Activate Your Money

CHAPTER 14Gather Your Friends: Get Together for Fun and Profit

Taking control of your money to invest with confidence and in alignment with your values is a lot more fun when you learn alongside other women. Your skills develop faster with less effort, and you are more likely to see success across your entire portfolio. You'll also be part of a time-honored tradition that goes back more than 100 years.

Investment clubs got their start in the early 1900s. Although female-only clubs were part of that early movement, they got their biggest boost in 1991 when the Beardstown Ladies published their bestselling book, Common-Sense Investment Guide: How We Beat the Stock Market—and How You Can, Too. Their call to action spawned thousands of female-led investment clubs all over the country. I know because I was in one.

The investment clubs that were formulated along the Beardstown Ladies' model aggregated capital from their members and collectively invested that money into well-researched stocks. The investment strategy worked in its day, but times have changed. The investment approach that was popular then—a focus on individual stocks—is no longer the only, or even the best, approach to constructing an investment portfolio today. There are many more opportunities in the market now, and successful investors need to know more. As women, we also want to ensure our money grows our wealth and aligns with our values—a concept that was in its infancy when the Beardstown Ladies were meeting. ...