Do you know your value?

Knowing how much your time and skill is worth is such a wonderful feeling. For many of us though, this is something that takes many years, if not much of our life. This doesn’t only apply to freelancers, it also affects people who work for companies as well.

Personally, I grew up with parents who didn’t talk about money. I asked them why that was, and they said their finances weren’t the kids business. Ironically, they’re very open about money goals now that my brother and I are adults. I guess aging overall helped them feel like they could trust us with this information.

I’m not going to put all the blame on them for my delayed responsibility though; school wasn’t much help either. I learned how to write a check in 5th grade and that was the extent of my personal finance education in public school. I had to teach myself how to do the FAFSA and taxes. 

One of the most applicable to life courses I took in college was Personal Finance (which covered my “math” credit.) If I could change anything, I would have taken that as a freshman, as opposed to a senior so I would have made better choices earlier on. Thanks to that class, I made a budget after graduating because I had to start paying back those student loans and didn’t immediately land a high paying career. 

Through a combination of will, life experiences, and encouragement from other people of color, I’m finally not afraid to claim my worth when it comes to work.

I remember in high school at my first part time job, I dealt with racism, sexism, and ageism, and put up with all of it because I was “grateful for having a job.”

Gratitude is important, but tolerating mistreatment/harassment from others should not be a requirement for any job.

It’s unfortunate that constant disrespect is what urges many of us to demand better. Hopefully as more of us speak on our experiences and help those around us (especially younger people,) we’ll be able to break this cycle. Or if all else, put a serious dent in it.

Are you confident in your ability to ask for fair compensation?