Just buy the f***ing latte

[ehrnst]

Ellevest’s Sallie Krawcheck has no patience for a brewing trend in personal-finance mansplaining.

It’s springtime and it’s shaping up to be the season of patronizing financial advice . . . oddly, involving coffee. Last week, Chase tweeted to millennials to shore up their bank accounts by finishing off the food in their refrigerator and making coffee at home. The resulting Twitter backlash was immediate and scathing, calling the company out for its high fees and its $25 billion government bailout. (Chase deleted the item and thanked Twitterverse for its feedback.)

This is followed this week by the publication of a book called The Latte Factor, in which two self-styled experts on women and money–both middle-aged males–spin a “compelling, heartwarming tale” (the publisher’s words, not mine) of an older male barista patiently and carefully mansplaining to a young woman about money over the course of a few revelatory days. The crux of this advice is the oft-used trope: “Don’t buy your daily latte . . . instead invest the money and become rich.” (Spoiler alert: He may first appear to be a barista but–wait for it–he actually owns the coffee shop. And the building. And a whole bunch of other buildings.) This book follows in a long tradition of personal financial advice for women packaged into simplified, bite-sized nuggets that boil down to giving up frivolous expenses, starting with the fancy coffee.



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2. Okay, is it me, or is the whole latte thing patronizing? It’s not a martini-shaken-not-stirred, is it? Or a six-pack. Or a ribeye. Or the new tech gadget. It’s a latte. Dripping with its feminine connotations as a milky, sweet, steamed, flippant luxury. And thus, presumably, it’s an easy candidate for the mild contempt that its dismissal implies.

3. Which gets to the broader issue of our society patronizing women on money. From childhood, we as a society send girls messages that they are bad with numbers, relative to their brothers. Still today, parents talk to boys about making money and investing and to girls about saving money and being careful with it. Girls get lower grades in math than boys for the same answers at school. And girls get lower allowances at home than boys for the same chores.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90343899/sallie-krawcheck-saving-money-latte-advice

[Initech]

1. Meanwhile Chase's CEO made $125 million last year.

Yeah you don't get to lecture us about making poor financial decisions, Chase.

[cbdo2007]

2. Yes and no

It is correct that this message is patronizing to women and is the wrong way to go about teaching people to be informed about their finances.

It is also correct that many people, both men and women and especially the younger generation (not just this younger generation but it was the same way when I was in my 20s), are terrible with money and dont understand how to budget and how wealth is acquired.

My wife and I had a spending problem and didn't realize it until we downloaded an app to help us and started to see exactly how much we were spending on lattes and stuff. One $4 latte was never the problem, it was 40 lattes per month (for my wife and I) = $160 which was more than my car payment.

[zipplewrath]

3. The presentation is awful

That said, if one wants a rude awakening, record every single penny you spend for about 3 months Every single one. I've had several friends do this over the years. It can be shocking what simple things like late fees and convenience fees can cost in aggregate.

The spouse was in social service for years and at one point was working with people that had severe fiscal problems. She'd sit with them and go through the bills, and the check book (it was a while ago) and their spending in general. The shock was often that people that were having trouble making the rent, or getting food, were often spending $200 a month on cable TV charges. There would be $120 a month on manicures. WAY too many take out dinners and delivered pizzas. And good god, the Rent-to-Own stuff was a killer. In many cases, within a month, she had fixed their fiscal problems entirely on the spending side, without having to do much on the income side.

[cbdo2007]

4. Yep, and it's hard getting people to "learn" this, especially when they are out on their own

for the first time and enjoying their freedom.

I even have a lot of guy friends who are having these bachelor party weekends now where they expect me to fly down to Miami Beach for 3 days and spend $1,500 or so for their bachelor party. Just overall, they see people doing this on tv and think this is how normal people live, not understanding that it is just a snapshot into the lives of people who have more.

[zipplewrath]

5. hard part about raising kids

It can even be hard with ones own children. When you are young and starting out, they don't see the penny pitching and frugality. Even in their first 10 years or so of their own lives, they really don't "see" the struggles with money. By the time they are old enough to see things, you may be 15 years into a career and finally have some "discretionary spending" capability. To you, it's a luxury, to them it is just a way of life.

Combine that with easy credit and there is a recipe for disaster.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. Oh, yes, the manicures.

I have more than once seen something on TV profiling a desperately poor family and the woman of the house has the manicure.

Not only do people spend too much on relatively trivial things, always paying with a debit card is another budget killer. Day to day things should be paid for in cash, and if you run out of cash, I guess you can't buy that next latte.

Add that to people buying far more car than they need, financing it for 5 years or longer, then turning it in and doing the same thing over and over, well it's not surprising that they can't save a penny.

Also, you can show young children things like saving for purchases. When my oldest was five and learning to roller skate, he understandably wanted his own pair, so I made a point of saving $5 each week in an envelope specifically for roller skates. As I recall, we bought a pair that cost $35 -- he wasn't going to be in them long enough to warrant anything better, and it was very gratifying when he finally had his own skates.

[athena]

7. Financial independence is a feminist goal.

I think the anger is misplaced. I read similar books about personal finance when I was in my early twenties, and they changed my life. The world would be a more equal place if young women knew that being good with money is not something one is born with and is easily learned. Our parents don’t teach us, so we have to learn some other way. By the way, it’s not always men doing the teaching; there used to be a woman who had a great TV show about this. (Susie Orman, I think.)

In other words, it may be annoying to have men write books about personal finance aimed at women, but lack of financial independence is much worse.

As for lattes, have you looked into how much they cost? Many people think nothing of getting a latte at the local Starbucks. Personal finance really does start with skipping that latte.

One of the best books I read on this topic was “The Millionaire Next Door”, which, if I recall correctly, is aimed more at men than at women.

[lunatica]

8. Teaching people to look at their checking accounts daily is good

And having them save a set amount each month is also good. Even a small amount each month adds up.

I check my checking account every single day and make sure to watch any pending payments so I don’t forget what I’ve paid for each day. I also have the bank alert me if my checking balance goes beneath a certain amount so I can watch how much I can spend without overdrafts.

It helps more than anything else I do to keep my spending down.

[lame54]

9. So, he's telling her not to spend money at HIS business?...

How did this guy get rich again?