Money and Love: An Intelligent Roadmap for Life's Biggest Decisions

A practical roadmap for navigating life’s most consequential and daunting decisions, and an intelligent approach to creating stronger relationships, better communication, and a more secure financial future.

How can my significant other and I get on the same page about spending and saving? Should I consider inflation when asking for a raise? When is the “right time” to have a child? Am I ready for retirement? I feel unprepared for the future―where do I even start? Labor economist and Stanford Professor Emerita Myra Strober and social innovation leader Abby Davisson know that in our daily lives money and love are interdependent, impacting our personal and professional goals. But when faced with daunting questions, rarely do we have the keys to combine both head and heart in a balanced and fulfilling way.

Whereas most decision-making guides focus only on one or the other, Money and Love shows us and our loved ones how to consider them jointly using a step-by-step 5Cs method:

• CLARIFY: Consider what you want vs. don’t through self-reflection.
• COMMUNICATE: Include input from those who will be impacted by your decisions in your decision-making process.
• CHOICES: Broaden your perspectives to open up your options. 
• CHECK IN: Ask for advice, guidance, and resources.
• CONSEQUENCES: Consider the effects of your decisions and how that may impact all aspects of your life.

At a time when we are experiencing the most significant shift in work-life balance in decades – marked by changing remote versus in-person work dynamics, financial strain, and the reconfiguring of families and social/professional networks – Strober and Davisson’s decision-making framework offers simple and effective steps to empower readers to make the best strategic decisions for their career and family, with guidance to come back to again and again, at every stage of life.

Myra Strober is a labor economist and Professor Emerita at Stanford University. She was the founding director of the Stanford Center for Research on Women (now the Clayman Institute for Gender Research) and the first chair of the National Council for Research on Women.

Abby Davisson is a social innovation leader and career development expert. Most recently, she spent nine years at global retailer Gap Inc., where she served as President of Gap Foundation and co-founded the company's employee resource group for parents and caregivers.