Finance & Investments

One of the interesting points fleshed out in a report released recently by Deloitte on the future of the financial advice industry is the curious mismatch between growing demand for financial advice and increased levels of distrust in the community toward advisers. The NZ experience is little different in my experience. Baby boomers dominate the industry’s customer segment, with Australians aged over 55 accounting for two-thirds of all financial...

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Everyday Money

Being in debt can be a stressful experience. 1.    Make a conscious decision to stop borrowing money If you want to get out of debt fast, you have to stop using debt to fund your lifestyle. This means no more financing furniture, no more signing up for credit cards. 2.    Establish a starter Emergency Fund of $1000 You might be wondering, ‘Why is having an emergency fund important’? Well, if you don’t have any...

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Musings & Amusings

What Do Millionaires Know That We Don’t? 5 Surprising Facts About Millionaires Most Millionaires Don't Feel Rich When Spectrem researchers asked people with a net worth between $1 million and $5 million to put themselves on a sliding scale ranging from 0 (poor) to 100 (wealthy), the average response was 63.91 — or just above the middle. In reality, those with at least $1 million are wealthier than about 92 percent of American...

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Who's Counting?

1. "Set out to make a ton of money, and feel perfectly OK about doing that." - Cindy Gallop 2. "Negotiate. Accepting the first offer they make puts you in a weak position from the beginning." - Kate Gardiner 3. "1. Watch the episode of Sex and the City in which Carrie faces the reality of her finances. 2. Repent." - Ruth Ann Harnisch 4. "Budgets help you claim back your power." - Chrysula Winegar 5. " Don't hoard revenue." - Susan McPherson 6....

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Why?

Is This Where You Thought You’d Be? Take the 10-Year Test So much of what we’re fed (be it in the self-help, career or otherwise success-oriented literature) tells us to fixate on the future: Set goals, draw up vision boards; picture yourself five, 10, 20 years from now. In other words, keep your eye on the horizon. There’s an optimism to that, and a danger, too — the temptation to assume that things will be better “when,” or simply better...

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Finance & Investments

Understanding Behavioral Aspects of Financial Planning and Investing People often view financial planning and investing as overwhelming, intimidating, and scary, especially if they must tackle these tasks on their own. They are fearful of making costly mistakes that could influence both their present and future financial well-being. Their trepidation often...

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Womenomics

In a remarkable shift from even a decade ago, the majority of working wives will out-earn their husbands in the next generation. In the majority of U.S. metro areas, single women with no children in their 20s outearned their male peers. In Dallas, for example, a 20-something woman makes $1.18 to a man's $1.  Women dominate today’s colleges and professional schools--for every two men who will receive a B.A. this year, three women will do...

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Who's Counting?

Lessons from Secret Millionaires Eugenia Dodson grew up on a Minnesota farm, the daughter of poor Swedish immigrants. Her childhood poverty affected her so profoundly that even in her old age, she refused to replace a stove with only one working burner — even though by then she was worth tens of millions of dollars. Dodson, who left nearly $36 million to the University of Miami when she died in 2005 at age 100, is just one of many secretly...

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Womenomics

Women in business is not a 21st invention - we need to celebrate those who came before us. For example: Madame Clicquot Ponsardin The first woman to run a champagne house — and she did a damn good job. Madame Clicquot, as she later became known, fashioned a new way of handling champagne that allowed the company to mass produce on a whole new level. A savvy businesswoman. Yes, the woman REINVENTED rosé. Rebecca Lukens The quintessential...

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Musings & Amusings

Have just read the Athena Doctrine. Looking forward to observing wisdom and fairness from our business leaders and governments. We live in a world that’s increasingly social, interdependent and transparent. And in this world, feminine values are ascendant. As John Gerzema and Michael D’Antonio’s proprietary survey of 64,000 people around the world shows, traditionally feminine leadership and values are now more popular than the macho paradigm...

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Why?

Why are Iranian hard-liners once again setting their sights on women? Some 2,000 Iranian women and men demonstrated last week  in the city of Isfahan, and others gathered before the parliament building in Tehran, to protest a series of acid attacks on women and to demand government action. The acid attacks, which have resulted in blindness, facial disfigurement and at least one death, coincided with the introduction...

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Everyday Money

7 Warning Signs You're in Financial Trouble You Have No Idea How Much Money Is in the Bank The signs: You use your debit card freely and thoughtlessly, assuming you have money in the bank — but you’re not always right. You rack up overdraft fees on a regular basis.  The problem: Living in La La Land will land you in Never Never Land — as in never going to achieve your financial goals. Besides, you are potentially wasting...

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Finances & Investments

Emotions and finances seem like oil and water. We logically write out a budget and make plans and then our emotions (such as fear, guilt, shame, etc.) can take over and cause us to stray. It makes many of us want to throw in the towel. We blame and berate ourselves. Stop the Blame Game Money may be concrete but it can wreak havoc on our emotions. People feel their money reflects their self-worth. If we manage our money well, we feel we’ll be...

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