Add Money to Your Life’s Toolbox

May 9, 2012 By 1 Comment
Handful of Paper Money

Forbes magazine published an article on the Top Five Money Mistakes Women Make. The first mistake given is being emotional about money. I believe that this trait ties back to the fact that money provides for our most basic needs of foods and shelter. After all, without this, we cannot even live for long. It is interesting that physical money is actually paper, and paper has little value. Once we add those familiar “dollar green” graphics, that paper takes on a life of its own triggering emotions ranging from security to fear or greed. One step to overcome the mistake of being … [Read more...]

A Gift for Yourself

December 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

What does it take to live a life of financial empowerment? There are three steps you must take that will allow you to confidently oversee management of your investments. Once you have mastered these three areas, you’ll be ready for most anything life throws you, at least in the financial arena. Commit to giving this gift to yourself in 2011: knowledge for financial empowerment. The three things you must know are: How much money you have Where your money is and how it is invested, or how to invest it if it is not already invested How to measure the performance of any financial advisor or … [Read more...]

Is your Financial Advisor Legally Obligated to Your Best Interests?

August 10, 2010 By 1 Comment

Does your financial advisor have a fiduciary responsibility to you? This is one of the most important questions that you should ask anyone that you’re thinking of hiring to manage your money, yet many investors don’t understand just what this means. I hope you'll take a minute to read a Forbes article that explains more about this important concept that every financial woman should understand and embrace. A fiduciary responsibility legally obligates a financial advisor to put a client’s best interest first in making investment decisions for that client. Many investors assume that a … [Read more...]

What is Screaming Bargain Now?

July 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Financial women are always aware of the big picture when it comes to their managing their money. They notice the overall trends and keep an eye on what is happening. One important aspect of this is having an awareness of interest rates. This is easy, because you see interest rates advertised for credit cards, mortgages and CD’s everywhere. As an overall part of your money management, you want to make sure that you take advantage of trends, including interest rate trends. For example, you wouldn’t want to be paying 10% on a mortgage and earning 3% on extra saved capital. There is a good … [Read more...]

Speaking of Global Investing

July 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

In follow up to my blog last week about global investing, I ran across this article from Forbes on a the Tweety, Browne Global Value Fund that has beaten the MSCI index by 5% average over the past 17 years. They buy undervalued securities, and it looks like their strategy has paid off. The MSCI index is made up of a group of companies that represent a market, in this case, the developed markets of Europe, Australasia and the Far East. By comparing the fund performance against the MSCI index, you are able to have better insight into their performance. There are many other factors to look at … [Read more...]

The IRS has a heart after all!

May 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

For personal investors, the wonderful upside of tax free accumulation of wealth in an IRA is offset by the disadvantage of not having access to the money.  You usually cannot withdraw savings from an IRA without a penalty, but like most rules, there are exceptions. This article from Forbes by Eric Fox points out five such circumstances. The article states: The conventional wisdom among most Americans is that money in an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) is locked up until age 59.5, and can't be withdrawn without paying taxes and a 10% penalty on early distributions. The reality is that … [Read more...]

Magazines to Further Your Investment Knowledge

November 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Today I would like to write about some of my favorite magazines to read in order to further your investment knowledge. A couple of my favorites are Forbes and Smart Money. Forbes tends to have informative articles on investing, as well as tax and estate planning. Their annual mutual fund for both open and closed end funds is excellent. They also provide some interesting lifestyle articles. In Smart Money some of my favorite reads are articles such as families retiring early and living off of their investments, angel investing, lifestyle enhancement (which is what investing is really … [Read more...]