The pandemic hurt women the most. Here are Jacent Wamala's tips for catching-up, creating a new mindset BY JULIA ANDERSON In so many ways, American working-age women took the biggest hit from the pandemic. They stayed home to take care of children going to school online. They lost jobs in services industries -- hospitality, childcare, and retailing. The economic pain in the short-term was real in lost household income. In the long-term it might be worse because women, more than men, lost a step with their retirement savings plans.  What can women do to catch-up? ​  Recent ..read more

5-step financial plan to kick off 2022 ​BY JULIA ANDERSON Yes, we are living in a whacky time with inflation taking a bite out of household budgets, stock markets in volatile territory and the Federal Reserve Bank deciding when to raise interest rates. All these factors will affect how we manage our money in the coming year. Here are 5 money tips to get the year off right!    ​No. 1 Keep up your long-term savings plan: No matter your income put money into a savings plan. This can be once a week, once a month. Just do it. Build an emergency fund so you don’t have to use credit ca ..read more

“The biggest risk of all is not taking one,” --  Mellody Hobson, American businesswoman and board chairwoman of Starbucks Corp. (1969 -     )   BY JULIA ANDERSON Type No. 1: Women who are confident investors, who understand investing basics like reinvesting stock dividends, interest rates and fund management fees. They appreciate investing for the long-term, managing their own money by saving and spending wisely, and they know what they are doing even when markets slide, and interest rates go up. These women have a significant and growing nest egg into their 70s ..read more

The Pandemic: What we learned (again) “With women controlling more and more assets, this growing financial power represents anything but a niche market,” – Charles Schwab Asset Management   Women interested in money management, long-term investing and building a retirement portfolio should see 2020’s pandemic stock market ups and downs as a great lesson. As one analyst put it recently in the Wall Street Journal, “it felt like something different, but it wasn’t.”   He meant that when Covid-19 infections swept the world, shutting down the global economy, killing the travel industry, cl ..read more

​"Far more money has been lost by investors trying to anticipate corrections, than lost in the corrections themselves." -- Peter Lynch   BY JULIA ANDERSON Investors who remained in the U.S. stock market after the Covid 19 selloff in March 2020 can be happy, maybe proud of their ride-it-out strategy. Markets more than doubled since a quick 30 percent downturn before making one of the fastest recoveries in history.   Now here in the fall of 2021, investors can celebrate another 20 percent to the upside thanks to rock bottom interest rates, economic stimulus packages including cash pum ..read more

​"Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing." - Warren Buffett, investor.  BY JULIA ANDERSON My parents trained me by example to manage money and think long-term. Living on a farm, they had me working little jobs (pulling weeds in the bean field) and saving for college when I was 8 years old. As a teenager, 4-H beef projects gave me early “business” experience with the basics of profit and loss, record-keeping and expense management. My seven years of 4-H beef projects paid for college.   A college degree in education and journalism gave me career opportunities that fit my inter ..read more

BY Julia Anderson Divorce is often a financial setback for a woman. Statistics prove it. After a divorce, women have less household income. They must juggle a job and family responsibilities, if they have children under 18. Their pay for an equivalent amount of work may be lower. They may be qualified for lesser paying jobs. All these factors make it more difficult for women manage their finances, let alone save for the long-term, for retirement.   When I appeared recently with my friend, Juliet Laycoe, on her Facebook live program, we talked about how important getting a “good ..read more

BY JULIA ANDERSON Nik Miles knows a thing or two about cars, the automotive industry and where it’s headed.   With electric vehicles grabbing headlines and some two-thirds of Americans now open to buying electric, we thought it was time to talk to Miles, a nationally known “car guy” and principle at ourautoexpert.com.     Smart Money co-host, Pat Boyle, and I covered the basics with Miles: -- How to buy an electric car, what’s out there and when to buy.  Click here for the video on YouTube presented by TVCTV public television in Beaverton, Ore.   T ..read more

BY JULIA ANDERSON The Campbell Soup Co. is raising prices on an array of grocery items by fall. Crude oil prices are hitting three-year highs, boosting the gasoline pump price by 95 cents a gallon from a year ago.   As restaurant operators struggle to hire and retain workers the cost of eating out has skyrocketed. Yes from home construction materials to automobiles, prices are rising.   These increases on a market-basket of goods and services tracked by the U.S. Department of Labor are running at an estimated overall 6 percent a year. Our cost-of-living is going up. In other words, w ..read more

​Why a capital gains tax increase hurts us all BY JULIA ANDERSON Those of us who are retired should pay attention to the proposed tax increases on capital gains income being promoted both by states (Washington state) and by the Biden Administration.   Even though President Biden says his capital gains tax increase will only affect the wealthy, not you, don’t believe it. Any change in tax law affects markets top to bottom, changes investment strategies and could generally dampen enthusiasm for capital investment at all levels.   Retirees are living on investment savings --- CDS, stock ..read more