MONEY

If you haven’t read Google CFO Patrick Pichette’s retirement announcement on Google+ this week, please allow me to draw your attention to something quite beautiful and special.

Patrick Pichette, Google’s CFO for nearly seven years, has decided to change course. And he actually goes on and on for us about why he’s doing it. It’s insightful, candid, honest and thought provoking. He credits the leave in search of greater work/life balance (and well maybe, a mid life crisis of some sort).

Why do I feel like this topic is so beaten to death, but yet still never more relevant?

Read this, ladies.

I’m a Weight Watchers master. In 2003, I was 5’8? and 160 pounds — not exactly ideal for a 25-year-old single girl living in Manhattan. I spent three (!) years on Weight Watchers, and for two years, failed repeatedly. I obsessed over every drop of salad dressing and kernel of popcorn only to learn at my weekly meeting weigh-in that I’d gained half a pound. I quit multiple times, but would return months later with new resolve. Finally, in my third year, something clicked. I dropped 30 pounds in just six months.

Did your mother ever tell you to keep some “mad money” around just in case? Mine did, and hers was in the bottom drawer, towards the back of her small jewelry box. Relatively speaking, it was not a lot of money. I believe it was anywhere between two and four hundred dollars, depending on the time of the year. But the important thing was that it was a secret from my dad. Even though she frequently dipped into this fund to buy the holiday and birthday gifts for my dad, she never told him it was there.

I’d like to be able to say that our family is among those that have emerged unscathed by the economic hardships being experienced by many these days. Unfortunately, I cannot.

So if you feel yourself slipping further and further away from your partner, growing more angry and distant, stop and take a breath. Make a plan. And also remember, you’re not alone. Your best friend or neighbor could very well be in the same boat as you. Support is another amazing gift that comes to us in our darkest days.
Is financial strain taking a toll on your relationship?

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind other peoples’ closed doors? Certainly, we all speculate on the nature of someone else’s marriage or relationship. It’s human nature to look at others and try to get a sense of what their world is like. We’re all guilty of it to some degree from time to time. For the most part we wonder whether or not they’re suitable and/or compatible partners, whether they share a mutual love, whether it’s the real deal or whether or not they entered into the union with an agenda. Regardless, I often wonder about something else entirely. Finances. Yes, the verbal or not so verbal financial arrangement between husbands and wives vis a vis their daily lives.