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Dear World: Stop Assuming the Man’s Name Comes First
Airing a pet peeve that actually says a lot
It just happened again…some system decided that I am not the primary owner of my own damn money.
It’s my retirement investment fund. I opened this particular account twelve years ago, when I quit my day job and rolled over the money I’d been setting aside since my twenties, out of my own paychecks, which I earned, by the labor of my own hands.
The account grew, slowly; it was never huge, but it was something. My something. I was generally too broke to add to it after I left the day job, but it was nice to have at least that little amount there.
Six years ago, I married my husband. He didn’t have a retirement fund, and we were still both too broke to contribute to my fund, but again — hey, it was something.
Last year, I inherited some money, a portion of which was in a retirement fund, so it got rolled into this investment account. The inheritance also made it possible for my husband and me to finally put something aside, for the tax advantages. My financial advisor (yes, I did always see the twisted humor in being too broke to pay even routine medical bills or replace a broken appliance but still having a ‘financial advisor’) opened small new IRAs for each of us, and added my…