The Coffeehouse Investor's Ground Rules

3Women, Winning in Wealth

 

I'm not buying it.

Only 24 percent of women are confident in their investing skills?¹ Not in my world and not in yours. Try 100 percent. You can have this investing thing down cold because the two things that matter most are the checkbook and common sense.

In the past, you have probably listened to the other half proclaim, “I am smarter than you” in your search for investment advice. Not anymore. From here on out, the narrative is changed. You are smarter than them with your checkbook and common sense.

As Natalie, Lisa, Denise, and Tina reveal later in this chapter, whether you are 35, 23, 45, or 90, your checkbook and common sense are what count for a life of wealth and happiness.

First, meet Natalie. For the past 10 years, I have urged Natalie, a single mother of two teenagers, to establish and contribute to an IRA. Every time I connected with her, the response was always, “I don't understand the stock market and I don't want to lose money in it.” I wondered, at times, if that was simply a deflection caused by life getting in the way. Like most mothers, her children came first, and only then did she take care of herself.

In 2018, Natalie reached out to me. Her workplace had a new retirement plan and she wanted to get the employer's match. I think she figured out that if she didn't start saving for retirement, there wasn't going to be anything ...