Think Like a Breadwinner

most of our honeymoon to Greece. And it was fantastic. While we split the rent and the cost of groceries down the middle, he managed and paid most of our bills. And I knew if I hit a rough patch, he would cover the rent.



I tried to save some money from each check, but if an unplanned expense came up-a gift for a colleague's baby shower or an unexpected trip to urgent care-I often tapped that meager savings or used my credit card. When we moved in together, I had a new 401(k) plan through work, but I was contributing the 3 percent default amount my company had selected and not a penny more. I had no clue whether that would be enough to cover my retirement. It didn't seem all that important at the time. Like a lot of women my age, I figured I had decades of steadily growing paychecks ahead-plus a partner who was already investing for both of us.



Then something happened that I hadn't counted on. Victor started having financial challenges of his own. The startup went under and he took a series of lower-paying contract jobs. He eventually got a full-time offer from a magazine he loved, but not for the job or the salary he wanted. Suddenly it seemed like we were struggling to get by rather than getting ahead. The relief that I'd felt when we first moved in together was replaced by anxiety. How had I not planned for this possibility?



It hadn't occurred to me that the man I married, who had an MBA and a better-paying job when we got engaged, might not always be in a position to take the lead in our financial lives. Or maybe I didn't want to consider that possibility because I wasn't sure I could (or wanted to) fill that role.



Even after my midnight wake-up call, when I realized I'd need to step up financially, I still struggled emotionally with the fact that I hadn't prepared for this scenario. All my life, I'd gotten the message that I didn't need to worry too much about money as long as I could cover my bills and save a little for a rainy day. That I didn't need to think like

partnered, at any stage of their career who understands that a positive money mindset isn t only about cash in the bank. It s about leveraging what you ve got to get you where you want to go. Farnoosh Torabi, author of When She Makes More and host of the So Money podcast 

Think Like a Breadwinner is the guide every woman needs to read in order to reframe her relationship with what it means to be a breadwinner. No matter your relationship status, Barrett encourages every woman to focus on being the breadwinner of her own life and in charge of her own financial future. Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial Talks Money

Ladies: It is time to retrain our brains. Jennifer Barrett has the stats and the solutions to get us all thinking like breadwinners. This book will teach you to see the joy in money, rather than the stress. It will crystalize why we need to build up our wealth, not build up our hopes for someone else to take care of us. This well-researched and compelling book could not come at a better time. --Bobbi Rebell, author of How to be a Financial Grownup