March, 2009

ESTATE PLANNIN

Preparing for the Worst

I was on Today this morning talking about how important it is to get your finances in order in case the unexpected happens.  I blogged about this very topic last week, so I’ll just leave you with the video clip below:

What’s A Hedge Fund, Mom?

This morning, as we were rushing to stuff lunches into already over-loaded backpacks, grab the tennis rackets and coats (because despite the fact that it’s officially spring, it was 20 degrees outside) my 14-year-old hit me with this question: “What’s a hedge fund, mom?”

I backed into an answer.

Me: Do you know what a mutual fund is?

Him: Ummmm….

Me: It’s usually a bunch of investments in stocks or bonds or both bundled together.

Him: Okay.  (He turns and walks out the door and then, realizing we are having a conversation shouts,) I’m still listening.

Me: Well the whole point of a mutual fund is that if one of your stocks or bonds is losing money, the rest of them may not be so you won’t end up losing your whole investment.   That’s called “diversification.”  Anyway, a hedge fund invests a whole bunch of investments at the same time too, but many of them are riskier than stocks and bonds.  So for the most part only wealthy people are allowed to invest in them.

Him: Do you?

Me: Do I what?

Him: Do you invest in them?

Me: No.

Him: Can you put on Z-100?

More…

The Parent Trap

I am — as I am sure so many of you are — so sad about Natasha Richardson.  I didn’t know her (I met her once, at a wake, but that doesn’t count as knowing).  But I am truly upset for her children, her husband, her mother, her sisters.  She seemed to be one of those one-in-a-million Hollywood people who actually did have it all.  Perhaps because she lived no where near Hollywood. 

For me, freak accidents like this one bring me back to the question: What if it was me?  My literary agent told me of how he was once on a plane that seemed like it was absolutely going down.  In that few moments he asked himself: Had he taken care of the people he loved?  Had he dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s?  And because he had, he was able to be at peace in the middle of a situation that turned out not to be a disaster after all. More…

Turning Your Paycheck into Wealth

I was on CNN this morning, talking about The Difference and its driving question: How to move from a paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle into financial comfort or even wealth. Take a look below:

Bothering me….

It all comes down to how you feel about debt.

Yesterday, I was a guest on Carmen Wong Ulrich’s CNBC Show On The Money.   Ric Edelman was there as well — he has a new book out — and the fabulous Tyler Mathieson (the publicist at Money magazine where we both once worked described him as “the light of our lives.”)  More…