In Her Purse: Louise Story & Ebony Reed
The authors of Fifteen Cents on the Dollar carry just the basics.
I’m keeping my intro short and sweet today because things are busy in Brooklyn. My kid has one more week of school, but he’s off today for Juneteenth. I’m trying to juggle the end-of-the-school-year madness with all my regular responsibilities, and on top of it all, I’m studying for a midterm. It’s a lot! I’m sure I’m not the only one wishing that summer was a little more chill. But I’m trying to build in some fun here and there and remember that somehow, some way, the work always gets done.
This week, I have a special double edition of In Her Purse, featuring two journalists I admire very much. Ebony Reed is the chief strategy officer at The Marshall Project, and Louise Story is a leader in news media innovation who has held leadership roles at The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Ebony and Louise worked together at the WSJ, and three years ago, they teamed up to write a book about the racial wealth gap.
Their new book, Fifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap, chronicles the stories of seven Black Americans from different economic backgrounds and explores how the racial wealth gap has impacted their lives. Ebony and Louise also have a Substack where you can learn more about the book, and this spring and summer, they’re participating in a number of events across the country. (See the lineup here.)
I’ll let Ebony and Louise take it from here!
Ebony: The Questions
What is your idea of perfect happiness? Perfect happiness is a good balance of work, personal time, meaningful projects, drama-free relationships, and having the right crew around me to do the things I want to achieve in my life. Life is short, so I don’t have time for less than complete happiness.
What is your greatest money fear? My biggest fear is that I’ll repeat mistakes of the past. I’ve looked back on every home I sold and thought I should have found a way to keep that property longer. I now see real estate as part of a much longer financial strategy for me.
What is the financial trait you most deplore in yourself? I hope to infuse more occasional fun into my money life. I’ve been so structured for a while for good reasons.
What is the financial trait you most deplore in others? I try to be really thoughtful about my money, so I don’t like it when others aren’t.
If you could change one thing about your financial situation, what would it be? I wish I still owned my last place in the Boston area. It’s worth a lot more post pandemic. It would have been a nice place to occasionally visit. (I wonder if the current owners would let me stop by for dinner. LOL. Just kidding.)
What do you consider your greatest financial achievement? Obtaining two real estate licenses—Massachusetts and Missouri—is one of my greatest financial achievements. I’m not an active practicing agent because I am focused on my journalism efforts and new book. Having those licenses has helped my family save significant money over the years and be more knowledgeable on real estate matters.
Where would you most like to live? I like living in Kansas City, Mo. I’m NOT shopping for a new home base.
What is your most treasured possession? Several jewelry pieces that my late fiancé and longtime partner, Terez A. Paylor, gave to me. He passed away in 2021.
What is your greatest money regret? My biggest regret is not putting more into my 401(k) in my first 10 years of working now that I truly understand the power of compounded interest.
What is your money motto? Get your estate planning in order! This isn’t a fun money motto, but it’s a serious issue. I’m often talking with other women about it.
I am a big proponent of people having their wills and trusts in order. My late partner and I did that when we bought our home. I’ve learned since his passing about how many people, especially people under 50 and those of color, don’t have wills and trusts. It places a burden on our loved ones, and it’s a financial cost and prolonged process to go through probate court when we can all have our wishes clearly known and documented. Clear beneficiaries, wills, and trusts also help us privately move money to heirs.
What is a nonprofit that’s near and dear to your heart that you’d like Purse readers to know about? There are two scholarship endowments in my late fiancé’s honor. Terez was a sports journalist covering the NFL and a selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. There are two scholarship endowments in his name to help future sports journalists—one at Howard University, his alma mater, and one at the Missouri School of Journalism, my alma mater. Info on how to support either scholarship is on my site ebonyreed.com. I’ve also donated some of my proceeds from our book to those scholarship funds.
Ebony: The Purse
Sometimes instead of a purse, I carry a black Tory Burch wristlet. And sometimes I put all of these items in this wristlet and then drop it into a bigger bag. I need simplicity as a woman on the move!
I use sunscreen, and the Cocokind brand is great! Some people think Black people don’t need it, but we do!
My backup house key is the Kansas City Chiefs key. You can’t live in Kansas City and not have something in your purse that’s a nod to the Super Bowl-winning team.
The key for the Jeep reminds me of my late partner and fiancé. He loved this Jeep! When I’m driving it, I think fondly of our time together, and how Terez A. Paylor is always with me and watching over me.
I need that Yale ID to get into the School of Management where my coauthor, Louise Story, and I have taught a spring class on racial wealth gaps for the last three years.
One of my business cards for The Marshall Project is in my purse. That’s the news nonprofit where I am the chief strategy officer. It reports on the criminal justice system.
Louise: The Questions
What is your idea of perfect happiness? Feeling great while outside on a run. I have run five marathons and completed a triathlon, but really my running is recreational and dates back to my childhood when I was on the cross country team. What I enjoyed about cross country, and what I enjoy about running now, is the journey. Running with friends, or talking with friends on my cell phone while I run (yes, it’s true), or escaping to a great podcast or great music while I run. Looking around at what I’m passing. Feeling my feet hit the ground and the strength in my legs as I climb a hill. It’s the journey.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve focused more on the journey I’m on in life in general, rather than simply the finish lines.
What is your greatest money fear? I never want anyone to feel I didn’t pay my share, and I probably overcompensate and pay extra, due to that fear.
What is the financial trait you most deplore in yourself? I try not to deplore myself!
What is the financial trait you most deplore in others? I appreciate it when people do their best to pay a fair share, but I’m very broad-minded on what a fair share is.
If you could change one thing about your financial situation, what would it be? I’m doing a home renovation right now, and it was a terrible financial decision. That said, I’m a human, and we all make mistakes.
What do you consider your greatest financial achievement? Pulling off this book I just cowrote with Ebony was a great financial achievement. I decided to do this book in a fully volunteer capacity, which means I have donated the profit from all the advances I received from HarperCollins, and I’ve committed to permanently donate the profits. The book, Fifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap, is about the history and present reality of the Black-white wealth gap. I decided I should do this project fully for public impact and not earn any money from it. That means I have been volunteering my work for three years. I was able to do that through savings I earned in the past while working as a senior editor at The Wall Street Journal, through support from my husband, and through some consulting I have done along the way.
I am grateful and glad I have been able to give back in this way—through both the book itself and through the money it is generating that I am giving away.
Where would you most like to live? I love New York City.
What is your most treasured possession? I’ve moved around a lot in the last few years, and some very special things from my recently deceased father were lost in the move. It tore me up so badly. I was angry and sad when I thought about it. And then one day, I just decided it didn’t matter. It’s stuff, not people. Accepting that those treasured possessions are lost has made me very stuff-agnostic overall.
What is your greatest money regret? I have focused a lot more on time than on money. It means that I have less money than I would have had. That’s because I’ve often used money to help me pay for things that free up time. I don’t really regret that, though.
What is your money motto? I have a few:
“Don’t worry about stuff—worry about people.”
“Time matters, not money.”
I’ll give you another that I tell my kids: “Be grateful for what you do have, not upset about what you don’t have.”
What is a nonprofit that’s near and dear to your heart that you’d like Purse readers to know about? By the end of writing our book on the Black-white wealth gap, I decided I wanted to do something to help people who are incarcerated. Many people in our book had family members who had been incarcerated, and one of the main people in our book was incarcerated himself.
I found out about the Prison Journalism Project, which trains people in prison in writing and journalism skills. This not only helps get out otherwise untold stories, but it also, importantly, helps these people who write them with training and payment (when their stories are published and if/when they are allowed to be paid).
I volunteer at PJP, and I serve on the board. I hope people will visit their site and support.
Louise: The Purse
I have my hands full being a working mother with many professional projects, so I try to keep my actual hands empty. My purse is my phone case.
My purse always holds my credit cards, AAA card, and health care card.
Usually I have emergency cash. In this case, $50.
I tend to carry a business card. I think business cards are coming back in fashion
Often I have cards from where I have recently been. In this case, I was recently in Montgomery, Ala., cohosting a racial wealth gap symposium, so I have a “Freedom Riders safe house” card that was given to me.
My Yale University ID. I’m proud to teach an MBA course at The Yale School of Management.
Thank you so much, Ebony and Louise! And readers, I urge you to pick up their book. It’s such an important topic and something we all need to discuss more.
Random Extras
My former Refinery29 colleague, the brilliant Nell Riley, is raising money for a short film she’s making about pregnancy loss. As Nell describes it, Missed is “a dark comedy about a miscarriage and the immense, insurmountable pain that comes right after it.” And there’s a talking puppet! You can learn more here.
I really related to this essay by Samhita Mukhopadhyay in The Cut about failure and dream jobs and the highs and lows of being a workaholic. I’m excited to read her new book The Myth of Making It: A Workplace Reckoning.
I’m working on an essay about friends and money for July (with insights from
and of !). In the process, I’ve been thinking about pop culture portrayals of friends and money. Think Charlotte giving Carrie a loan in Sex and the City or that early episode of Friends where Rachel, Phoebe, and Joey get mad at Ross, Chandler, and Monica for wanting to split the check at an expensive dinner. Do you all have any favorites? Drop them in the comments!I met
at a networking event in January, and we bonded over Substack and our love of Park Slope. It was so fun to be interviewed for her newsletter, , about my career and favorite spots in Brooklyn.I’ll be sending out my first paid edition of Home Economics this weekend! Just a reminder that paid subscribers are also automatically entered in a giveaway. This month, paid subscribers will get a chance to win a copy of Matt Schulz’s new book, Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More, along with the Revitalash Cosmetics Double-Ended Volume set (which includes primer and mascara).
pop culture friends and money idea: Gossip Girl (the early seasons where money causes a divide between Dan/Jenny and the rich kids at school). Or a more wholesome example is when Harry Potter buys all the candle on the trolley cart on the train to school during his first year for Ron Weasley (who has no money). Looking forward to that one!
A moment for the holidays observed by school but not by employers.