48 episodes

“The best podcast for women” — The Balance | “A must listen podcast for anyone who is ready to change the status quo” — Forbes | The Fairer Cents is an educational finance and career podcast all about the different economic realities facing women, people of color and other marginalized groups. Hosted by Tanja Hester, author of Work Optional, Spend Like You Give a Sh*t, and the Our Next Life early retirement blog, and Kara Perez, founder of women's financial literacy startup Bravely, The Fairer Cents tackles sticky money and financial issues like the wage and wealth gap, the economics of motherhood, emotional labor, women's ambition, why we need financial feminism, the roots of economic inequality and more. We don't shy away from hard conversations, but we do it all with laughter, and always with a focus on what action you can take in your own life. That's why we've been recommended by US News, Forbes, Essence, The Balance, Mic, Evening Standard and many more. Subscribe now.

The Fairer Cents: Women, Money and the Fight to Get Equal Tanja Hester & Kara Perez

    • Business
    • 4.8 • 372 Ratings

“The best podcast for women” — The Balance | “A must listen podcast for anyone who is ready to change the status quo” — Forbes | The Fairer Cents is an educational finance and career podcast all about the different economic realities facing women, people of color and other marginalized groups. Hosted by Tanja Hester, author of Work Optional, Spend Like You Give a Sh*t, and the Our Next Life early retirement blog, and Kara Perez, founder of women's financial literacy startup Bravely, The Fairer Cents tackles sticky money and financial issues like the wage and wealth gap, the economics of motherhood, emotional labor, women's ambition, why we need financial feminism, the roots of economic inequality and more. We don't shy away from hard conversations, but we do it all with laughter, and always with a focus on what action you can take in your own life. That's why we've been recommended by US News, Forbes, Essence, The Balance, Mic, Evening Standard and many more. Subscribe now.

    Bonus: Season 4 Wrap-Up

    Bonus: Season 4 Wrap-Up

    Season 4 has been our favorite season yet of The Fairer Cents, and today we're talking about our favorite moments and reading lots of listener mail we've received, some of it inspiring to financial feminists everywhere, and some of it heartbreaking. 

    We'll be back soon, so make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss any new episodes when they're ready. And in the off-season, check out the links below for all the places you can find Kara and Tanja online. Stay safe and healthy!
    Kara:
    Kara's site, Bravely Kara's Instagram Kara's Twitter Tanja:
    Tanja's site, Our Next Life Tanja's book, Work Optional Tanja's Instagram Tanja's Twitter Tanja's Facebook page

    • 44 min
    #40 - Exploring Financial Relationships, Part 2: Money and Family

    #40 - Exploring Financial Relationships, Part 2: Money and Family

    This is the second episode in a two-part mini series on money in our relationships, today exploring money and family (most especially parents), AND it’s the last full episode of season 4. Before we dive in to talk about family, we’re talking about the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) and the stock markets crashing, because they’re way too important not to discuss, including steps to take with your money and how to make sure you prioritize self care at a time that feels completely chaotic, especially for women. Our guests to talk about navigating financial family relationships are Cameron Huddleston, author of Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk: How to Have Essential Conversations with Your Parents About Their Finances, and Revanche, author of the blog A Gai Shan Life. They both share advice and stories of navigating tricky money relationships as women, both positive and negative, and looking out for yourself in the process. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss our season 4 wrap-up episode and any bonus or mini-series episodes we drop, as well as our season 5 premiere when it’s time. Thanks for being a part of The Fairer Cents community. Stay rad!
     
    Links from the show:
    BuzzFeed debunking coronavirus myths Cameron Huddleston’s book Cameron’s Twitter Revanche’s blog, A Gai Shan Life Revanche’s Twitter Revanche’s blog posts on cutting off her dad

    • 48 min
    #39 - Exploring Financial Relationships, Part 1: Money and Friends

    #39 - Exploring Financial Relationships, Part 1: Money and Friends

    This is the first episode in a two-parter about how money impacts our relationships, and how we talk about money within those relationships. Within friendships, it’s a big social taboo to discuss money, right up there with politics and religion, but there are massive benefits that can come from breaking that taboo, from getting to know your friends on a deeper level, to feeling seen and known yourself, to even opening up the opportunity to do cool projects with friends (like this podcast!). Our guest is Kiersten Saunders, who writes the blog Rich & Regular with her husband Julien, and who fights for inclusion and racial equality in the financial independence space.
     
    Links:
    Ecuador Chautauqua information – Hang out with Kara, Tanja & Kiersten for a week in August! Kiersten Saunders’ blog, Rich & Regular New York Times story on women in the FIRE movement Bank of America survey on money and friendships Away CEO expose on The Verge

    • 48 min
    #38 - Evolving Careers, Part 2: How Careers Aren't Working for Women

    #38 - Evolving Careers, Part 2: How Careers Aren't Working for Women

    This is the second in a two-part series on the evolving nature of careers, especially as it pertains to women and people of color, today focusing on the myriad ways our current work world doesn't work for women. We've talked before about the economic disadvantages that mothers face in the workplace and across their entire careers, as well as the costs of beauty double standards, but we're now layering in the costs of disability -- which will affect 1 in 4 women during our lifetimes -- and how our economy forces many women to be seen as disruptors whether they want to be or not. Our guests are Tiara Mercius, who has a legal career and advocates on behalf of disabled people, and Christabel Nsiah-Buadi, a journalist working to share stories from unrepresented voices, but who has had to create her own path to do so.
    Links from the show:
    Ecuador FI retreat with Kara & Tanja Tiara Mercius's blog Tiara's blog post: An ADA Fail Christabel Nsiah-Buadi on Twitter Christabel Nsiah-Buadi's website My Lens Media pieces on PRX The Media Disruptors on PRI CDC Statistics on Disability

    • 50 min
    #37 - Evolving Careers, Part 1: When There Is No Road Map

    #37 - Evolving Careers, Part 1: When There Is No Road Map

    This is the first in a two-part series on the evolving nature of careers, especially as it pertains to women and people of color, today focusing on creating your own path when there is no road map, whether that's because you're trying to break into a legacy industry without connections, or because you're literally heading out into uncharted territory. Our guests are Jada Gomez, senior platform editor at Medium (and formerly of Bustle, Time, People and a slew of other prestigious media outlets), and Paula Pant, creator and host of the Afford Anything podcast and blog, both of whom got where they are today despite there not being a well-trod path laid out in front of them. 
    Links from the episode:
    Jada Gomez on Twitter Jada Gomez on Medium Paula Pant's Afford Anything blog and podcast Paula Pant on Twitter Tanja's blog post about keeping money and creativity separate

    • 50 min
    #36 - Women’s Voices, Part 2: Our Actual Voices

    #36 - Women’s Voices, Part 2: Our Actual Voices

    This is the second part in a two-part series on women speaking, focusing today on our actual voices and how they are heard (or not heard) by our bias-filled culture. There is a ton of research showing that women and men are perceived differently when we speak, and that's both socially wired and generational. Like in so many parts of the economy, women are held to an impossible standard where you lose no matter what: either you're too assertive or you're not assertive enough. You're not authoritative enough or you're bossy. Our guests are Kristen Meinzer (host of the By the Book podcast along with Jolenta Greenberg, and author of the book "So You Want to Start a Podcast: Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Story, and Building a Community that Will Listen" and, along with Jolenta, the forthcoming book "How to Be Fine: What We Learned from Living by the Rules of 50 Self-Help Books") and Tamara Keith (National Public Radio's White House correspondent and host of the NPR Politics Podcast). While not every woman needs to speak on the air like they both do, their experience tells us a lot about what women are up against in our economy when we speak.
    Links from the episode:
    Kristen Meinzer on Twitter Kristen’s book, So You Want to Start a Podcast By the Book podcast Tamara Keith on Twitter NPR Politics podcast Katie Mingle’s autoreply at 99 Percent Invisible  Study on vocal fry and success of young women in the labor market Study on preference for leaders with masculine voices This American Life piece on vocal fry and women’s voices: “Freedom Fries” Fresh Air interview on policing young women’s voices NPR story: “Sounding Like a Reporter – And a Real Person, Too” Transom.org opinion piece by Chenjerai Kumanyika about vocal color in public radio Naomi Wolf’s misguided Guardian piece on women’s voices Fast Company piece victim blaming women for our voices and how others discriminate on that basis Atlantic story on bias against women’s voices in hiring

    • 55 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
372 Ratings

372 Ratings

michiganeli ,

Love it

I have just stumbled upon your show. I started with Episodes 4 & 5, and have already decided I will use an episode or two in my course, Intro to Women’s & Gender Studies, which I teach at a community college. To mitigate college costs, I use Open Educational Resources (OER) so that students are not required to BUY any single material for the class. Therefore, I love integrating podcasts to supplement the open copyright textbook I use, and yours is a perfect fit. PS An episode on OER might be interesting, financially speaking 😉

mtn_runner_ ,

Can we hang out?

I discovered Tanja by finding “Work Optional” and devoured it in a weekend, which naturally led me here where I’ve started binge listening from the beginning. I constantly find myself wishing I could be friends with them IRL, they are the types of women I want to be around and learn from.

While many of the discussions are confirming things I already believe and have personally experienced, there’s also plenty that challenges me and makes me think about things in ways I haven’t before.

While I love learning about personal finance and FI, so many popular podcasts and bloggers out there really rub me the wrong way, as they feel completely out of touch with the realities so many people face and conveniently ignore many of the glaring socioeconomic issues and systemic inequalities that exist. So THANK YOU, Tanja and Kara, for going there. Keep it up. And if you ever want to hang out sometime...

Lu C Beck ,

Awesome!

I have learned an incredible amount from your podcast.
Keep up the good work and thanks.

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