The “Bitch In The Boardroom” Stereotype: Women Speak Out About Success And Likability

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Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, is undoubtedly a mover and shaker. The woman behind Mark Zuckerberg also happens to be the social network’s highest paid exec and has the sort of resume any successful business person (man or woman) would love to have–think chief of staff for the U.S. Treasury and VP of global online sales at Google.

Sandberg’s shaking things up in other ways, too. Outspoken about her status as the working mother of two, Sandberg’s been vocal about using a breast pump during conference calls and leaving the office at 5:30 every day to be home with her family.

Most Likely To Succeed, Shhhh

And while it’s clear that she’s deep in the trenches both at home and in the office, Sandberg did say, “There’s no such thing as work-life balance. There’s work, and there’s life, and there’s no balance,” in an interview for the Makers series from PBS and AOL.

That may be why, in that same series of interviews, Sandberg confesses that even though she was voted most likely to succeed in high school, she asked a friend on the yearbook staff to remove the reference because it was “uncool” and admits that for women, success and likeability is a trade-off.

Read Entire Article: Fast Company

Is Snooki Pregnant: What It Means For Her Brand, Career And Baby Mamas Everywhere

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According to the New York Post and People.com, Nicole “Snooki” Pollizzi, is, despite her protestations, pregnant with her first child.

“The Jersey Shore star is roughly three months pregnant, and the baby’s father is her boyfriend, Jionni LaValle, according to the paper, which also notes that as recently as Feb. 2, the diminutive reality star went on ABC’s Good Morning America and shot down stories about her being in a family way.”

But Snooki isn’t an outlier in her baby mama drama. Pollizi, who recently began filming a reality spin-off of the Jersey Shore with costar and friend Jenny Farley in my hometown of Jersey City, NJ, is experiencing what millions of single American women will go through this year: the weighty iron wrench that a bambino throws into even the best-laid plans for life, career, relationships, you name it.

According to recent reporting in the NYTimes, the fastes-growing group of new moms are young, single women. “More than half of births to American women under 30 occur outside marriage,” Sabrina Tavernise writes, “It used to be called illegitimacy. Now it is the new normal.”

Only in Snooki’s case, we get to watch it play out in the tabloids. And in terms of her career, it’s a much bigger, heavier and potentially more destructive wrench. See, the 5’2” star has built her name upon her Jersey Shore antics—skipping work, flashing her panties, getting arrested—most often with the lubrication of liquor. She’s lined her pockets with endorsement deals for energy drinks and diet pills—definite no-no’s for a mommy-to-be.

[Read Entire Article via: Forbes]

How You Can Get a Taste of Mitt Romney’s Low Tax Rate

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If you can beat ‘em, learn the game and join them.

On Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released his tax returns, setting off an intense flurry of commentary. If you’re angry that Romney only paid about 14% of his $21.6 million income in taxes, you’re not alone.

But if you channel your anger toward capturing some of the same tax benefits Romney used, you can save on taxes too.

How Did He Do It?

I won’t suggest that all of us should go join private equity firms. But many of the other ways Romney saved on his taxes are available to everyone.

First and foremost, Romney’s return shows how much better investment income gets treated than what you earn from your job. Not only does your paycheck get taxed at up to 35%, but you also have to pay a big load of Social Security and Medicare taxes on top of it.

On income from investments, you can forget about Social Security and Medicare. And if you invest in stocks or mutual funds that pay the right kind of dividends, you can cut your tax rate to as low as 0% on that income — if you’re in one of the two lowest tax brackets.

Once you’ve got some money invested, profits also get a lower tax rate — as long as you aren’t a quick trader. Hold a stock or other investment for longer than one year, and you’ll get a rate between 0% and 15% on any gains.

Finally, one of Romney’s biggest successes came from his retirement accounts. You won’t be able to match his multimillion-dollar IRA balance, but by putting your best investments in an IRA, you avoid having to pay tax on profits until you pull the money out. Meanwhile, you can get a nice tax deduction now for the money you put into an IRA or 401(k) plan at work.

No matter what you think about Mitt Romney’s taxes, it’s up to you to make sure that your own taxes are as low as they can be. By making smart investing a higher priority, you can earn yourself a big tax cut.

[via: Daily Finance]

Women And Money: LearnVest Survey Reveals Attitudes On Personal Finances

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There’s a familiar but grating stereotype that women are frivolous when it comes to money (here’s looking at you “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” Lily Aldrin of “How I Met Your Mother” and many, many others). But new evidence suggests that women care a lot about managing their finances effectively — they just aren’t sure of the best way to go about it.

On Wednesday, LearnVest, a personal finance website tailored to women, published the results of a survey it commissioned of over 600 women, conducted by business consultancy Maddock Douglas. The results showed that the majority of participants are uncertain about what financial steps they should be taking, and that many of them lacked confidence in their ability to make key financial decisions.

Ninety percent of women surveyed, ages 21 to 59, weren’t sure how much to save for retirement, what types of retirement accounts to open, how much money to invest, and what types of investment accounts to open. Eighty-four percent were not very comfortable in their ability to set specific financial to-dos.

To explain these fairly distressing numbers, HuffPost Women spoke with LearnVest CEO Alexa von Tobel:

[Read more at The Huffington Post]

Christmas is Coming, Will you have a Debt free Christmas in 2011?

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Our Christmas seasons in the past have been stressful.  I’m sure you can relate.  Family gatherings, your children’s activities, the various holiday events and traditions you have, plus, to add to that schedule, the shopping.  Fighting the crowds, trying to buy that perfect gift for everyone on your list, then realizing come January when your credit card bill arrives that Christmas got away from you, financially speaking, yet again this year.  Lack of planning and preparation, early on, for the holidays will have us spending more, stressing more, and overly frustrated.  Peace on Earth?  Not in my world!

Christmas is a time for family, fun, and celebration.  Let’s put items in place today that will help us take away some stress and help us enjoy the holidays as they were meant to.

Create a Christmas Budget

I think a budget is vital, and has helped us tremendously during the holidays, to know exactly who is on our list to buy presents for and how much we are spending on each person.  Make a list (check it twice…bad, I know), put a dollar amount next to each person and stick with that amount.  Then, add events or other holiday needs (our list has Christmas tree, Decorations, Christmas event we go to every year, etc).  Whatever you plan on spending because of the holidays put it on a list.  That is what you are spending.  We actually make this list in the summer but have a certain amount we want to spend each Christmas.

Prepare

Okay, now you have your Christmas budget that will help you not over-spend and get all caught up in the marketing and indulgence Christmas can become.  Now, it’s time to prepare.  In our family, we spend $1,000 for Christmas.  That is our budget every year.  Knowing that will be our budget, we save $100/mo starting in February and end in November.  So, by mid November, we have enough cash (you can use a savings account, we put it in a cash envelope) to pay for Christmas, a budget planned out, and we are ready to spend.

Buy Early

Except for the Christmas tree and our event we go to every year, we have the gifts, decorations and everything else paid, bought and wrapped by the end of November.  Get more for your money by shopping Black Friday.  My wife loves the early morning rush, if that is you, take advantage.  If you are more like me, you can find many Black Friday deals online.  To reduce stress, we shop on one day only.  My wife goes out to the stores, then whatever we don’t find, we buy online.  We don’t spend the holidays in the mall or shopping centers.  To us, that takes away the spirit of the holiday, and it’s just not fun.  We have everything completed when it comes to “Retail Christmas” by the end of November.  This allows us to enjoy the month coming up.

Enjoy Christmas

Now that you are done shopping early, you can really sit back and enjoy your family, events, and your annual “to do” list without adding the stress of having to go out and purchase presents.  You saved for this during the year, so you didn’t over spend, and you will not start another year off paying for last year’s Christmas overspending.  Sit back, relax, have a sip of a candy cane latte and enjoy the season.

When our family decided to take these steps (we are working on our third Christmas this way) we have had much less stress, no anxiety about having to buy the perfect present or having to fight the endless crowds and lines in order to buy last minute gifts.  We enjoy the fact that our gifts are paid for, with cash, we budgeted, and we have finished early and have the whole month of December to enjoy the true spirit of Christmas.  Try it out, I think you will find removing the retail and money stress from Christmas really does free up your time, your mind, and helps you relax and enjoy the holiday.

[via: Enemy of Debt]