Like a Mother

First of all, how random that my colleague Erin Lowrey, leading expert on Millennials and their money and author of the new-this-week Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together, and fellow money blogger, lives across the street from me in Astoria, Queens?! When we're not hanging out, I sometimes bump into her on the street as she's walking her dog, or going to dinner with her nice boyfriend. Also, totally random, this year both of us have books out with the same Penguin Random House imprint, TarcherPerigee. Also, less random (see what I did there??), we both supported Hillary, and are resistance activists, and co-hosted a post-card writing party in the hood.

How Millennials can thrive financially.

This includes:

• Get out of debt
• Have an awesome career and financial future
• Navigate tricky social pickles, like talking about money with your boyfriend or girlfriend, splitting the bill (or not!) with your friends
• Unless you have a free ride or parents with deep pockets, don't finance a fancy college degree if it means years of debt.
• How to network like a mo-fo
• The critical reason everyone needs a "fuck off fund" (the reasons are more serious than you think)

Successful people often give credit to their mentors for their triumphs. But where do you get one of these magical career guides? And once you find one, how do you make the most of the relationship?

On this episode, Patrice D’Eramo, vice president of the Americas Field Marketing Organization for Cisco Systems, talks about the importance of mentoring for women in their lives and careers. D’Eramo is a member of the leadership council of Million Women Mentors (MWM), a nonprofit initiative aimed at increasing the number of high school girls pursuing undergraduate STEM degrees, and improving workplace retention of women through mentoring programs.

“We’re not born with a book on how we are going to be successful in life. A lot of it is by learning, by observing, by reading,” says D’Eramo. “Mentors have been critical in my success. I’ve looked at mentors in a couple different areas — whether it’s been the types of jobs they have had, the types of leaders they are, and working moms — those have been the general categories I looked at throughout my career. What I’ve done is attach myself to those particular folks depending on where I was in my career.”

Over the past 15 years, labor market participation for U.S. women in their prime working years has been on a steady decline, reversing the growth trend of the previous 20 years.

In this Working Moms Mean Business episode, BBVA Compass economist Amanda Augustine, co-author of a recent study analyzing the shift, explains her findings, why this trend matters, and what can be done to reverse it

A 2014 Pew Research Center study found that 60 percent of Americans believe children are better off when a parent is at home, and only 21 percent of adults say the trend of more mothers of young children working outside the home has been good for society.

Therein lies the paradox of our time: While a majority of Americans believe that children fare better when their mothers stay home full-time, the majority of American moms work.

But take heart, working moms: Science is on our side. Studies show mothers, children, and marriages benefit when moms work and earn.

Harvard's Kathleen McGinn's research found that women whose mothers worked outside the home are more likely to have jobs themselves, are more likely to hold supervisory responsibility at those jobs, and earn higher wages than women whose mothers stayed home full time, according to a new study. Men raised by working mothers are more likely to contribute to household chores and spend more time caring for family members.

The findings are stark, and they hold true across 24 countries.

Surveys consistently find that the majority of mothers want to work (part-time is ideal, they tell researchers), but affordable, quality child care is often cited as the No. 1 reason they stay out of the workforce.

On this podcast episode, guest Jennifer Owen, editorial director of Working Mother Media, and director of the Working Mother Research Institute, discusses creative and practical ways to navigate child care. Here are some of her tips:

• Brainstorm with friends and other parents in your community about creative, cooperative solutions to childcare challenges, including taking turns watching each other’s children during school days off and nanny shares.
• Research after-school and summer options at area park services, YMCA, community centers, and houses of worship.
• Never lose sight of the big picture. If you or your spouse decides to stay home, make sure you maintain your skills, network and earning potential.

It’s little wonder Rachel Cruze is a financial educator. Her dad is Dave Ramsey, a best-selling personal finance expert and host of a wildly popular radio show, whose financial recovery story is well-known.

Ramsey says in his mid-20s his net worth of more than $1 million, but he also had millions in debt. That debt caused him to lose everything and he filed for bankruptcy. Ramsey and his family recovered through a commitment to living a frugal, no-debt life. His experiences helped him develop his formula for smart money management, which has been shared in classes and coaching sessions across the nation.

Cruze, a married mom of one, is now successful in her own right as a financial wellness speaker and New York Times best-selling author. Her most recent book is Love Your Life, Not Theirs by Rachel Cruze: 7 Money Habits for Living the Life You Want.

Starting and building a company is not for the faint of heart. But the abundance of success stories out there support the notion that mothers are often incredible mothers of invention.

“Moms are great at starting businesses, because all day long we are discovering unmet needs in the market that can be fulfilled with new products,” says Nicole Feliciano, founder of the seven-figure lifestyle platform, Momtrends, and author of the recently published Mom Boss: Balancing Entrepreneurship, Kids and Success. Feliciano is interviewed in this episode.

If you want to launch and build a business, listen this advice from Feliciano and mom of six Ayo Ogun-McCants who owns Afro-vegan haircare line Soultanicals.

So it’s fitting that Samantha Ettus’ latest book, The Pie Life: A Guilt Free Recipe for Success and Satisfaction, is described as “the ultimate self improvement play book for women.”

On this Working Moms Mean Business episode, Ettus offers up some practical suggestions for thriving in all the areas of your life— kids, romance, career, community, friends, and hobbies — in order to be a full, dynamic person. The essence of her message is that by honoring and nurturing each of these areas of life, you can be invigorated, healthy, and happy, and create positive energy.

Women make up half the overall workforce, but they account for only a quarter of the positions in information technology, or IT, according to global consulting giant Deloitte.

In this episode, I interview Scarlett Sieber, Senior Vice President of New Digital Businesses at BBVA and former Chief Operating Officer & Co-Founder of tech startup Infomous, who frequently speaks on topics of innovation, women and technology.

Also, we hear from single mom Nicole Smith, founder and CEO of Flytographer, a travel photography platform included in that 10 percent of female-founded tech startups, and three years later is reports multiple 7-figures in revenue. We talk about:

A few years ago headlines went bananas when Pew research found that four in 10 families with children lived in households with women who were the sole or primary earner. In 1960 that figure was just 11 percent. About a third of breadwinner moms today are married and the other two-thirds are single moms.

Moms who are breadwinners say there are time management and personal relationship challenges that come with the shift in roles. It all comes down to planning and communication, they say.

In this Moms Mean Business episode, I interview two women, both of them leaders within their fields, married mothers of two, and Birmingham, Ala., residents who share their personal stories of how they manage the time and headspace pressures of home life, careers and marriage.