Women are becoming more knowledgeable about finances, becoming more confident managing their own investments and talking more openly about moneywith their kids, colleagues and peers. This, according to new research conducted by Citi's Women & Company.
I recently chatted with Lisa Caputo, president and CEO of Women & Co, and she says that it's about the recession and its aftermath. "Women are ushering in this new era of responsibility. They're stepping into the role of 'Chief Financial Officer' and building quality lives for themselves and their families."
They're going to graduate school. Starting companies. Becoming breadwinners. Even outgrowing the number of men in the workforce -- for the first time in American history. "We're taking the financial lead," says Caputo, "and becoming more empowered."
Here's how you can do it -- at any age:
In Your 20s
Time is on your side - use it to build a solid financial foundation.Start living on a budget, identifying financial goals and putting a plan in motion, and most importantly, setting aside income, says Caputo. Ideally, aim to set aside 15% of your gross salary. Not possible? This money doesn't have to come out of your pocket so it's not be as painful as it seems. For example, say you're single, and making $50,000 a year. If you have just $250 a month of pretax dollars automatically deducted from your paycheck, and deposited in your company's 401K plan, and if your company matches those contributions (50 cents on the dollar up to 6% of your salary), you're already more than halfway there!
In your 30s
Set up an emergency fund (ideally, 6 months worth of living expenses), max out the contributions, and "define your investment strategy and structure a well diversified portfolio," says Caputo.That may require your working with a financial advisor, particularly since you're probably having a tough time budgeting given your new status (married? kids?). You can find one through napfa.org.
In your 40s
You may be juggling the needs of a growing family and aging parents, but don't take a break from retirement savings. And think about protecting your legacy, says Caputo. "We're talking wills, naming guardians for small children, and getting life insurance if you have dependents."
In Your 50s
This is when you want to get serious about crunching the numbers -- specifically, estimating your retirement expenses and your projected income.There are calculators on the web to help you do this. Once you're age 50, you can add an extra $5,500 in catch-up contributions to your 401(k); IRA savers can throw in another $1,000. Take advantage of this. Caputo says you should also rebalance your portfolio, and review your life insurance coverage at this age.
In Your 60s
You're eligible to collect Social Security benefits beginning at age 62 -- the median retirement age -- but if you can wait a few years the payouts will be bigger. In fact, every year you delay drawing Social Security between age 62 and 70 increases your eventual payout by about 8% a year. Just something to think about, says Caputo, who also suggests you go back to budgeting basics as you learn to live on a fixed income, and that you additionally update your estate plans.
One of the big bits of gossip at Bristol between certain British comics professionals was the fate of Insomnia Productions. British independent graphic novel publisher, with books like Cancertown and Burke & Hare on their roster, they’ve been expanding of late. And naturally have been exhibiting at Bristol Comic Expo.
But something happened this weekend. What no one seems to be exactly sure. But harsh words were meant to have been exchanged. Certain people didn’t show up when they were meant to and neither did certainb books. To the extent that people believe the company may be breaking up, or parts sold off. Lots of huddled conversations and behind back briefings, some people feared the worst.
When approached, Crawford Courtts, one of the co-founders and Managing Director of Insomnia Productions replied;
Hi Rich,
Thanks for your email.
When we first started, our ambition was to change how the industry worked and the time has come for us to change again to move away from possible threats and make the most of new opportunities. In particular, we’ve been attempting to adapt to the growth of digital content for example the expansion of our range on the Digital Comics service on the Sony PSP.
As you know all companies have their internal debates but unfortunately, in this case, one of our team made this public and they will be held accountable for their actions.
Yes, we have different visions for the future of the company, but we are moving forward and we will continue to do so.
In particular we are looking forward to the release of Burke and Hare the Movie later in the year, which will no doubt increase the companies exposure and further the case of Graphic Novels as a Medium rather than just a Genre.
The historically accurate theme of the novel and the movie we believe will truly show the strengths and opportunites of graphic novels and hopefully broaden their appeal to a wider market.
I’m told that Creative Director Nic Wilkinson, who had recently moved into the marketing side of the company, will be stepping down for unrelated personal reasons, And while there were some issues getting stock and attendance arranged for this year’s convention, that the publisher is not for the chop, the vultures can stop circling and planned projects will continue.
We’ll be looking to the letterhead for any changes though…
penis enlargement
There are so many articles and blogs addressing the problems of the management of personal finances and provision for retirement, particularly for those living in difficult circumstances such as on a single income, through loss of job, health problems etc.
In regard to investment for retirement, there must be three keys:
decisions on your financial needs for retirement
your changing ability, over a lifetime, to meet those needs; and
the particular choices to be made regarding actual investment for retirement
Nearly all the advice in these types of articles concentrates on the different types and mixes of investments that might be appropriate.
More important perhaps, is the need for basic personal financial management to determine as time goes on, how much is available for investment for retirement; and the lifestyle changes that might be appropriate if these amounts are deemed insufficient.
Most financial management articles concentrate on potential changes to expenditure, all with a view to achieving a better overall balance between the increases and decreases. The only problem with this approach, so far as it goes, is that it is always difficult to keep track of the effects of each change and to be aware of how much of a difference each change makes in the bigger picture. The other thing is what is the best balance? How do you know if all the different aspects of financial responsibility are receiving the proper attention they deserve, not only now, but on a continuing, lifetime basis?
The answer surely is a more systematic approach. What we actually talking about is managing and controlling finances - of a particular type - our domestic or personal finances.
We all probably know that in business, the only way, indeed the legally required way, to manage finances is by the use of accounting. Accounting has evolved over hundreds of years with national and international supervisory authorities ensuring that it best meets the needs of the many different forms of business in place throughout the world.
Surely I am not suggesting that we should all start using accounting for managing home finances? Isn't it much too difficult and time consuming; and help - I do not understand all the terms and techniques!
Well, yes, I am suggesting that we all start to use accounting for managing and controlling our finances, but not quite the sort of accounting that businesses use. The reason is that with appropriate modifications, domestic accounting can be made easy to understand, implement and use. Most important, it can actually produce the information we really need to manage and control our finances, on a continuing basis.
Now well retired, I decided to start using accounting along time ago to manage my own finances. I had learnt a little about accounting through a business correspondence course and much later, decided to try using it for my personal finances. I bought an off-the-shelf accounting package and set to work. I soon realised that it was all very difficult to do and that it didn't actually help very much once I got it set-up. The problem was that the focus was all wrong and the reports didn't relate to day-to-day personal financial transactions.
The business accounting focus, understandably, is all about profits and owner's or shareholder's value. The reports such as the Trading account and Profit & Loss account are designed to track and help maximise these values. Most personal accounting packages are based on business accounting with the problems I encountered, or only address simple features (all very useful as far as they go) such as bank statement reconciliation or budget lists.
Over many years, I evolved a new domestic accounting model. By this, I mean the set of reports and individual accounts needed to implement this new form of accounting, all with a new focus on what I called, Domestic Well-Being (DWB).
As a model, the method is capable of being implemented on off-the shelf personal accounting software packages on a home PC. I initially used the well known Microsoft Money© software package but now prefer a package called Personal Accountz©. The differences relate to alternative accounting architectures embodied in these two products - categorisation versus 'nominal' accounts - one account for each expense category.
DWB Accounting is all about maximising the effect or balance of the decreases compared to the increases, in a way that ensures that appropriate emphasis is given to all of the different categories of each, corresponding to the nature of the financial transactions that characterize domestic life.
What this means is that we have a pre-defined DWB structure for domestic change (the increases and decreases) that goes into successively more detail down this hierarchical structure. From the top level of Basics, Discretionary and Others, the Basics are categorised at the next level in terms of Essentials, Responsibilities and Family Circumstances. Discretionary is sub-categorised as Nice-to-Have, Investment for the Future and Luxuries. At a lower level, Essentials include Utilities, Food and Drink, Clothing, Health and Transport, whilst Nice-to-Have includes Vacation, Leisure and Entertainment, Hobbies, Charities and Timeshare, Mobile home and Caravan, with more and more detail as needed, at successive lower levels.
The model facilitates the bookkeeping which is the means (using individual accounts and/or categories) to enter transactions from bank statements and credit card statements to match the DWB structure; often semi-automated, this typically takes only a couple of hours a month which is trivial compared to the benefits available. Other techniques include naming conventions for the accounts to make it all easy to understand what is going on, in terms of what I call, the Domestic Accounting Equation.
The main tool or benefit of the model is the Domestic Well-Being Statement (DWBS) which is a structured report showing from high, medium to low sub-category levels, the amounts of increases and decreases over any period - a week, month, quarter, year or whatever. From a management and control perspective, at the top level, you can see the proportions of total expenditure between the Basics, Nice-to-Have and Others. A first question is 'are these proportions about right'? At a more detailed level, if the Basics are considered too high, you can then see at progressively lower levels in any of the areas, where there might be scope for planned reductions or increases in certain sub-categories, over future periods. It is all about searching for and achieving the best balance across the out-goings!
Of particular interest in this context is Investment for the Future (IFF); are the amounts sufficient and more important if they are not, where is the scope for increasing this amount? Where are the imbalances and which other subcategory amounts are potentially ripe for change?
The key is visibility. Suddenly, everything is exposed. You can see whether appropriate amounts are being put aside for the future; you can see where dangers might be lurking with potential debt problems; and for those with some existing debt, the management of its reduction is much easier to plan and execute.
Budgeting can set up to plan future expenditure with warnings triggered if spending over the next period approaches pre-set levels in whatever categories or sub-categories are being watched.
For the more adventurous, the model includes new domestic financial ratios for additional control capabilities, as well as numerous graphical displays (a picture speaks a thousand words!).
With a best possible financial balance achieved through maximizing Domestic Well-Being, provision for retirement will be at the fore. Decisions can be made on how best to provide the appropriate amounts for retirement investments and if necessary, change other lifestyle priorities to ensure that the required amounts are made available. Advice will still be needed on the choices and tailoring of investment plans but that is specialized and different from the basic personal financial management required to provide a rock-steady platform for all other financial decisions throughout life.
In the global financial turmoil today, everyone can take advantage of new ideas as a basis for starting to better manage and control their personal finances. DWB Accounting offers the potential for lifestyle improvements and goal achievement since good financial management can point to the need for many other initiatives such as job change, better qualifications, re-location and so on.
In summary, by using accounting for managing and controlling home and personal finances, based on the new Domestic Well-Being accounting model, you will always know in detail, the past and present state of your finances as a proper basis for comparison and control. You will be able to ensure that all aspects of your financial responsibilities are being met through achieving the best possible balance across all of your categories of increases and decreases, based on your own priorities and approach to indebtedness.
All that is demanded is an appropriate sense of responsibility from those in some form of family situation, be it a marriage or partnership, with or without children, or even just a single person. The sooner domestic accounting is underway, the greater the potential for lifetime and continuing benefit. It will take a few months to get things going and to accumulate sufficient figures to start seeing a meaningful basis for gaining and exercising control. Now is the time surely, to find out more about DWB Accounting.
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