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Ask a CPA:  3 Best Accounting Tips You Can Use During the Holidays

Ask a CPA: 3 Best Accounting Tips You Can Use During the Holidays

‘Tis the season to be merry and jolly….and also to be under serious financial pressure in general, especially as a working woman and working mom in particular. In between holiday shopping and other financial obligations of all kinds, it can be easy to overlook our finances and some basic yet crucial accounting tips that can save you and I a lot of headaches before, during and after the holidays.

Ask a CPA:   3 Best Accounting Tips  You Can Use During  the Holidays

As a working woman who happens to also serve as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), I’ve not only experienced this, but also have had the opportunity to learn and teach about and from it. While there’s a lot of talk about saving money over the holidays, what is less talked about are the real financial and accounting concerns everyone faces over this busy time of year and the tips anyone can use to circumvent them:

  • PROTECT YOURSELF AGAIN IDENTITY THEFT AND FRAUD

As a busy working mom, shopping online has become my go-to. While most of us are thinking about tackling our shopping lists, criminals are thinking about, well…stealing your identity, money and any tax and financial data available. This information is especially useful as it can be used to file fraudulent tax returns as the new year opens. This is one of the main reasons why the National Tax Security Awareness Week produced by the IRS, tax industry, and state tax agencies, takes place every year in early December to provide basic guidelines for consumers to avoid identity theft, such as:

  • Shopping at sites with web addresses starting with “https”
  • Avoiding unsecured wi-fi in public places
  • Securing home wi-fi with strong passwords
  • Using two-factor authentication and strong passwords whenever possible
  • Making sure to regularly back up files and computers.
  • DON’T LOSE OUT ON CHARITABLE GIVING!

Many of you may consider cleaning up your kids’ closets (as well as your own), pulling out your bank accounts, and helping others by making donations this season. Keep in mind that charitable giving during the holidays especially can contribute to reducing your overall tax bill, however this only applies if you choose to itemize your taxes. It’s important to pick the right charity for you, in terms of whether or not it aligns with your vision and has a decent track record. A good source to consult for this is Guidestar, which provides a list of every IRS-registered non-profit organization. 


When planning your charity giving during the holidays, you must consider first what you are giving, as different rules apply to cash, household items and/or long-term gain property. While you can deduct up to 60% of your adjusted gross income when you donate cash to public charities (30% for long-term appreciated assets held for more than a year), you would get a write-off for donations of household items in good condition. If you donate long-term gain property such as bonds and publicly traded stocks, you’re allowed to deduct their fair market value. This is even more relevant for small business owners who can significantly reduce their taxable income this way.

  • DON’T LET YOUR SMALL BUSINESS ACCOUNTING GO BY THE WAYSIDE!

For all the working women and moms who also happen to run a business, this season can be especially challenging. Not to mention that the holidays are also one of the most critical and busiest times for many small businesses. This is when keeping track of your business inventory as a small business owner, your expenses and sales, as well as creating a solid marketing strategy.

An efficient way to do this is through the use of productivity apps, as well as by leveraging social media. Most importantly, it’s crucial to keep a close eye on cash flow and prepare for the upcoming tax season.

All in all, the holidays are already a busy time of year and a financially heavy one as well. Keeping these accounting tips in mind can help the transition from one year to the other, as well as one’s personal and financial balance, in check.

The Corporate Sister. 

Dual Career Families: What to do when both partners have demanding careers

Dual Career Families: What to do when both partners have demanding careers

While ambition may be viewed a tad negatively for women, it’s largely considered a positive trait in men. After all, the breadwinner’s role is one that has been considered male for ages, and with it the embodiment of ambition and the pursuit of success.  Yet, what happens when an ambitious man and woman find themselves joined together as partners? Whose ambition comes on top and whose ambition must subside? Or is it possible that both sets of aspirations be equally satisfied? In an ideal world, we would wish so. In the real world of cultural and societal norms, morning traffic jams and kids’ temper tantrums, dual ambition is way more complicated than coordinating schedules and sharing dreams of ruling the world. 

Take a regular family of four with a generally positive family atmosphere. Both parents have demanding yet flourishing careers. They also have dreams of climbing to the heights of their individual fields, and make no secret of it. In the midst of their dual ambition, life happens, what with its heavy load of poopy diapers, sleepless nights with sick children, kids pick-ups and drop-offs, etc. While both parents are heavily invested in their family, the mom carries the larger share of the unpaid household work and childcare needs. Since she happens to have more flexibility than her partner, which she willfully arranged for after having children, she devotes a large chunk of her time to caring for the family. Yet her ambition has not left her, so she puts in extra hours at night and early in the morning, catching up on work to further her career. By most accounts, it all seems to work, as the father helps a lot, and the entire family appears to juggle heavy schedules, extra-curricular activities and even work travel. What does not appear is the invisible, silent burden carried by the ambitious woman behind closed doors. 

In many cases, the scenario above is an ideal one. As a matter of fact, this may be an ideal scenario. In a study analyzing the perceptions of children in dual career families published by the National Council on Families, adolescent children in these families tend to see their lifestyles as generally positive. In many other scenarios, ambitious, dedicated women also have to contend with being single parents, or caring for elderly parents; or the family dynamics are not as positive. Yet, even in what may be considered to be a less-than-ideal scenario, there is an unavoidable power struggle of ambitions and a no-less avoidable yielding of one in favor of the other. 

While there are certainly cases of male partners who temporarily or permanently put their careers aside in favor of their female partners’, these seem to be more the exception than the rule. In most instances, dual ambition in a family also means women may have to adjust and regulate theirs to match the tune of their environment, which may also translates into a loss of earnings as well as opportunities, not to mention the significant amount of relational and personal stress created. How can we, as working women, find our place when we find ourselves in the midst of the dual ambition power struggle created by two demanding careers within one family unit?

  • Don’t be afraid to have the honest, tough conversations

Marriage and romantic partnership are far from easy to manage to begin with. When we add to it the pressures of two demanding careers, the stretch can bring most couples to the brink of destruction. Add to it a couple (or more) of kids, unending laundry, sticky floors and counters, and you’re in for quite the stressful ride…

This is why it’s so important, especially as working women and moms, to not be afraid to have the honest, raw, tough conversations with your partner. These are the talks about personal ambition, life goals, and even daily scheduling that many, if not most of us, dread having. As women, it may be tempting to avoid them altogether because truth is, we’ve hardly been socialized to demand the space we need in our relationships. However, in couples with dual demanding careers, and in any couple in general, it’s a must without which the whole relationship can be in peril. 

As intimidating as it may be, schedule some time to sit down around a glass of wine (or the kids’ apple juice because you didn’t make it to the supermarket this week), and chat about questions such as: “Where do you see your career’ going?”, “What are your dreams?”, “Will you be traveling?”, “Who will care for the kids when we’re both at work?”, and other life and relationship-altering concerns…This may well save your marriage or relationship in the long-run.

  • It’s a game of give and take

In couples and partnerships with dual, demanding careers, a healthy exchange of give-and-take is inescapable. While women, even bread-winning wives, tend to provide a larger chunk of the household unpaid work, they cannot do it all (sorry ladies, we are superwomen, not unbreakable). This also means that there has to be some level of support provided by the other partner in the relationship, and/or outsourced to external sources of help such as outside caregivers, cleaning staff, etc.. Without this, maintaining dual demanding careers is virtually impossible. Even when it’s physically done, the mental, emotional and spiritual toll it takes on women outweighs any other wins, career or otherwise.

Setting up the foundation for this give-and-take requires honest and frequent communication as to the needs of both partners. This is especially relevant as individuals, along with their career goals and ambitions, change over time. Priorities need to be re-assessed constantly, and integrated into daily life with intentionality and care. 

  • Realize that society is not yet ready for complete equity for women

I remember being extremely disappointed at myself for not being able to hold it ALL together as a working mom, including the kids, the marriage, the house, the job, and everything else that really matters to me. However, what I failed to realize then, was that we still (and probably will for quite some time) live in a society that is far from being ready for female equity. From infrastructures to work and everything in between, much of the world as we know it has been created from a historical perspective to cater to the interests of men. Modifying antiquated structures of society will take time and require patience, understanding and compassion for ourselves and others. 

This is also a call to realize that we all play a role into creating the society we would like to live and thrive in as working women. We may not be there yet, but each and every one of our choices, from the way we manage our relationships to how we work, has an impact on designing the kind of lives we want to create.

How do you deal with dual, demanding careers in your marriage or relationship as a working woman/mom?

The Corporate Sister

10 Favorite Books on the Importance of Self-Love

10 Favorite Books on the Importance of Self-Love

Like many of you, books are both my escape and a great source of learning. On my personal journey of self-love, they’ve been, and still are, some of my favorite go-to’s. As a matter of fact, the sheer fact of burying my head in a book for those rare moments of quiet, especially as a working mom, constitute the best acts of self-love for me.

I’ve been fortunate to be exposed, over the course of my personal and professional experience, to books that have changed the way I see myself and the world. When it comes to self-love, here are 10 books that have radically transformed both my understanding and application of self-love:

  • So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba: Written by Senegalese award-winning novelist Mariama Ba, this book exposes the reality of women from the perspective of an educated Muslim woman as part of her road to self-love.
  • We should all be feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: In this eloquent essay, famous author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores what it means to be a woman by offering a very unique definition of feminism.
  • Rising Strong by Brene Brown: Social scientist Brene Brown lifts the curtain on vulnerability and courage, and uncovers the meaning of rising strong as the ultimate path to fulfillment.
  • I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou: Beloved classic writer Maya Angelou takes us on a journey through children’s loneliness and the unfairness of bigotry, into freedom and self-love.
  • Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes: Mega-talented writer Shonda Rhimes writes about the transformative challenge of committing to say yes to unexpected opportunities for an entire year.
  • Beloved by Toni Morrison: This haunting masterpiece by iconic writer Toni Morrison is a call to return to love, despite the trauma of slavery and human abuse.
  • Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill: Anyone wanting to improve their lives and thinking must have this book on their reading list!
  • The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz: In this simple, teaching-filled book, teacher and healer Don Miguel Ruiz offers readers simple secrets to positive life changes.
  • The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte: This holistic life-planning tool is a revolution in chasing what really brings you happiness and joy in life. A must-read!
  • You are a badass by Jen Sincero: Hilarious and filled with light wisdom, this book is all about creating a life you love abandoning negative self-beliefs in the process.

What are your favorite self-love books?

The Corporate Sis.

Dear husbands, we don’t need your help. We need your buy-in.

Dear husbands, we don’t need your help. We need your buy-in.


Every time I mention Dear Husband is the one who does most of the cooking in our household, I, and pretty much everyone else around, cannot help but notice all the ensuing oohs and aahs. “How lucky I must be!”

What a rare stroke of good marital fortune I must have happened to miraculously stumble upon?’

To have a partner who “helps” at home…

While by all accounts, I married quite an extraordinary partner, I also realize that much of the reactions I, and other non-traditional and frankly non-domesticated women according to most traditional standards, are deeply embedded in age-old cultural norms. 

As a woman born and raised in Senegal, West Africa, I’m all too-familiar with many of these norms. Those that dictate that certain roles are stereotypically assigned to women, while others, more glorious ones, are reserved for males. The same cultural standards rooted in the arbitrary male default that Caroline Criado Perez talks about so eloquently in her book “Invisible Women“. According this “male default”, the universal standard in pretty much anything has always been set to be male, which in turn, has created a pattern of “otherness” for women.

 As a result, mostly everything around us, from the local infrastructure to the division of roles in the household, has been historically set to cater to the activities and needs of men, by design. Research by the IMF has found that on a global scale, women perform three times the amount of unpaid work than men do. This also means four times the amount of housework, and twice the amount of childcare, provided by men. These statistics are not historically surprising when you think of how traditional societies used to operate. However, when you consider that in most modern families, both parents work, this also translates into a dire situation for working women. One where, whereas the home may be viewed by men as a place of relaxation, it usually is working women’s “second shift”, or work after work. 

Isn’t it any surprise then that society at large, women included, view spouses or partners who pick up any “extra” portion of the heavy household load reserved for women as exceptional? Or that the fact that a male partner would “help” in the carrying out of household chores would be quite outside the norms? Even that as working women we may resent, or fear (or both) the prospect of a male partner taking on roles traditionally reserved to us, because it may mean that somehow we’re breaking generational cultural norms? And can we blame them or us, for that matter? 

Yet, truth is, we no more need our husbands or partners’ help, than we need an elusive “rest day” dedicated to catching up on week-old piled up laundry. What is needed really, and not just by working women, is a re-thinking of the cultural norms supporting the unfair distribution of unpaid work alleviated by the prospect of occasional partner “help”. Because as long as we glorify the “help”, the crucial integration of work and life will keep wobbling towards further imbalance for all. Until we can re-imagine society in a way that challenges deeply embedded cultural norms into modern times, we may keep stumbling upon the same age-old obstacles…

Does this mean ideologies and mentalities will be changed overnight? That through some holy egalitarian magic, gender equity for all will become reality? Certainly not…

Yet, what it may mean is that there is a growing need to educate society as to what women need, from better schedule considerations, down to transportation and zoning regulations that stand harshly in the way of providing adequate and affordable childcare and elder care. Because what women need, is what society needs…And that doesn’t require just help, it requires active participation and investment, and it starts at home…

So dear husbands, we don’t need help, we need your buy-in…

The Corporate Sister.

Being a woman of faith at work: how to faithfully thrive in the workplace

Being a woman of faith at work: how to faithfully thrive in the workplace

Being a woman of faith at work can come with its sets of blessings, but also its fair share of challenges. If you’re one, you may already know this, and know it all too well. Many workplaces are not observant of faith-related practices, and may also be unfortunately dealing with religious prejudice in different forms. This is in addition to being subjected to the scrutiny and negative opinions of co-workers and managers who may not fully understand the commitments and realities that come with your faith. This is even more complex with the intersectionality of gender, religion, and sometimes race as well.

As a Christian working woman, it’s been important for me to understand how I could thrive in my faith in all areas of my life, including in my work. From my own experiences and chatting with other women of faith, I’ve learnt three (3) particularly powerful tips for women of faith to thrive in the workplace, not in spite of, but with the fullness of their faith:

  • Understand that others may not understand your faith

Faith is very much a personal matter, although it affects all the external areas of one’s life. It’s also a part of one’s life that others may not adhere to, understand or wish to have anything to do with. As such, it’s crucial to make peace with the fact that others around you in the workplace, from your co-workers to your managers, may not be familiar with this part of your experience. 

Not only will this save you a lot of heartache when faced at times with any form of insensitivity or push-back, but it will also help you extend grace to others. This is certainly not an excuse for callous behavior on the part of anyone, but an invitation to consider the many reasons, from backgrounds to education, why those you share an office space with think differently than you do when it comes to faith.

  • Speak up as to your faith-related needs

In the same token, it’s also important for you to voice your needs as related to your faith. I have a Muslim friend who makes sure to build into her calendar religious holidays and ask for those days off well in advance. While Christian holidays may be recognized in the common calendar, other religious holidays may not be, hence the need to speak up and express your needs. As a woman of faith, you may also need added flexibility to attend faith-cased events or to prepare for holidays and events.

The point is, honoring your faith at work is also a matter of not repressing your needs and commitments, while still keeping on excelling in your work. You don’t have to struggle unnecessarily or silence yourself, when a simple conversation may afford you the time and flexibility you may need. 

  • Use your faith as a bridge, not a wall

Faith of all kinds and forms should serve as a bridge to bring people together, rather than a wall to separate individuals. Many, if not most faiths, have in common a foundation of love and acceptance of others. As a woman of faith in the workplace, standing on this foundation is the most powerful way to thrive and help others thrive as well. Whether through inclusive and accepting teamwork, or by treating your co-workers and managers with grace, displaying the inclusive foundation of your faith can go a long way.

Use it also as an opportunity to educate those around you who may not know about your faith. I would rather someone ask questions than incorrectly assume anything about myself or my faith. This is a wonderful opportunity to create more understanding and better communication in and outside of the workplace. And isn’t it the goal after all?

And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)

Do all your work in love. (1 Corinthians 16:14)

  • Foster diversity and inclusiveness for others

Respecting differences in faith in the workplace is part of fostering diversity and inclusiveness for everyone. Your experience as a woman of faith at work can help improve the experiences of other women like yourself. This can be done by starting a conversation around it, expressing yours and others’ similar needs, or suggesting educational opportunities around this. You are never too powerless to change your environment. 

The more we all know about religious diversity, the more we’re able to create and nurture an inclusive environment for all. This may very start with you…

Are you a woman of faith in the workplace? How have you been thriving in your faith at work?


The Corporate Sister.