Wisdom of Rich Dad

Women need to get smarter about their money says Nicole Pederson Mckinnon editor of Smart Investor Magazine.

Should couple share financial responsibility?

Women have a tendency to be labeled as worrywarts, and a recent financial survey seems to support that view. When it comes to financial stress, women are three times more likely to feel overwhelmed by their situations than men, according to Financial Finesse, which conducted the survey.

According to the survey, 9% of women reported feeling “overwhelming financial stress,” compared to just 3% of men. And at the opposite end of the spectrum, 17% of men claim to be living a carefree life with no financial stress at all, compared to 10% of women.

The report notes, however, that just because respondents checked off the “no financial stress” box doesn’t mean they’re not in financial danger. A Financial Wellness Assessment of survey respondents found that, in some cases, these stress-free respondents actually were engaging in risky behavior such as failing to save enough for retirement or not adequately protecting their wealth. In essense, some of the “no financial stress” folks were oblivious to their overall situations, and should be more stressed than they are.

Read the rest of this entry »

~ Kim Kiyosaki ~

Before you turn over your down payment on an investment property or write a check for $2,000 in stocks, it’s a good idea to know what exactly you’re investing for. It surprises me how many people, many of whom have already purchased investments, don’t understand this one basic concept of investing. If you learn this single fundamental, you’ll be ahead of the game.

Two Things Count
With any investment, there are generally two things you invest for: capital gains or cash flow.

Capital gains is the profit you make on the sale of an investment. For example, you buy a house for $100,000. You put a little money into fixing up the property. You then sell the property for $150,000. Your profit on that sale is called capital gains. The same applies to stocks. You purchase shares of a stock at $25 per share. The stock price goes to $35 per share. Your profit when you sell is your capital gains. A capital gain is only realized when you actually sell the investment. Of course, if you sell the investment and lose money, you have a capital loss.

Cash flow is money that comes in on a regular basis from an investment you hold on to. Let’s go back to that $100,000 house. Instead of fixing it up and selling it, you fix it up and rent it out for $1,000 per month. Each month you collect your rent and pay the expenses, such as repairs, taxes and insurance, and the mortgage. If you’ve managed the property well, at the end of each month you’ll have a profit–or positive cash flow–that goes into your pocket. Some stocks deliver cash flow in the form of dividends. Or maybe you’ve invested in a friend’s startup and she agrees to pay you 12 percent per year on the money you invested with her. That’s also cash flow.

Read the rest of this entry »

CANNES, France — Exploring the intersection of celebrity, glamor and personal finance is the raison d’etre for The Price of Fame — so who better than Aishwarya Rai as a subject? The Bollywood actress and model has $35 million to her name, according to celebritynetworth.com, and 60 Minutes dubbed her the most beautiful woman in the world.

TPOF caught up with Rai, 37, at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday to discuss money. After some gentle encouragement, Rai revealed that the most important financial advice she has learned is to adapt her expectations for each project, from low-budget to blockbuster. “You have to take each film for what it is, rather than having a rule book,” she said. “That’s what we actors do.”

Rai, on the Croisette to promote her new movie, Heroine, operates in a different economic stratosphere than most of us. Her fortune, already considerable when she was a single woman, is even greater now that she’s married to Bollywood hero Abhishek Bachchan, from India’s premier acting family. Still, TPOF couldn’t resist asking whether she was a saver or a splurger.

“I’m realistic and I’m practical,” Rai replied.

Maybe her middle-class upbringing is still an influence. Rai had no inkling that she wanted to be part of show business as a child. She was on track to receive an architectural degree until she entered the Miss World Pageant on a whim at age 21 and won. Film and modeling offers poured in, and she rapidly rose to become the most recognizable face of Indian cinema. She has appeared in 44 films, according to IMDB. Rai is best known stateside as the face of L’Oreal cosmetics and for her role in 2009′s The Pink Panther 2 and 2004′s Bride and Prejudice. In Heroine, she will play close to type as an Indian cinema icon who endures ups and downs. But she insists the movie is not autobiographical.

While the fun and glitz of Cannes help create a “cinema village” built on the love of movies, she said, she never forgets why she’s here. “This an industry.”

If you walked into the average bookstore, you’d think that women rule the roost when it comes to personal finance. From Suze Orman’s now-classic Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny to the more recent (and more colorfully titled) Bitches on a Budget, there’s no shortage of do-it-yourself financial advice tailored to women.

Apparently, though, when women make the momentous move from self-help to seeking professional advice about investing and retirement, things go rapidly downhill. A recent study by the Boston Consulting Group revealed that women perceived themselves as receiving wealth management services at a level of quality that is inferior to that received by their male counterparts.

According to the study, women are the key decision-makers when it comes to 27% of the wealth worldwide: that’s $20 trillion! But despite the massive chunk of power they wield, 55% of the women surveyed in the study said they felt their wealth manager could do a better job of advising them. Almost a quarter of the respondents said private banks needed “significant improvement” in the services they offer to women.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rich Woman, Kim Kiyosaki, talks about the different people and personalities you need to be aware of in today’s world. This quadrant will help bring awareness, and possibly, provide a strategy when talking to the different people who fall within this quadrant.