You are invited to join the

Financially Smitten

Monthly Book Salon!

A basic tenet of creating a wonderful relationship with money is to respect and appreciate it consistently. One simple way to do this is to make a commitment to read at least one book about money a month. Financially Smitten has made it easy and fun to do this with the Monthly Book Salon!

Each month we will read a book on money psychology, relationship with money, or personal finance and gather virtually on a conference line to explore the teachings. The Book Salons are lead by financial therapist and money coach Lora Sasiela. These guided discussions will:

• highlight the most powerful take-aways from each book
• provide an opportunity for Salon members to share their thoughts and reactions
• broaden your knowledge base of the nuances and dynamics inherent in managing a successful relationship with money
• help you apply this new knowledge to improve YOUR relationship with money

Each month will be a lively and educational discussion! Please join us!

Leverage the power of accountability and
make the commitment to your financial life
by signing up today!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is NO FEE to join the monthly conversations,
but you will need to purchase the books or borrow them from the library.

Clicking on the image of the book below will direct you to Amazon.com
where you will find a synopsis of the book
and be able to purchase it.

Wednesday November 10th @ 1pm EST
Money is My Friend
by Phil Laut

Sign Me Up!

Sign Me Up!

You are invited to join the

 Financially Smitten

Monthly Book Salon!

A basic tenet of creating a wonderful relationship with money is to respect and appreciate it consistently. One simple way to do this is to make a commitment to read at least one book about money a month. Financially Smitten has made it easy and fun to do this with the Monthly Book Salon!

Each month we will read a book on money psychology, relationship with money, or personal finance and gather virtually on a conference line to explore the teachings. The Book Salons are lead by financial therapist and money coach Lora Sasiela. These guided discussions will:

• highlight the most powerful take-aways from each book
• provide an opportunity for Salon members to share their thoughts and reactions
• broaden your knowledge base of the nuances and dynamics inherent in managing a successful relationship with money
• help you apply this new knowledge to improve YOUR relationship with money

Each month will be a lively and educational discussion! Please join us!

Leverage the power of accountability and
make the commitment to your financial life
by signing up today!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is NO FEE to join the monthly conversations,
but you will need to purchase the books or borrow them from the library.

Clicking on the image of the book below will direct you to Amazon.com
where you will find a synopsis of the book
and be able to purchase it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday October 13th @ 1pm EST
The Soul of Money
by Lynne Twist

Sign Me Up!

You are invited to join the

 Financially Smitten

Monthly Book Salon!

A basic tenet of creating a wonderful relationship with money is to respect and appreciate it consistently. One simple way to do this is to make a commitment to read at least one book about money a month. Financially Smitten has made it easy and fun to do this with the Monthly Book Salon!

Each month we will read a book on money psychology, relationship with money, or personal finance and gather virtually on a conference line to explore the teachings. The Book Salons are lead by financial therapist and money coach Lora Sasiela. These guided discussions will:

• highlight the most powerful take-aways from each book
• provide an opportunity for Salon members to share their thoughts and reactions
• broaden your knowledge base of the nuances and dynamics inherent in managing a successful relationship with money
• help you apply this new knowledge to improve YOUR relationship with money

Each month will be a lively and educational discussion! Please join us!

Leverage the power of accountability and
make the commitment to your financial life
by signing up today!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is NO FEE to join the monthly conversations,
but you will need to purchase the books or borrow them from the library.

Clicking on the image of the book below will direct you to Amazon.com
where you will find a synopsis of the book
and be able to purchase it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday September 8th @ 1pm EST

Money and the Meaning of Life
by Jacob Needleman

Sign Me Up!

“In business, you don’t get what you deserve,
you get what you negotiate.”
~ Chester L. Karras

I recently wrote an article about a holistic concept of net worth and in the book, Women’s Worth: Finding Your Financial Confidence, author and certified financial planner Eleanor Blayney devotes a complete [excellent] chapter on ‘human capital.” She states: “…our most valuable asset…is our ability to turn our intelligence, education, skills, and experience into income through work.” She goes on to point out that significant wealth is seldom the result of investments in stocks, bonds, and other traditional assets. Rather, our human capital is the path to wealth building.

Blayney shares an illuminating worksheet that calculates the lifetime value of YOUR earnings and shows how things such as asking for a raise, leaving the work force for three years to parent full-time, or getting retraining impacts the value of human capital over time.

She asserts that “the value of your earnings are every bit as important to grow and manage as your investment accounts.” One way to do this to this is to obtain and sustain a competitive standing in the job market. Blayney shares, “Studies have shown, for example, that a college education can increase lifetime earnings by as much as $1 million.”

However vital keeping yourself re-tooled is, it is trumped by an even more important piece of the equation: “asking for more.” Blayney points out that this is something that men are MUCH more comfortable with. The current wage gap means women earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men in the same job. This may not seem like much, but to put it in perspective, for female college graduates this will result $1.2 million dollars less in earnings over their working life then their male counterparts!

So far, this is my favorite sentence in the book–and may even be one of the most powerful statements I’ve read my whole life:

“I can state with certainty that the investment of time and money spent on improving [negotiation] skills can make women wealthy in a way that simply becoming savvier about investing cannot.”

I hope this is music to some of your ears, because I know how much you ladies dread comprehending your financial portfolios. Now, I’m in no way saying ignore learning about your investments, but it seems to me that there is something super efficient about using negotiation skills to uplevel one’s income. Blayney attests that it is the biggest bang-for-your-buck ROI. AND, negotiating skills can be leveraged in every area of our lives, not simply in our boss’s or client’s office. Think about how beneficial those skills could be in getting your partner to take out the garbage or accompanying you to that chick flick you’re dying to see!

So, ladies, be on the lookout for more information about developing successful negotiation skills because I’m seeing how important this is to rocking your money mojo–and we are going to be on it!

YOUR ACTION STEPS TO FINANCIAL SMITTEN-HOOD:

I’d like you to pull out your Money Journal and write about your response to this article. What images, words, feelings come to mind when you think about “asking for more” and/or negotiating? These are not typically feminine qualities, so I imagine there may be some conflict arising. I’d love to hear your thoughts about this, especially regarding the gender piece. Please share them with me in the comments section below!

I’ve started reading Eleanor Blayneys’ “Women’s Worth: Finding Your Financial Confidence” for August’s Virtual Book Salon and am loving what she has to share. As a Certified Financial Planner who focuses on women’s financial issues and struggles, I’m finding that her book speaks to me. One of the points she makes early on is that is important for us to ‘know our numbers.” She parallels our physical health to our financial health. Most of us know our blood pressure, our cholesterol levels, our weight, etc. Yet, how many of us have stepped on the ‘credit score scale’ or know our net worth, our tax liability, the total of our monthly fixed expenses? Watch Eleanor talk about the importance of knowing our numbers in this short video: