Steinberg - Worth it: your life, your money, your terms

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Praise for Worth It

Amanda Steinberg has done more toward educating women financially than anyone I know. She eloquently captures the pain and obstacles women face with money. Her stories are riveting. Her writing is inspiring. Her advice is brilliantly clear. I cant imagine anyone reading this without being deeply touched and highly motivated.

Barbara Stanny, bestselling author of Prince Charming Isnt Coming: How Women Get Smart About Money

Amanda Steinberg gives us unvarnished assessments of sexism, our complex relationships with money, and her own path to taking control of her money and her life. Now, with Amandas help, you will find the courage and the tools to make your money work for you.

Becky Saeger, former financial services executive

Its quite rare to find a book that so astutely meshes the emotional and practical aspects of mastering the money game. Worth It does this brilliantly. The insights within these pages are just what we need as women to wake us up from our money fog and get us firing on all cylinders. Read and apply this bookyou and your life are worth it!

Kate Northrup, bestselling author of Money: A Love Story

The reasons people mishandle money are far more deeply rooted than an absence of information, and many self-help books make things worse with intimidating how-to lists that dont address the real source of the problem. Salvation has finally arrived thanks to Amanda Steinberg, the founder of DailyWorth, who bridges the gap between technical know-how and emotional resistance with her brilliant new book, Worth It. Combining savvy nuts-and-bolts instruction with psychological insight smart enough to help even the most recalcitrant, Worth It is written in a warm, user-friendly tone that feels like your best girlfriend reassuring you instead of a scary math teacher yelling at you to do your homework. Money is power, and nobody can achieve real freedom without financial autonomy. Worth It shows the way for anyone to achieve the ultimate goal: Free At Last.

Leslie Bennetts, author of The Feminine Mistake and Last Girl Before Freeway: The Life, Loves, Losses, and Liberation of Joan Rivers

Amanda Steinberg is a champion for women and their relationship to money. She believes that in order to raise our net worth we must raise our self-worth. In her book Worth It, she guides us to step outside our comfort zone in order to step into financial freedom. This is a must-read if you want to live with confidence, abundance, and freedom.

Gabrielle Bernstein, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Universe Has Your Back

After a while, personal finance books all look the same. Worth It is not even in the same milieu. It changed how I think about my money, my future, and my life.

Emma Johnson, personal finance journalist and founder, WealthySingleMommy.com

For all the finance books Ive read, Ive never felt so gotten as to my inner world around money and relationships. Its like dawn coming into deep unconscious, ancient patterns in my mind. And I know Im not alone in this tangled darkness. This is going to be a landmark bookone that catalyzes liberation for women in their fullest expression of power and worth. This is how we rise.

KC Baker, womens thought leadership coach and speechwriter, founder of WomanSpeak

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Copyright 2017 by Amanda Steinberg

Some of the individuals described are composites of women I have encountered in my work.

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First North Star Way hardcover edition February 2017

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Interior design by Jaime Putorti

Jacket Design by Zoe Norvell

Jacket Photograph Jordan Matter Photography

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-5011-4099-0

ISBN 978-1-5011-4101-0 (ebook)

To my mother and stepdad for always wrapping me in unconditional love.

To my dad and stepmom, who gifted me the ultimate education and strength to persevere.

To my sisters, who are also my best friends.

To Jordan, who made all of my wildest dreams our reality.

To Dylan and Maya, my mystical, magical angels.

To the women of DailyWorth, for believing in me and our collective vision.

Women are more powerful than ever in US history. So whats wrong with our value?

W orthless. Thats how I felt in my late twenties. I had bottomed out financially, emotionallyeverything. Id worked myself to the bone to showcase myself as a twenty-first-century working mom, and like practically every college-educated woman I knew, I had followed what seemed like straightforward steps to building the perfect postfeminist life. First, graduate from a good college. Second, find your passion. Third, land an impressive job in the field of your chosen passion. Fourth, find a supportive spouse or partner. Fifth, invest in real estate. Sixth, have a baby. Seventh, co-sleep, breast-feed, sleep-train the baby. Eighth, post a mix of happy, hilarious, and poignant pictures on Facebook and Instagram. Ninth, transition to your old job with reduced hours or your new full-time job allowing you to work at home (so you can be a stay-at-home-full-time-working mom). Tenth, keep earning the heaps of money commensurate with ambition and education to support your household. Eleventh, become a fulfilled mom and spouse, patron of good causes, and girls soccer coach. Twelfth, sit throne-like on your laurels and relish self-satisfied bites of the fruits that your successful life program has produced. Cue the selfie!

Id done everything right. Graduated from a top college? Check! Learned the lucrative skill of computer programming? Yes, maam! Worked eighty-hour weeks running a series of start-ups? Sure did, sisters! I married the sweetest man and became the mother of two very loved, very young children. Plus, I was a good earner. Really good: I made well beyond six figures. Id done it. Id pulled it off. From here on out, I figured, it was just a matter of coasting onto the smooth tarmac of security before officially arriving at the good life. All I had to do was to keep on making enough money to cover it. I would host fabulous dinner parties and creative playdates. My children, husband, and I would take culturally enriching vacations. My parents, siblings, extended family, colleagues, and friends would applaud the stunning perfection of my upper-middle-class feminist life. I wanted that life and I wanted that applause. So I continued to earn a lot of money. And I spent that money on nice cars (with hefty leases), a huge house (with huge utility bills), a nanny (I needed help while I was working), and nice work clothes (to be taken seriously in business). So as far as I was concerned, if I earned enough, spending was okay, and besides, my identity and sense of worth were attached to both. I was a big earner and a big spender: its just who I was . Like the fabulous Carrie Bradshaw, Id grown up withand internalizedLOrals repeat-after-me message to liberated American women: I dont mind spending more... because Im worth it.