February 2025 Receipts

This week the news came out that the fintech company Betterment would be acquiring the automated investing arm of Ellevest, a female-focused wealth management firm. This comes a few months after Sallie Krawcheck, Ellevest founder and CEO, announced she was stepping down from her role due to personal reasons.

I’m sure there are Purse readers who just shrugged at this news—you may not even be familiar with Betterment or Ellevest. But for many women, especially those in the financial industry (or adjacent), this news feels like a disappointing—if not entirely surprising—end to a decade-long experiment to change the way many of us women manage our money.

I can still remember sitting with Sallie in the chic Ellevest offices in the spring of 2016 to get a first look at the platform. “Finally, here is a product that’s well-designed, practical, and speaks to women's unique financial needs, whether they're planning for retirement, a bucket-list vacation, or starting a family,” I wrote in a review on Refinery29 on the launch. And it was beautiful and visionary.

But perhaps even more than I liked Ellevest, I liked Sallie. From the first time we met, we connected over our shared frustration of how the financial industry treats women, either pandering to us by offering overly simplified advice often dressed up in pink packaging, or simply ignoring us altogether. After the initial meeting, we stayed in touch. She gave me a pep talk when I returned from maternity leave, and we’d have breakfast every year or so. I definitely tried once or twice to get a job at Ellevest, though the timing never seemed to work out. And last year, I was thrilled when Ellevest became one of the first sponsors of The Purse.

While it’s disappointing to see the end of the Ellevest robo-advisor, it’s not the end of Ellevest. The company will continue to grow its wealth management and financial planning business, according to Dr. Sylvia Kwan, Ellevest’s chief investing officer and new co-CEO. The financial planning team is made up of all women—something that’s not easy to find in an industry that is still dominated by old white men.1 And I’ve loved every chance I’ve had over the years to work with them—I assure you it’s a smart and lovely bunch!

My biggest concern is that some people will see the sale to Betterment as a failure, when it’s so far from that. Sallie and her team at Ellevest have helped a generation of women achieve big financial milestones—get married, buy homes, start businesses, change careers, have children, and save for their futures. They raised the bar on how financial institutions should interact with women and taught us all to expect more.

Subscribe to The Purse

I’d also argue that this creates an amazing opportunity for some of the more established financial institutions to step in and fill the hole. Women are 50% of the population, and we continue to gain more and more economic power. Don’t underestimate us as a client base. (And if you work for a financial institution looking to reach more women, hi, let’s talk!)

And now on to the February recap! This month was a cold slog, and honestly, everything going on in the world has left me feeling a little sad and adrift. (Anyone else?)

Despite feeling a bit low, I’m incredibly proud of the newsletters I sent out this month. Perhaps the best part is all the fun and smart women I get to collaborate with on a regular basis. A big thank you to all of them for their support and advice—they made this an A+ month at The Purse!

Here’s a recap in case you missed anything!

February 2025 on The Purse

The Substack Market Forecast Summit was technically on the last day of January, but I didn’t get to share it in last month’s receipts. I loved getting a chance to chat with Ally Jane Ayers about the Great Wealth Transfer. We had more than 3,000 people tune in! I’m thinking about doing more of these Substack Lives in the future? Would you be interested?
For the first Home Economics of the month, we heard from a family in Louisville, Kentucky, who make $161,500 and are paying off quite a bit of student loan and credit card debt. The comments on this were very interesting to me—so many people were concerned about how much they were spending on car maintenance. Whenever I feature someone with debt, there’s always a hyper focus on what they spend in a way that doesn’t happen with people who don’t have debt.

I dug deep in my closet (and my photo library) for an essay about clothes and money. I loved chatting with Shelcy Joseph, Erika Veurink, Sarah Shapiro, and Aliya Thomas—they had so many interesting things to say! I feel like I just scratched the surface on this topic, and I want to write about it more in the future. This one also has a great comments section!

The essay was inspired in part by our second Money Talks event, which we held on Thursday, February 13, in Williamsburg. I really can’t gush enough about how much fun these events are. It was so nice to see friends and readers IRL, and I had so many interesting conversations. We were having so much fun, the restaurant had to kick us out, which I always know is a sign of a good party. A big thank you to Erika, Shelcy, and Sarah for joining us and sharing their knowledge! Can’t wait to host more of these events this year!
This month’s paid Home Economics featured an autistic tech worker making $175,000 in the Seattle area. This one had so many interesting tidbits, from how she and her husband bought their condo to her experience increasing her salary from $25,000 to $175,000 in just five years.

For the second edition of Group Chat, I asked an amazing lineup of home cooks to tell me: What are we having for dinner tonight? Anna Kovel, Christina Chaey, Amanda Leigh, Vasudha Viswanath, and Jerrelle Guy all shared stellar recipes. Have you had a chance to try them out yet? Plus, there’s a total lovefest in the comments, complete with a kind commenter who called out her favorite recipes in Ali’s book, I Dream of Dinner.

I launched Extra Credit last month in part because I wanted to bring in more voices to The Purse, and also because it’s super fun to work with friends. I’ve been wanting to tackle the money suck that is Disney World forever, and I was so thrilled when Heather Boneparth of agreed to pen the piece. She’s a great Disney friend and has all the good tips!

I wrapped up this month of stellar collaborations with a dream Division of Labor featuring illustrator Mary Catherine Starr and her husband, Ben. Mary Catherine and Ben are raising two school-aged kids on Cape Cod, and I loved getting a peek at their busy lives, complete with Mary Catherine’s delightful drawings. Also, you should definitely buy a copy of her new book, Mama Needs a Minute. It’s a total delight!

Just a reminder, paid subscribers are automatically entered in the monthly sweepstakes. This month, I’m giving away a copy of Neha Ruch’s new book, The Power Pause, and Fran Hauser’s Reflect and Reset journal.2

Paid subscribers help make everything I do at The Purse possible! Thank you for your support!

Phew! For a short month, I sure got a lot done!

What’s coming up in March?

Today, there’s a nationwide boycott of big brands like Target and Amazon. My social media feed was crowded this week with posts and stories calling for people to not buy anything today, and if you do, to shop local and use cash. Are you participating? I’m going to write about boycotts and our true purchasing power in an upcoming essay. Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments! (Also, I realize only paid subscribers can leave comments on this post, so free subscribers who have thoughts can feel free to reply to this email!)