What’s it about?
We Should All Be Millionaires (2021) demonstrates how women can achieve financial success by overcoming imposter syndrome and demanding what they’re truly worth. You’ll learn how women have been denied the power to earn, save, and manage money — and why this is harmful to the world as a whole.
About the author:
Rachel Rodgers is the creator of Hello Seven, a women-run business that specializes in financial, business, marketing, and legal training. She began her career in the legal profession and has worked for state and federal judges, nonprofits, and notable people such as Hillary Clinton. She’s also been featured in publications like Time, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, and The Washington Post.
Women frequently tell themselves stories that keep them from achieving financial success:
Does the mere idea of your finances make you feel anxious? It does for most women. Even becoming financially comfortable, much alone wealthy, may appear to be an unachievable goal. Women often feel this way because they’ve bought into negative societal narratives. These stories keep children from believing that they can make money and manage their finances independently.
One of the most prevalent stories women tell themselves is that they must work hard to generate wealth. Perhaps they do this because they’ve seen their parents work long hours while still struggling to make ends meet. Or maybe they felt ignored as their parents worked themselves to exhaustion and decided that, unlike them, they’d rather spend time with their family and friends.
Fortunately, if you want to make money, you don’t have to work yourself to death. The wealthy rather make their money work for them. How? They put their money into the stock market, index funds, and real estate, then sit back and watch their money grow while they sleep. You can do the same thing.
Women also tell themselves that they aren’t good with money, which is a terrible lie. The truth is that no one is born with the ability to manage money; it is a taught talent. Stop believing the cultural narratives that say you’d be awful at running a company, investing, or managing your finances.
Admittedly, a plethora of studies shows the exact opposite. Women investors have been outperforming men for over a decade, according to a study done by the investment firm Fidelity in 2017. So, brush up on your financial knowledge instead of throwing your hands in the air and telling yourself you’re terrible with money. You’ll likely be absolutely fine.
The final dangerous belief is that you do not need money. Believing this is akin to denial because money is required in capitalist nations for things like food, shelter, and clothing. Whether you desire money or not, you’d undoubtedly prefer to spend more time with your family and friends, doing the things you love to do. This, too, necessitates money.
Now that you’ve recognized your roadblocks focus on removing them by paying attention to your ideas. Each time one of these stories comes to mind, take a note. Replace it with something more valuable. When you think to yourself, “I’m no good with money,” follow it up with, “I’m absolutely capable of being the world’s smartest investor!”
Women have been oppressed for generations, cut yourself some slack:
You may believe that becoming wealthy is out of your reach because it has been in the past. As the author points out, prominent white males have basically treated women as bystanders regarding money — and much more – for millennia.
The Equal Compensation Act, which required equal pay for equal work, was not passed in the United States until 1963. Latina and Native American women earn only 54 and 57 cents for every dollar earned by a white male doing the same job. Meanwhile, black women earn only 62 cents for every dollar earned by white women.
It wasn’t until the 1960s that women could open their own bank accounts without the help of their husbands, fathers, or brothers. Even back then, women couldn’t get a credit card unless they had a male cosigner. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which prohibits lending discrimination based on gender, was only adopted in 1974. Things haven’t always been fair, and they still aren’t.
The harsh reality is that women have only had around fifty years to do tasks males have taken for granted. They have been unable to build generational wealth in the same way that prominent white males have due to a lack of access to bank accounts, credit, loans, and mortgages. Until lately, they had been denied access to all instruments that allow people to maximize their wages and savings.
This has had both a psychological and a material impact. Those self-defeating beliefs regarding your money management skills? That means you’re a squander who’ll never comprehend how the stock market works or how to create a competent budget? This is the result of decades of oppression and brainwashing, during which white men made earning, saving, and managing money nearly impossible for women.
All of this could be upsetting — or worse, aggravating. That’s very understandable. However, don’t be too hard on yourself if you feel powerless. Women have only had about a half-century to catch up to men, who have had the power to accumulate money for thousands of years. On the other hand, women have already become millionaires, billionaires, and presidential candidates throughout that time period. Start on the path of enriching yourself and setting yourself free with that brilliant concept in mind.
Prioritize your ambitions and your time in order to become wealthy:
Consider two women who are completely different. One of them has a terrific career, a wonderful partner, children, and a lovely house, yet she is constantly broke. The other one, too, has a terrific career, a partner, children, and a house, and she is rich – super-rich. What’s the difference between the two?
Let’s take a deeper look at how they spend their lives to find an answer to that question.
The first lady, who is perpetually broke, demands little of her partner at home. She drives the kids to school and wherever else, walks the dog every morning, and prepares a delicious lunch for the family every night. She would frequently stay up late to assist her children with their schoolwork. She doesn’t have much time to pursue her financial objectives or think about real estate investing because she handles most of the housework and parenting. She can’t work a side hustle since she’s too worn out.
She’s scared to ask her boss for the promotion she deserves at work. As a result, she allows her boss to give her more and more work while receiving nothing in return.
She’s a bright, accomplished woman who devotes her time to assisting others in achieving their goals. She helps her husband, children, and friends achieve their goals in various ways, never stopping to consider what she wants.
The second rich woman divides responsibilities evenly with her spouse. Both parents chase their children around, alternate walking the dog, and prepare an equal number of meals. She ensures that her children do their fair share of housework and respect her time to work and relax. She employs someone to do her laundry for her. She actually outsources a lot. That means she has more time to work on a side project that she enjoys.
She realizes how good a job she performs at work and actively seeks bonuses and promotions. She establishes clear limits and never allows her supervisor to assign her more work than compensated for.
Rather than striving for the title of Supermom and straining herself, she makes time for herself. This also benefits educating her children and loved ones on how to be self-sufficient and independent, which they will appreciate in the future.
Women can only achieve greatness and begin to accumulate genuine income if they carve out space for themselves in this way.
In the workplace, be clear about your boundaries:
Women frequently perform the majority of domestic labor, as we saw previously. They work themselves to exhaustion to care for their partners, children, loved ones, and friends. They thus have little time to pursue their own ideas and goals at the end of the day.
This isn’t only something that happens at home. Women are typically considered to be the ones that provide all of the emotional support, sacrifice their leisure time, and plan parties for any office birthdays or special occasions. It’s a serious problem.
To avoid this, you must establish clear boundaries.
Assume you’re about to leave work when your supervisor storms into your office. He’s desperate to vent about his stressful day, and he wants you to listen, even if you have someplace else to be. Or imagine you’re at home after a long day at work, reading a book, when you get an email from a coworker requesting you to review her report by tomorrow morning. You should establish clear boundaries rather than allowing these people to waste your time.
Tell your boss, for example, that you need to be somewhere. Also, make it clear to your coworker that you do not respond to emails after hours. Be adamant about these boundaries because poorly enforced boundaries are worse than no boundaries at all, as it confirms your position as a softie. It’s pointless to claim you don’t respond to after-work emails if you start responding to them at 11 p.m.
Many women find it difficult to set and enforce boundaries. You must cease being kind in order to do so. This is especially difficult for women because they are generally conditioned to be submissive and helpful. However, being friendly isn’t your job, and it’s hard to become the economic powerhouse you desire while simultaneously pleasing everyone.
Affable women earn less than women who aren’t, according to studies from the University of Notre Dame, Cornell University, and the University of Western Ontario. So don’t be concerned if you offend some people while drawing your red lines. That is unavoidably going to happen. It means you’re putting your time, health, and finances first.
You need to develop a network of like-minded, accomplished women to be financially successful:
Consider the following scenario: you’re about to attempt to climb Mount Everest. You trained for an entire year as a mountaineer and knew how to handle any emergencies that may emerge while climbing. Would you do it alone? You wouldn’t, of course. Because climbing Everest is so perilous, you must do it as part of a group with an experienced Sherpa guide. Sherpas are a Nepalese ethnic group known for their mountaineering skills and in-depth knowledge of the country’s hilly regions. Building fortune demands a qualified team, just as climbing Everest requires other mountaineers and knowledgeable Sherpas. Climbing the economic ladder is impossible without them.
The people you spend your time with have a big impact on your success or failure. “95 percent of your success or failure in life is determined by the people with whom you habitually associate,” says Harvard social psychologist Dr. David McClelland. That’s a huge percentage! Even if you did nothing, if you hung out with wealthy people, you’d almost certainly grow wealthier through osmosis.
If you want to increase your chances of becoming wealthy, pick your acquaintances carefully. Being a part of a successful network gives you access to knowledge you wouldn’t find on Google. This is where the most useful personal beliefs and the best investment recommendations are presented.
However, just because your old friends aren’t ascending the corporate ladder doesn’t mean you should dump them. Your old high school classmate who calls late at night to vent about her love life? You can still be friends with her if you want to. However, you should look for people who are on a similar road to you. It will make you feel less alone and allow you to advance more quickly.
Another thing to consider is that you do not require the presence of a powerful white male in your network. White men, in contrast, only open doors for other white men. The ultimate example is venture capital, where only 8% of VCs are women, 2% are Latinx, and less than 1% are African-American. Who does the majority of those white male investors put their money for? Other white men, you guessed it.
You don’t need them. Instead, join or create a group of women with comparable interests and ambitions. These are the ones who will share trade secrets with you, refer you to clients and potential business opportunities, and generally lookout for you.
You’re probably undercharging for your time and work as a woman:
Have you ever had a negative inner voice? It may say something along the lines of, “You’re not smart enough for this. You’re not strong enough to do that. You have absolutely no idea what you’re doing”. Impostor syndrome is the name for that inner voice. Unfortunately, many professional women suffer from it.
One of the results is that women are frequently underpaid for their time and labor. When it comes to ignoring that invoice and asking for a raise, you’re going to sell yourself short if you don’t believe in yourself. That is something you must fix.
When the author was first starting as a lawyer, she provided trademarking services, which required a lot of research, contract drafting, phone conversations, and emails between various parties. She would usually charge as little as $500 for all of this.
A high-flying male lawyer friend of hers would charge $15,000 for the same job. $15,000. Why is there such a huge difference? Because, of course, the author is a woman who doubts that anyone would pay her what she is truly worth.
She raised her pricing after a friend noted this and demanded considerably higher costs for her expertise. What’s more, guess what? Nobody even blinked. The clients accepted the revised fees. Her sole major challenge had been her own self-doubt.
How can you determine your true worth? First, consider the value your service provides to your clients or business. To accomplish so, you must quantify the entire outcome of your work.
Let’s take the case of copywriting. Assume you’ve been contracted to write ten newsletters for a corporation, and you’ve quoted a $1,000 charge. On the other hand, your client receives $300,000 in new business due to your newsletters. That $1,000 seems absurdly cheap now. In fact, ten percent of the overall outcome of your work should be charged. As a result, the $1,000 should be $30,000. That’s a reasonable charge for all of your knowledge and worth to your client.
Employees can benefit from this as well. When asking for a raise, highlight the value you provide to the company. Push for a better wage even if you can’t get a whole 10% of the total output of your labor. What if that’s not an option? Look for a different job that pays a lot more. Don’t settle for less than what you deserve, no matter what.
Women who earn more money contribute to a better world:
You’ll thrive in ways you couldn’t have anticipated once you’ve reached financial success.
You’ll have more of that valuable resource, time. As a result, you’ll have more time to spend with the people you care about and doing the things you enjoy. You’ll be able to buy the house you’ve been saving for, get decent healthcare, and ensure the safety of your family.
That isn’t all, though. When women become wealthy, the world as a whole gains.
The fundamental idea is that when women earn more money, the world becomes better.
Women who earn money can support the societies in which they live. According to research conducted by The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), women’s economic participation and ownership of financial assets actually accelerates development, assists in poverty reduction, limits inequalities, and enhances children’s nutrition, health, and even school attendance. In other words, societies gain from female-controlled wealth in various ways.
Women can do better simply by doing what many men do regularly, such as investing. According to the OECD, working women spend 90 percent of their income on their families and communities, compared to a dismal 35 percent for men.
And when women have a lot of money, they can make an even bigger difference. Let’s imagine you have several causes that you are passionate about, such as racial inequality, climate change, or homelessness, to name a few. You can hold a demonstration or march to raise awareness and push lawmakers to pay attention to you. It’s a perfectly realistic option for promoting your cause.
On the other hand, money may boost any campaign or effort if you genuinely want to help something you care about. You, too, may help out entire communities destroyed by hurricanes, aid victims of police brutality, or sponsor a drug rehabilitation center, just like Beyoncé.
As a result, getting affluent can benefit both you and the globe. But don’t assume that if you succeed, you’ll have to give everything up.
The truth is that you’re probably already performing a substantial amount of work. Women donate more to charity, work longer hours, perform more housework, and spend more time looking after children than men, all while spending less time relaxing, socializing, and sleeping. Women, on average, give significantly more of themselves than men. So, once you’ve achieved financial independence, remember to lay back! You’ve worked hard for it.