Jess Fickett ("Piggy"), Author at Bitches Get Riches

Season 5, Episode 3: “I Can’t Decide Where To Live. Do Taxes, Housing, and Cost of Living Really Matter?”

July 21, 2026July 31, 2026 Jess Fickett ("Piggy") 4 Comments

I moved out to the Denver metro area with my partner in 2009 after graduating from college (SPOILER ALERT NEWBIES, WE OLD).

We’d been living in Boston and, uh, not only was the cost of living and housing pretty steep, but the job market in the area was waaaay competitive. We knew we wanted to move somewhere cheaper with more job opportunities (this was in the Before Times when most jobs were location-dependent). So we narrowed it down to a handful of places in the U.S. and did our research.

Everywhere we looked was an urban area with lots of rural space nearby. So that almost completely excluded the East Coast from our search. We looked at places like Pittsburgh, Portland Oregon, Bozeman Montana, Denver, Santa Fe, Austin, and Seattle. Most of those places are now wildly expensive, but at the time they were way more affordable than, say, Boston, Chicago, or New York.

We chose Denver because my partner’s company was able to transfer him out there and I got accepted to a graduate certificate program at a nearby university. Plus, some of my partner’s coworkers were also moving there, so we had immediate roommates.

At the time, this move didn’t feel so monumental. Our attitude was “Hey, this could work, so let’s try it for a while.” Fifteen years later, I still live in Colorado.

So I guess that means I should have some sound advice for deciding where to live??? Let’s find out in today’s episode of the Bitches Get Riches podcast!

Why Is It So Hard To Get a Job Right Now?

July 1, 2026July 1, 2026 Jess Fickett ("Piggy") 8 Comments

My spouse has been unemployed for the last 14 months. And 15 months ago, I lost my full-time job and had to immediately pivot to freelancing to support us both.

It’s cool! We’re good! We are millennials forged in the fires of multiple once-in-a-lifetime economic disasters. We’re Frugal and Good With Money and totally unsurprised to find ourselves yet again scraping our way up from the bottom.

… is what I would’ve told you nine, or even six months ago.

But now, more than a year into being a single-income household, cracks are starting to show in our optimism. My husband, a college-educated, highly talented, experienced worker, has applied to more than 300 jobs. He made it to the interview stage of 10 of those. He made it to the final interview for 5 jobs. And he has yet to receive a single job offer. (Completely unrelated, uh… join our Patreon!)

He’s not alone. Not being alone is part of the problem. Millions of people are going through the same struggle right now, flooding the job market with too much competition for too few job openings.

We got a message from a follower who goes by Cloud Structures that read,

“I did everything ‘right’: I went to a great school, did all the internships, worked hard, and… nothing. I’ve applied to hundreds and hundreds of jobs in the past few years. I’ve gotten career coaching, gotten certifications, networked, and chatted, and schmoozed. I feel insane.“

I really don’t blame them for feeling insane. It’s hard out there for a jobseeker! This whole process has made my spouse and all my unemployed friends (of whom there are disturbingly many at the moment) feel completely worthless, unemployable, and disrespected.

My husband has been ghosted by companies and recruiters alike. He’s received form rejection letters for applications when he was perfectly, 100% qualified, without even a screening interview.

I don’t think it’s dramatic to say that we’re currently experiencing an epidemic of unemployment during one of the worst job markets in a century. So today I’m gonna roll up my sleeves and unpack just why that is.

Live from EconoMe… It’s the Game of Life!

May 19, 2026May 23, 2026 Jess Fickett ("Piggy") Leave a comment

A few months ago, your humble Bitches went on the road to beautiful, exotic Cincinnati, where we took the stage at the EconoMe conference to do that thing we do.

As dedicated citizens of Bitch Nation remember, we last performed at EconoMe in 2021. At that time we delivered a Very Serious Main Stage Presentation titled “Forged in the FIRE of Financial Fuckups.” You can watch it on YouTube—our moms think it’s great!

But this time, EconoMe founder, coordinator, marketing director, secretary, and janitor Diania Merriam told us “I’m so, so tired please just do something where I don’t have to be involved.”

Would she come to regret those words? You be the judge! For we ended up recording a LIVE episode of the Bitches Get Riches podcast, complete with special guest, audience participation, and a dedicated team of Ohio’s finest bartenders. You can listen wherever fine podcasts are streamed, as well as on our YouTube channel.

We Should All Learn How to Be a Rich Old Lady: An Interview with Amanda Holden

March 19, 2026March 19, 2026 Jess Fickett ("Piggy") 1 Comment

You guys… I have a new favorite book.

Whether you know her from her Invested Development course, her original Dumpster Dog Blog, the many times we’ve quoted her investing know-how here on Bitches Get Riches Dot Com, or her activism against the genocide in Gaza, our dear friend and Amanda Holden is a force to be reckoned with. Which is why when we heard she was publishing her very first book, I was all…

Be Your Own Hype Man at Work by Writing a Brag Sheet

February 24, 2026February 24, 2026 Jess Fickett ("Piggy") 1 Comment

If you’re angling for a promotion or a new job, the best way to showcase your accomplishments and make a case for your worth is by writing a brag sheet.

“Brag sheet?” cry you. “But I am a mindful, demure, and humble team player! How could I ever do anything so gauche and uncouth as bragging??? That would make me appear pompous, full of myself, unworthy of respect or further responsibilities! Why, I would rather languish in an underpaid and overworked position for eternity than to so debase myself by bragging!”

Of course you have something to brag about! Even if it is the ethnic cleansing of the Romani from Paris in the 15th century!

Yes, the operative word in “brag sheet” has a negative connotation. And as much as we all admire humility, when it comes to getting ahead in this cutthroat capitalist job market, you need to banish the idea of humility from your mind. Humble people toil away in obscurity. Braggarts get promotions.

Which is why today we’re going to talk about how to effectively brag your way to the top… with a brag sheet!

Inside the Cartoonishly Evil World of Private Equity

December 16, 2025July 31, 2026 Jess Fickett ("Piggy") 7 Comments

Today’s topic is going to make you feel insane. Like you’re literally losing your mind. But I promise we’re not making it all up.

If, as you’re reading along, you find yourself going back over a sentence four or five times just thinking, “that can’t possibly be right,” or even “that has to be a typo, she clearly meant to say something else”… then congrats! You’ve read everything correctly!

Your ability to actually absorb the information I’m about to impart is contingent upon your Mindhunter-like ability to step into the head of a coldblooded psychopath. So c’mon, Clarice, let’s go!

Because of course, today we’re finally getting around to telling you about private equity.

In researching for this article, I read three very helpful books:

Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America by Brendan Ballou
These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs and Wrecks America by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner
Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream by Megan Greenwell

Using words like “plunder” and “pillage” when it comes to private equity is pretty apt. For like the viking hordes of old, contemporary private equity plunderers swoop in to take what they want to enrich themselves and leaving what’s left to crumble and burn.

I highly recommend these books if you want a more in-depth explanation of the ills of private equity, leveraged buyouts, and unregulated capitalist practices. This here is an overview. An amuse-bouche of kleptocratic insanity. By contrast, the authors of these books do a much better job than me of not sounding like unhinged weirdos while they present the results of years of rigorous journalistic inquiry.

Just wanted to establish my sources so you know I’m not making this shit up.

I really wish I were.

Season 5, Episode 2: “How Do I Survive and Thrive on My First Ever Business Trip?”

October 22, 2025July 31, 2026 Jess Fickett ("Piggy") 4 Comments

I will never forget the all-consuming rush of panic I felt when my credit card was declined on my second ever business trip.

I was 23 years old and making $23,000 a year. The company I worked for required that employees pay for business trip travel expenses upfront and submit receipts for reimbursements. Which, for a recent college grad making a laughably small salary was, in hindsight, wildly unethical. I had one single personal credit card—mostly for emergencies—with a limit of $1,500 because again, I was 23 making $23k. And when I checked in to the hotel for a work conference, the desk clerk discreetly and politely informed me that my card had been declined.

I went to my boss (who had no trouble checking in) to ask what I should do and his advice was “Put it on a different credit card.”

Sir. Sir.

Today we’re talking about traveling for work: How to not just survive, but thrive on a business trip. Because man, I really wish someone had given me this advice before I found myself frantically calling my credit card company to raise my credit limit in a random hotel lobby in Sacramento. If I can spare you all the indignities I endured while navigating my first business trip, then I will have passed the test, diminish, and go into the West!

FDIC Insured Banking Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means: The Truth About Securing Your Savings

September 23, 2025September 23, 2025 Jess Fickett ("Piggy") 10 Comments

Today we’re going to talk about a government agency you’ve probably never thought about much before: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. But first, a little family history.

My grandparents went through it.

My grandmother endured a childhood in fascist Italy during World War II. At 12, she passed Nazi soldiers carrying supplies for the Italian resistance in her bike basket. She nearly starved on a diet of yogurt, carrots, and eggs, and she saw her neighbors murdered in the street.

When she grew up she met an American soldier on leave in Rome—my grandfather. He was a light-skinned mixed race man who grew up poor in the deep South. When he was 18, his teeth were kicked out in a fight when his black school’s football team beat the white school. After the army, he chose to pass as white for the rest of his life.

So you can see why these two were exceedingly cautious about most things. Their lived experiences didn’t exactly breed trust in the wider world!

Even so, they were convinced to invest in the stock market in the 1960s… without fully understanding it. The first time the market hit a major downturn, they watched their investments plummet, panicked, and pulled what was left of their money out of the market. Nonna and Papi swore off investing forever after that.

Instead, they put all of their money in an FDIC-insured bank account. When that account reached the maximum insured amount… they opened another account at another bank. And another. And another.

By the time my grandfather died at age 94, they had saved over a million dollars, scattered across multiple banks. It was a massive headache for my dad and his siblings to run around finding, consolidating, and organizing the accounts to secure elder care for my grandmother.

This little family fable holds an important lesson about money management. So today we’re going to discuss what my darling grandparents got wrong about the FDIC, what they could’ve done differently, and why I don’t blame them at all for the choices they made. Andiamo!

MASTERPOST: Everything You Need To Know About Buying Stuff for Cheap

August 20, 2025July 31, 2026 Jess Fickett ("Piggy") 2 Comments

Friends, we’ve written a lot about consumerism and buying stuff recently. From our five secrets of secondhand shopping to our epic grocery store price comparison investigation… we’ve really belabored the subject.

And who could blame us? With inflation, price-gouging, planned obsolescence, and tariffs making everything from basic necessities to tech more expensive, shopping has been a huge part of our personal finance calculations recently.

But we need to move on. The people demand a robust and variegated content schedule from your humble Bitches! So here is the master list of everything we’ve written on how to buy stuff—frugally, ethically, and with more sense than god gave a grapefruit.

Season 5, Episode 1: “Why Save for Retirement When the World Is on Fire?”

July 30, 2025July 31, 2026 Jess Fickett ("Piggy") 11 Comments

More than a few readers have asked us a variation of this question: “why save for retirement when the world is on fire?” In fact, they’ve asked often enough that we decided to dust off the ol’ podcast and address the doomerism head-on.

We try to keep things light around here. Or rather, we try to lighten up the dark times with a liberal application of 90s pop culture gifs and dick jokes.* For the most part, we’re successful! If we can give you a sensible chuckle or a hearty snort-laugh while you’re reading about the racism and classism inherent in the credit scoring industry, then we consider it a job well done.

But there’s no denying that right now… shit’s bleak.

A handful of our followers have therefore asked us some variation on a concerning theme: If everything’s going to hell in a hand basket, why should I even bother saving for a future retirement that won’t exist?

Like I said: bleak.

We’re happy to have an opportunity to show off our rarely-glimpsed optimistic sides. These times are unprecedented—but they’re also super precedented. History is brimming with excellent guides for surviving turbulent times, and we can learn from them how to brace ourselves and protect what’s important. It’s a conversation worth tuning in for, even if you’re feeling more hopeful about the future.

*Bitches Get Riches: It’s not just dick jokes about money… it’s also money jokes about dicks!