Eleanor Blayney - Womens Worth: Finding Your Financial Confidence

Finding Your Financial Confidence

Direction$, LLC,
McLean, VA

Copyright 2010, Eleanor Blayney

All rights reserved. No part of this book may bereproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronicor mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by anyinformation storage and retrieval system without the prior writtenpermission of the author, except for the inclusion of briefquotations in critical reviews and certain other non-commercialuses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, contactthe author in writing at the address below.

ISBN 978-09843618-3-0

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Blayney, Eleanor.

Womens worth: finding your financial confidence /Eleanor Blayney.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-9843618-3-0

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. WomenFinance, Personal. 2. Finance, Personal. 3.Investments. 4. Financial security. I. Title.

HG179 .B54 2010

332/.024dc22 2009913073

Direction$, LLC

7230 Aynsley Lane

McLean, VA 22092

.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoymentonly. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.If you would like to share this book with another person, pleasepurchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Ifyou're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was notpurchased for your use only, then you should return toSmashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respectingthe hard work of this author.

I think I am supposed to knowthis stuff...from conversations with women everywhere, talkingabout personal finance

The content of this book is intended forinformational purposes only and should not be construed asinvestment advice. Developing an investment plan and strategyrequires the consideration of a number of factors, including, butnot limited to, the investors investment goals, personal financialcircumstances, and willingness to bear risk. Therefore, you shouldnot make any investment decision without first consulting yourpersonal financial advisor and conducting your own research and duediligence. Neither the author nor publisher makes any guarantee orother promise as to any results that may be obtained from using thestrategies described herein, and shall bear no liability in theevent that any information, commentary, analysis, opinions, and/orrecommendations set forth herein prove to be inaccurate, incompleteor unreliable, or result in any investment or other losses.

Eleanor combines two areas that can change thefiscal well-being of America and Americas families: women becomingfinancially competent, and creating womens circle gatherings as away to talk, learn, and share about money. Womens Worthstands out because of Eleanors passion about womens financialwell-being, her empathy, and her professional mastery of financialplanning. The journey to financial maturity is a worthy path andthis book will serve as a compassionate guide, inspiration, andmap.

Elizabeth Jetton, CFP
Partner, RTD Financial Advisors
Past President, The Financial Planning Association

In her very readable and engaging book, EleanorBlayney connects all the dots between how women are unique from menin our orientation to money, and how we need to reorient ourselvesto assure our financial futures and our ability to exercise ourfull power as women.

Dianne Chasen Lipsey
President, Sewall Belmont House and Museum

While there havebeen many books written to help women with their investing andfinancial needs, not one of them, in my opinion, comes close tocutting through the BS and saying it like it really is forus girls. Ive been in the investment advisory business for 20years and always knew there was a better way to work with women,but didnt have the time or clear thinking until now to focus onhow to articulate it. Eleanor articulates this better way as wellas anyone could, and Im so glad its been done. I am quite surewomen investors and advisors will get a ton out of this book.

Margie Carpenter, CFP, CIMA
Principal, Bell Tower Advisors

With Womens Worth, Eleanor gives readers anextraordinarily helpful guide. She combines the soft and hard sidesof making important financial decisions into a practical referencethat should have a long and useful life.

Mark Tibergien
CEO, Pershing Advisor Solutions

Eleanor Blayney is a wonderful thinker and a greatwriter. With Womens Worth, she shows she understands thenew financial realities for women.

Deborah Nixon, Ph.D.
Founder, Trust Learning Solutions

Preface

Introduction: Women Ask forDirections

Chapter 1: Women DiscussHow and WhyOur Conversation about Personal Finance Needs to BeDifferent

Chapter 2: Women Have Beliefs aboutMoney

Chapter 3: Women HaveWorth

Chapter 4: Women WorkMaximizingYour Human Capital

Chapter 5: WomenSpend

Chapter 6: WomenInvest

Chapter 7: Women PlanRetirement andthe New Reality

Chapter 8: Women HaveWills

Chapter 9: WomenInspire

Womens Words: A Female-friendlyGlossary of Financial Terms

Works Cited

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Index

When I was born, almost everyone in my family hopedfor and expected a boy. I was the last child after a trio of girls,and for nine months friends and family had their bets on a boy.Alas, my birth made it four of a kind.

Nevertheless, my father was joyful upon my arrival.Family legend has it that when our housekeeper offered him hercondolences upon his return from the hospital, he fired her. Heloved his girls.

My father made us proud of our female identity. Heused to love to tell stories about his many pranks and adventuresas a boy, but would always start the same way: When I was a littlegirl... I would giggle and scold him: Oh Daddy, you were never agirl! But listening to his stories, I decided that being a girlmust be so special that even a grown man wished he were one.

My father taught me that, as a girl, I could bestrong and independent. After I finished high school he wanted meto apply to Yale the first year that that university beganaccepting women undergraduates. I was flattered by his confidence,but attended Mount Holyoke College instead, one of this countrysfirst all-womens institutions of higher learning. I went on tocomplete graduate school at one of the first all-womens collegesin the United KingdomGirton College, University of Cambridge. Atthese schools I never had to worry about being too smart or askingdumb questions. As a result, I became convinced of the power oflearning with and from women.

About twenty years later I found myself the solefemale partner in a four-principal financial planning firm. Weworked hard and built a successful practice that managed over abillion dollars in assets for hundreds of clients. Our businessgrew primarily by referrals, and I began to see a pattern in theprospects calling and asking for me. For the most part, they werewomen, referred by other women. What I had experienced in collegeand graduate school was repeating itself in my business: whentrying to master technically complex subjects, such as finance andhandling money, women learn best when talking to other women.