husband, although they currently make around the same earnings.
“I was all about having an emergency fund. And just having cash there for a rainy day … whether it’s a job loss, or our cat ate dental floss and she had to have emergency surgery. Versus like, he was kind of more focused on paying down his debt.”
She said her husband went back to school while they were dating in their mid-twenties and they had to be open about what they could each afford, especially as her husband was earning half of what she was making and grappling with student debt.
“That contribution, you know, maybe it isn’t like 60/40, maybe it’s like 30/70 and so we end up kind of like adjusting.”
They still have separate bank accounts — except for one emergency account —
but do their taxes together and
have conversations whenever one of them plans on spending a substantial sum of money.
Women who are breadwinners may still contend with the gender wage gap
“Women … tend to be more concerned about their finances, and maybe with good reason — we do live longer than men by four years.
We take a lot more time off … for childbearing. So that’s going to impact our ability to save.
And, also, we are in a scenario where we won’t make as much in a pension because of those gender differences as well,” says Porter.
Women make about $0.87 for every dollar a man earns, according to the latest report from Statistics Canada.
It’s important for women to speak up and negotiate better benefits or higher pay in their jobs, Porter says. Having a second income in place may also be useful, especially if you need to prepare for an unexpected job loss or emergency.
Smith, who started going to a financial planner to help her manage her various investment funds, is currently looking to purchase a property in Florida that she and her husband can rent out, while Potter does freelance work on the side.
Porter and McCullough say they’ve seen an increase in clients who are women and the breadwinners in their households, but McCullough notes, “We sometimes talk about it as a new thing. It’s been happening for a while.”
Smith believes the shift toward higher-earning and more career-oriented women is due to changing social attitudes and opportunities in traditionally male-dominated fields.
“I just think women don’t feel as limited now. I think they feel more empowered to explore different types of careers … And so that probably translates through to more and more women being in places where they take control of their finances themselves.”
Some of the names in this story have been changed to protect individuals’ privacy.
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
More women are household breadwinners, changing the conversation on finances | Financial Post
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