Things to come

This is the post where I tell you who I am, why I'm here, and what sorts of things you can expect to find here in the coming year. And we'll take first things first.

I am a twenty-something professional woman living in the midwest with my sweetie. We're planning to get married in about a year, and are integrating our finances slowly but surely in preparation. We've made some progress on that front, but we've got a ways to go. Between the two of us, I am the primary breadwinner, and I work in a male-dominated field--the storied private law firm. It's a good gig for me, but I don't know how long I'll be on that path, and I'm not yet sure what I want to be when I grow up should that day someday arrive. I am a saver, a student loan debtor (shocker!), a retirement investor, and a homeowner. I have never had a traditional, itemized budget, and though I recognize that probably isn't doing me any favors, neither has it caused me to be financially smote by the hand of God. At least not yet. Oh yeah, and see above: I'm a feminist.

I have been reading personal finance blogs for a while now, and have learned from them, reflected on them, gotten irrationally angry at them, and more. I've developed some favorites, some of which are listed at right, but even in the ones I read regularly I haven't seen much discussion of the personal finance topics I have been thinking most about lately. How much standard personal finance advice is equal access, and how much assumes its audience is made up of men? How do stereotypical gender roles play out in a relationship when it comes to making, spending, and saving money? How do you simultaneously prepare for and work against the "Mommy Tax"? Why are so many women continuing to leave private legal practice and what does that mean--economically, professionally, culturally--for the rest of us? And in the end, how much really does it matter if some highly educated, highly paid women "opt out" of high stress, high prestige jobs? Why does birth control keeping getting more and more expensive? What is up with Bizarro Wedding World and its expensive, sexist trappings?

That's a flavor of what you can expect to see here. Leave a comment if you've got other suggestions.

Another year, another blog.

Ain't that always the way it goes.

You're asking yourself, "why, exactly, does the world need another blog?" That, friend, is an excellent question. I've been reading personal finance blogs for about a year now and, in a move that manages to be simultaneously community minded yet completely self-centered, have decided to fill a bit of a gap in the p.f. blogoworld by contributing my two bits. My two feminist bits.

Whoa, feminism? What does that have to do with money? Well, a lot, actually, since I am (1) a woman, (2) a wage earner and money manager, and (3) am interested in the interplay between items (1) and (2). Yes, yes, we all know that money is numbers, and numbers have no gender. But the people managing those numbers do. And my gender, and more importantly my feminist lens, inform the way I think about my finances, my job, my relationships, and my goals. I'm willing to bet I'm not alone in that.

I'm going to quit while I'm ahead on this inaugural post, save the icebreaking exercises for a later date, and turn to some general sprucing up of the page. Nice to meet you, and I'll see you back here soon.