The 2 G’s of Investing: Girls and Grover

Good Morning DINKS! Every day we choose to read personal financial blogs, watch CNN, or talk with our friends about money in hopes of learning about personal finance.  Today we are going to get great financial advice from two (possibly) unlikely sources.  The Globe and Mail advises that if we want to be rich we should learn to invest like a girl.  CNN Money says that we can learn a lot about money basics from Grover on Sesame Street.

Here are some quick tips to help you invest with a Girly flare and a la Grover style:

Invest Like a Girl

Don’t be Emotional. Investing is not about our ego or winning.  This is often the problem with male investors; they think that investing a game they have to win. Make one move, one investment purchase and ride it out over the long term.  Successful Investing is not a series of short term moves.

Stay Invested For The Long Term.  Women are into commitment, we are into long term relationships whether it is with our retirement savings account or with our husbands.  We are in it for the long term through both the ups and downs, richer or poorer. It is important to commit to the long term when investing.

Research Your Investments Before You Buy.  Everyone may make impulse purchases but men make them more than women.  Women (usually) take our time to research and learn about a product before we choose to buy it, whether that product is a razor, a new shampoo, or an investment.

Be Slow and Take Your Time. Women (usually) never rush into anything; we leave that for the menJ. The Globe and Mail advises that we should start slowly and get used to our Online Brokerage Platform before we start actively trading.  Don’t rush into anything especially major purchases and investments.

Just Buy What You Like. I am a living example of this rule.  If I find a shirt I like, if it fits me well, and if the price is right, I will buy it in 3 different colours.  The same rule applies for our investments.  If we like a company we should invest in that company. We should buy stocks of companies whose products we use and recommend to our friends.

Invest Like Grover

Money is not about Addition, it’s about Sense.  Personal finance is not about having money; it’s about what we do with our money. Everyone earns a different amount of money, and everyone has different needs for their money.  When we are deciding how to spend our money common sense must take precedent over dollars and cents.  It’s not about the amount of money we have; it’s about how we use it, and how we invest it.  Successful personal finance is about quality over quantity, and quality of life is different for everyone.

Earn Money and Save Our Money. We may not be able to afford everything that we want in life, but if we work hard we can choose to have nice things.  A strong work ethic and a commitment to learning are the basics of a good financial education.

It is Important to Budget. Our personal budget should be divided into three categories…Saving, Spending, and Sharing.  We can further break down these 3 main categories into smaller sub categories for a more detailed budget.  Some financial professionals work with at 40, 40, 20 budget; this means that we should equally save and spend 40% of our income and we should share 20% of our monthly after tax income.

Depending on our financial life stage the amount of money that we can save or spend will vary.  If we just purchased our first home and are still paying off our student loans we will be spending more than we save.  However as we get older and our debts get paid off, we can afford to save a little more and spend a little less. Sharing 20% of our salary can be different for everyone.  As DINKS the percentage of our salary that we share can be allocated to joint expenses with our spouse, or it can be donated to various charities.

(Photo by Jim Brayton)