Hi {{First Name|Sheconomist Insider}} 👋 It’s Thamina, Founder of The Sheconomist. This is your bi-weekly dose of celebrating the female economy where I help ambitious, purpose-driven women like yourself flip the script on money, career & wellbeing conventions so you can live life on your own terms.

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I plan to leave corporate in my 30s. I'm also the biggest defender of the 9-5 you'll meet.

For a long time, I was embarrassed by that second part.

I watched people around me quit.

To go all in.
To bet on themselves.
To finally be free.

And I was still here.

Same company.

Year five. Year six. Year seven.

I felt like I had lost my edge.
I felt scared.
I felt like the one who didn't have the guts.

Especially after two of my former coworkers turned really good friends decided to take that leap.

And while I couldn’t have been any more proud of them, a part of me was also envious.

However, my perspective completely shifted after my dear grandma - who was like a second mom to me - got into a terrible accident in 2025 and passed away 9 months later.

Then I looked at what staying in my 9-5 had given me.

✅ A stable salary with a meaningful financial upside that allowed me to put my family first and grieve on my own timeline.

✅ Equity and 9-5 benefits compounding to 7 figures in the background on autopilot

✅ Relocating to New York and having the credibility and financial means to get my exceptional ability green card approved

✅ Relationships and access I could never have built alone this quickly

✅ Capital to invest in startups and in my LLC (for my content & speaking side business)

✅ A truly incredible lifestyle that allows me to split my time between New York and Europe and prioritize making precious memories with my loved ones - all while investing/saving 6 figures a year.

My job is paying for my future exit.

My business doesn't have to pay all my bills yet.

Instead, I use my LLC to fund my professional development (coaching, masterminds, business retreats) and (AI) tech stack.

Investments I would have made anyway - with or without LLC, but now I get a tax refund for learning from and with brilliant women.

Over time, my LLC gets to become what it's supposed to be.

So I stopped being embarrassed.

I don’t know when exactly I will leave corporate America.

But I do know that when I leave, I'll leave with everything I came for.

If you're still in your 9-5 and it feels like everyone else is braver than you:

Staying can be the brave choice.

Extract before you escape!

🎙️ The Hottest Product Manager in Tech Right Now - OpenAI’s Holly Li Talks About Dots

👗 A formula on how to dress better (giving this a try myself)

🪄 This is your sign to gather your coven

💰 Friends That Invest’s Sim Kaur is running her last Investing Masterclass of the year - enrollment ends very soon

Post credits go to ᴄᴀʀʟᴀ ୨୧, babygirl, Lilly 😛, offe market️

“$300k a year in San Francisco is close to poverty.”

That’s a real comment someone left on one of my recent Instagram videos.

I read that comment several times.

Then I thought about everyone who would read that comment and quietly feel like a failure.

So let’s talk about it.

There’s a story going around that wealth starts at seven figures. Preferably multiple. Anything below that is just “getting by.”

I know people who earn that. Some of my friends. Some of my role models. I’d love to get there myself one day, and I’m not shy about that.

But the idea that you need millions and millions of dollars to be and feel rich?

Wrong.

I’ll use myself as the example, because I’m roughly the person that comment was describing.

High earner, not rich yet, no kids, two income-household.

Here’s what a life in that income bracket looks like in New York City:

✅ I live in my dream building, the kind with a spa in it, where a famous WNBA player is my neighbor
✅ I go on pretty much any vacation I want to go on
✅ I’m generous with the people I love without checking my bank balance fitst
✅ And I still invest and save a very large chunk of my income every single month

Dream apartment.
Dream travel.
Dream generosity.

AND the portfolio keeps growing.

If that is “close to poverty,” then the word has stopped meaning anything.

Ask a $300k earner why they feel broke and listen to the list.

Every item gets filed under “essential.”

None of them are.

Essentials are housing, food, healthcare, transportation, childcare.

The basic version of each.

Everything above the basic version is a choice. Some of them are great choices. I make plenty of them myself. But they’re still choices.

And when every choice gets relabeled as a need, something predictable happens.

Every raise basically disappears.

The lifestyle absorbs it before the brokerage account ever sees it.

You end up earning more than 90% of the country and feeling broke.

Real financial pressure is when the basics don’t fit into your income.

What most high earners are feeling is the squeeze of the upgrades.

The question that actually matters is this:

Instead of “how much do you make,” ask:

After the real essentials are covered, can you pay for the upgrades you’ve consciously chosen, be generous, and still invest heavily for the life you want later?

If yes, you’re rich.

If no, the fix is rarely “earn ten times more.”

It’s usually: separate your needs from your upgrades, negotiate harder, own more equity, and stop letting someone else’s number define yours.

In abundance,

Please note that I may receive commissions for some but not all my recommendations. I will never recommend something I don’t actually genuinely believe in or haven’t used myself.