Years ago, I wrote a post called Why Dating Sucks for Female Lawyers. It’s one of my most popular posts. Basically I say that men often don’t really care about their date’s money or pedigree, and some men are intimidated by it. But as I...
We’ve been told over and over that being single is more expensive than being married. But when you look at the real cost of marriage, there are many reasons why marriage can be more expensive than being single. The Real Cost of Marriage is Higher...
Financial infidelity (keeping money secrets in a relationship) is strongly frowned upon – except when advising women. Instead, when discussing finances to an audience of women, the relationship advice is geared toward protecting oneself. This leads me to put on my Carrie Bradshaw advice column...
It’s a surprisingly controversial statement – women should pay in relationships. The notion that the man should pay is engrained in our culture. People usually bring up reasons like the pay gap and tradition. The difference these days is that we can’t assume anymore that...
A money and power imbalance is why dating sucks for female lawyers. Couples often fight about money, particularly if the distribution of money is uneven. Money is a proxy for power, and power imbalances lead to disagreements. When the Woman Earns More Because of the...
Someone posted on Next Door that someone had asked his wife to pay for her groceries. His wife took pity on the asker and paid. The comments chastised the wife for not having adequate boundaries, noting that there were many resources out there to pay...
My name is Lisa and I’m addicted to my smart phone. It wasn’t always this way. I got my first personal smartphone in 2013; that’s the year when it just tipped over to a majority (53%) of Americans owning a smartphone but it wasn’t as...
For many people, change is scary. But change is inevitable. The thing we can do is to get more used to it. Over a decade ago, I vowed to do at least one new experience every week (“one new thing a week” or ONTAW). I...
An acquaintance baked a cake, and implored us to take extra slices. So I did, to be nice. And she thanks me by commenting that I was really lucky that I didn’t have to struggle with my weight. Bear in mind, that I’ve known this...
Read this if you’re down in the dumps and want to believe it’s not the end of the world. But feel free to ignore if a happy ending story is going to piss you off. I know I went through both stages. At the end...
We all intuitively know that money isn’t everything. When we daydream of a life of wealth – we aren’t thinking of ourselves alone in a room full of cash. Instead, we all regularly exchange money for things to build a rich life for ourselves. The...
Every time I’ve seen a landfill, it’s been in a movie or in a foreign country. Though I’m surrounded by garbage cans in the U.S., I am insulated from the effects of all the trash that my affluent community regularly creates. But when I look...
Practicing law involves a multitude of skills – including analysis, communication, and negotiation. One would think that these skills would transfer easily to my real life. For instance, I’ve negotiated a few settlements and thought I would be an excellent negotiator in real life. But...
As a Chinese American attorney, I was eagerly awaiting the TV adaptation of Helen Wan’s novel, The Partner Track. Wan is Chinese, and an alumna of both my high school and my law school. Her novel’s story follows a Chinese American woman as she seeks...
This is a very silly story. Yesterday, I received a random four hours of vacation. I checked to see if it couldn’t be transferred to another day or if I could take it at another time, and I couldn’t. Further, I wouldn’t get “credit” for...