A few months ago, we produced an episode about a sensation called “money dysmorphia.” Like body dysmorphia, it’s the psychological experience of the inside not matching the outside; when you have a disoriented or otherwise warped perception of your own financial situation, whether it be unfairly critical or rosy. One theme emerged in those listener interviews that I knew I wanted to revisit: Money anxiety increasing with income, not decreasing.

This is a counterintuitive response to expanding your access to resources. While most of us are probably familiar with the law of diminishing marginal returns and accept that after a certain point, money won’t make us any happier (the idea that the first $100,000 of income will have a much more drastic impact on your life than the second $100,000, and so on), the idea that there might be a point beyond which money makes us actively unhappier is pretty antithetical to the entire capitalist enterprise. All logic about incentives and competition short-circuits if more money actually equals “more problems.”

To get the inside track, we invited Clay Cockrell, a therapist for the ultra high net worth (yes, really) on the show to talk through some of my pet theories about why someone might experience enhanced anxiety as they ascend the income ladder—and what it might mean you need to do next.

Listen to this new episode of The Money with Katie Show.

“Has anyone ever actually negotiated a better salary from their existing employer by leveraging an offer from another one?” Rich Girl Kelly wrote a few weeks ago after a rigorous interview process that left her reeling with the unsettling knowledge that she was being comically underpaid. Navigating the politics of this situation can be touchy, so Henah and I workshopped a potential “script” with which to (gently) issue the (sort-of) corporate ultimatum. The key: Make it clear you’re interested in staying.

The 401(k) contribution limit is going up by $500 next year, so if you’re doing the quick math on a maximum contribution over 12 months, shoot for $1,958.33 per month. Since we’re here, the quickest way to determine the associated “percentage contribution” for your salary is to just divide the new limit, $23,500, by your gross income. (The 2025 Wealth Planner has a spot to enter your pre-tax contributions so you can see how your tax liability changes—read: lowers—in response.)

In this week’s edition of 2024’s bleakest questions: Who gets the TikTok account when influencer couples divorce? It’s curious the way in which a divorce proceeding can force the issue of accurately classifying such an arrangement as what it really is: a business deal. Talk of “valuations” and economic potential come into play, and the split itself is on the table as a monetizable narrative plot point, if the eventual owner of the account plays it right.

US economic growth might be “a mirage,” argues Ruchir Sharma for the Financial Times, “driven by rising wealth and discretionary spending among the richest consumers, and distorted by growing profits for the biggest corporations.” In other words, the brittle, top-heavy nature of the economy actually does look quite strong on paper, but—as with all top-heavy things—it exists in a constant state of threatening to topple. Since “most analysts see dominant tech companies as a plus for the US economy, driving growth, justifying sky-high stock prices and drawing in a torrent of money,” we’re unlikely to put a stop to it. Foreign investment has increased more than tenfold in the last decade. This feels like an appropriate moment to share this stunning chart, which shows the disparity between the 0.1% and everyone else. (If you have $2 million or less, you’re the yellow line.)

Speaking of illuminating data visualizations, this graph that shows union vs. non-union compensation in the United States by sector is the perfect chaser for the shot that was our episode about the power of labor organizing and collective bargaining.

Listen, I’m almost radically supportive of anything associated with waffle fries, but the fact that Chick-fil-A is launching an entertainment platform is nothing but proof to me that society really is suffering under the excesses of corporate power (see also: my essay last week). It’s instructive that content creation has become such a predictable move for big brands with more money than they know what to do with (everyone from toymakers à la Barbie to Nike’s deal with Apple Original Films). It feels like whatever pretense of a thin barrier between art and commerce once existed (if one ever did) has been fully swept away in favor of a more overt genre called product-placement-as-entertainment.

Somehow, I had never read a novel by Irish writer Sally Rooney until this weekend, when I picked up Normal People and Conversations with Friends at a Vermont bookstore and read them both hungrily in a matter of days by a fire, as God intended. My interest was piqued after this recent feature in New York Magazine, because until I read it, I had no idea her novels dealt with the complexity of class, capitalism, and generally, young people behaving badly. I also learned her massive success is evidently surrounded by quite the #discourse (Marxist theory AND drama? Quit selling, I’m already bought in). Apparently it’s common in literary circles to debate whether she deserves to be as popular as she is. I’m fine with asking these types of questions, but I wonder why we tend toward this type of interrogation around, say, young women novelists so readily and not, I don’t know, Joe Rogan? In any case, it feels like as good a time as any to also share Rooney’s 2018 essay about reproductive justice, “An Irish Problem.”

I’ve heard great things about the new Martha Stewart documentary from a few women I respect and I can’t wait to watch it tonight. It’s clear to me already that I’m going to feel guilty afterward for clowning on her prison sentence. Join me and let’s talk about it.

If you know of a job opening that was made for #RichGirlNation, submit it for consideration here.

• Growth Marketing Associate — AllTrails: Up to $110k, plus equity and unlimited PTO, remote (1–2+ years’ experience)
• Staff Software Engineer — GoFundMe: Up to $250k plus equity, hybrid in SF (8+ years’ experience)
• Senior Associate, Climate and Nature — J.Crew: Up to $97k, hybrid in NYC (3–5+ years’ experience)
• ‍ Content Operations Specialist — GitHub: Up to $169k, remote (1–5+ years’ experience)
• Manager, Account Management — World Economic Forum: Up to $160k, hybrid in NYC (8+ years’ experience)