Who's Counting

According to a recent blog on fortune.com, Sharon Meers is.Meers co-wrote a book called Getting to 50/50. Lots of fascinating stats, but some of the most intriguing revolved around the male-female balance of work at home. Meers mentioned that when couples share housework, the risk of divorce drops.Divorce risk drops sharply when the wife has a job. The ideal set-up is when the man earns 60% of the income and does 40% of the housework. That’s when...

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Everyday Money

If you haven’t yet managed to save for your retirement you could be facing an uphill battle when it comes to your financial future. Many of us don’t feel able to save for retirement until we have our kids off our hands and our mortgages either paid off or at a manageable level. Don’t ever think it is too late to start, there are still ways you can achieve a comfortable retirement.No matter how little working time you have left you should be investing....

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Finance and Investments

Most of us have heard the saying ‘it’s time in the market, not timing the market that’s important’. During the turbulent times of 2008 and early 2009, however, it was difficult to believe.When the global share markets (as measured by the Morgan Stanley Capital Index) fell by 54% from the peak in 2007 to their nadir this year, everything looked, sounded and felt extremely gloomy. We didn’t know which overseas bank was going to fail next and unprecedented...

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Womenomics

Some excerpts from a Women on Boards Report:BETTER COMPANY PERFORMANCEInternational research shows a positive correlation between women in leadership and business performance.The Catalyst report (The Bottom Line: Corporate performance and women’s representation on boards, 2007) found that in all measures the companies with the most women board members outperformed those with the least.CRITICAL MASSWhile women can add value to boards individually,...

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Why?

Why is there still a gender gap when it comes to earnings? We are no longer expected to be nurses, teachers and social workers but are now accountants, doctors, lawyers – and financial planners. We now hold close to 50% of the available jobs, but according to a report from the States, during the last recession 78% of the jobs lost were held by men. Why? Because women are cheap; we earn around 77-80 cents to every dollar earned by men. Women returning...

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Musings and Amusings

I have often amused myself by musing upon the GFC (Great Financial Crisis). Musing on how events would have unfolded if there was less testosterone driving our financial markets. I am not particularly original, many pundits have elaborated on this theme.An article on the money making activities in Sicily caught my eye. It appears that the Mafia charges a 10% levy on all businesses. Not surprisingly a group called Addiopizzo (goodbye pizzo – a reference...

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