EoR No. 15: Money words
Plus, getting good at spending, all the jobs are bad, eliminating poverty, why women need to work and more
Top of mind
I’m writing from the ACES editors’ conference in Salt Lake City, so I’m deep in word nerdery this week :)
I was delighted to present a session on how to change the way we write about money, teaching lots of new people about the impacts1 of budget culture and discussing alternatives to our least-favorite money words and phrases. Despite my credentials in personal finance and years of studying financial products and methods, I will always be primarily a writer. My obsession with the words we use, how we arrange them and how we share them frames how I see everything, including money. It’s such a treat to combine these special interests to discuss our culture of money with my fellow word-loving peers (and folks well above my station, like people who literally write dictionaries!)
News and upcoming events:
This week! Join me for a webinar on estate planning this Friday, April 11, with experts from Legado to answer all your questions!
🥑 ICYMI at Healthy Rich this week
🔗 Things to catch
I talked about women and money, and money in relationships, with leadership coach Cynthia James for her Women Awakening podcast.
Re: my terrible airport experience earlier this week — this is why I never blame the workers.
For CNET, I wrote about what to do if your tax refund is less than you were counting on.
“Love is not a financial strategy” — why women need to work (for pay).
Stop everything you’re doing and look at this adorable babushka dog.
💬 Let’s discuss
What are your pet peeves in how we talk about money?
What are the cliches you’re tired of hearing? What are the stereotypes that have to go? What are the meaningless terms that continue to be bandied about? What are the harmful terms people use without understanding their harm? Tell us the words and phrases you’d like to strike from the ways we talk about money!
Editors bristle at the common use of impact, but I’m basically a business writer, after all, so here it stays!
Hmmm ... I'm loving this prompt, but where my brain keeps taking it is the language we DON'T use. As in, all of the standard advice basically purports that if you do XYZ and follow 123, that all will be well. There's never an acknowledgement of the uncertainty of it all. That even those who do everything "right" (which is not me btw) are *guaranteed nothing* in this world.
My pet peeves are first how we don’t talk about money enough (personal salaries, personal wages, personal expenses, savings,) and then my other pet peeve is that when we do, it seems full of platitudes….like is renting rather than owning really like throwing money out the window the way we were told? Or the myth that keeps being pedaled in towns and cities, like Omaha where we live, that wages don’t need to increase cuz cost of living is low. It’s not even just the cliches, it’s that the cliches are now dated and ancient.