{"id":640834,"date":"2026-05-13T15:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/640834\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T15:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:45:08","slug":"mrs-dow-jones-on-what-women-get-wrong-about-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/640834\/","title":{"rendered":"Mrs. Dow Jones on what women get wrong about money"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Haley Sacks landed her first full-time job as a writer for Lorne Michaels\u2019 digital comedy company Above Average<\/a>, the HR onboarding process felt like another language to her. She had no idea the right health insurance, 401(k) options, and other benefits to choose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So she did \u201cwhat any self-respecting millennial would do,\u201d she told me, and stress-ordered Thai food and researched it all herself. What she found was a financial education industry split between \u201cfinance bros mansplaining things on whiteboards\u201d and women being told to skip lattes, avocado toast, and manicures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing made growing wealth seem accessible or human,\u201d she said. \u201cI really wanted to find the Beyonc\u00e9 of finance, and I couldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

So she became her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, Sacks is better known as Mrs. Dow Jones<\/a>, the zillennial finance content creator<\/a> who has racked up more than 2 million followers across platforms, a 100,000-reader newsletter, a podcast (Financial Tea<\/a>), and earned a spot on the Fortune 40 Under 40<\/a> list during the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And now she can add author to her list of accolades: Her first book, Future Rich Person<\/a>, is out this month from Random House. Her thesis is the personal finance advice most women are getting is built for an economy that no longer exists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rules of wealth building have changed, the advice didn\u2019t catch up, and most personal finance guidance was written for a really linear life,\u201d she said. \u201cYou got a job, you got a house, you get married, you retire, in that order, on that timeline. Our lives don\u2019t look like that anymore, so then all our financial strategies shouldn\u2019t either.\u201d<\/p>\n

For high-earning women, she argues, her book is even more relevant because a big paycheck does not automatically translate to wealth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She points to recent Goldman Sachs Asset Management data showing 40% of Americans earning more than $300,000<\/a> say they\u2019re living paycheck to paycheck\u2014a higher share than households earning $50,000 to $100,000. Goldman attributes it largely to lifestyle creep, the phenomenon of luxuries quietly becoming necessities.<\/p>\n

Sacks\u2019 framework for combating that is something she calls \u201cAction Money,\u201d or the funds left over after essentials are covered.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMost high earners treat it like fun money,\u201d she said. \u201cFuture rich people treat it like a powerful wealth-building asset.\u201d She advocates for automating transfers into investment accounts before lifestyle creep takes over.<\/p>\n

Another major blind spot Sacks sees among senior-level women workers is not negotiating full compensation packages. Sacks argues we almost never push on equity, bonuses, stock options, or deferred compensation\u2014the pieces of a compensation package that can actually help build longstanding wealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cSalary is active income. It stops when you stop,\u201d she said. \u201cEquity is what compounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sacks is also highly focused on the investing gap for women: Women invest less than men<\/a>, start later, and hold more cash. But Fidelity\u2019s 2021 analysis<\/a> of 5.2 million customer accounts found when women do invest, they outperform men by an average of 40 basis points annually.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most radical financial act a woman can make is opening a brokerage account and buying low-cost index funds before you feel completely ready,\u201d Sacks said. \u201cReady is a feeling that usually arrives after you start.\u201d<\/p>\n

And feel free to ignore anyone who tells you to cut your morning latte to save money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s never been the problem,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve spent years telling women to optimize small things that don\u2019t move the needle, instead of negotiating their salaries and learning to invest.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sydney Lake
sydney.lake@fortune.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune\u2019s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES<\/p>\n

Mayor, unmasked. The former mayor of Arcadia, Calif., Eileen Wang, has agreed to plead guilty<\/a> to acting as an unregistered Chinese agent. The FBI alleges she ran pro-China propaganda, including Xinjiang genocide and forced labor denial, through her news site at the direction of PRC officials. She resigned Monday and faces up to 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n

GM lays off hundreds. The automaker is letting go<\/a> of 500 to 600 salaried IT employees, largely in Austin, Texas, and Warren, Mich., as CEO Mary Barra continues repositioning the company as a tech-driven mobility business. Affected workers allege the company is pushing more AI use for work.<\/p>\n

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary plans to resign. This move<\/a> creates a new opportunity for anti-abortion activists to push for national restrictions on the procedure and availability of mifepristone (a key drug used in abortions). Anti-abortion groups have been waiting for this because they feel as if the agency has dragged its feet in limiting access to the drug.<\/p>\n

Virginia Rep. Jen Kiggans faces resignation calls. The Republican representative faces Democratic backlash<\/a> after a Richmond radio host said Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) should get his \u201ccotton-picking hands off of Virginia,\u201d and she replied: \u201cThat\u2019s right. Ditto. Yes.\u201d She claims she was just agreeing Jeffries should stay out of Virginia, not endorsing the racist language. Democrats aren\u2019t buying it.<\/p>\n

ON MY RADAR<\/p>\n

Julia Letlow is Trump\u2019s big midterms gamble The Wall Street Journal<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Why do I need to change?\u2019: the women resisting pricy bridal beauty treatments The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n

Esther Perel thinks AI is changing our relationships forever Elle<\/a><\/p>\n

PARTING WORDS<\/p>\n

\u201cI think part of art is about expression, so if we start censoring ourselves, then we shut down the very core of our creativity, which is, I think, where we can discover truth and answers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2013Actor and producer Demi Moore at Cannes<\/a> about the role of politics in cinema.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Haley Sacks landed her first full-time job as a writer for Lorne Michaels\u2019 digital comedy company Above…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,4553,57584,57585,19412,147,530,1432,74425],"class_list":["post-640834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-career","tag-most-powerful-women","tag-mpw-daily","tag-no-copyright","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-wealth","tag-wealth-gap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}