Authors of Financial Books for Women

Joline Godfrey
Author of No More Frogs to Kiss

Visit Joline Godfrey's website at www.independentmeans.com

1. What led you to write this book?

   By the time I wrote the book, Independent Means had been operating for a couple of years and we were answering the same questions over and over: how can I raise money smart daughters? This book was a compilation of responses we give to women who attend out training workshops, as well as core advise we give through our other programs for parents and educators concerned about the next generation.

2. What do you feel to be the biggest challenge facing women today when handling their finances?
   1. Taking themselves seriously.
   2. Having others take their initial. sometimes awkward first steps seriously.
   3. Starting.
   
   

   It's been my experience that once women make the first step towards economic empowerment, their journey has begun and they rarely go back to a place of being money-stupid. But starting takes courage and support--this is often true even for the so-called really educated woman. Education and financial empowerment have not necessarily gone hand in hand. 4. Having mighty visions. Women are trainined to think small--and they do it well. Having a mega-moster dream is harder work and often scary.

   It's a little different among the girls we work with at IMI. They are fearless and hungry--and great to work with for that reason. Getting others to take their efforts seriously is still a challenge though. And getting them to think big is the other challenge we still see in girls.

3. How has the atmosphere changed for women investors in the last 10 years?

   Suddenly they are a target: everyone wants their money. This is good and bad in that it makes a lot of women anxious: if they want my money, why shoudl I trust them?? That's the dark side; the sunnier side is that there has never been so much supportfor women's economic power, or so many resources.

4. How will the atmosphere change for women investors in the next 10 years?

   They will grow up, take charge of their money and start to put it to work: as social activists, philanthropists, policy makers, leaders. Women will have to whine and plead for less and will more and more write checks to make things happen.

5. Where did you start your career and how did it lead you to where you are today?

   I'm a learner. I started in my family's small commercial dairy in Maine...was trained as a social worker and left grad school to work as a social worker at the Polaroid Corp. in Cambridge, MA. Polaroid fed my own entrepreneurial instincts and invested in my first business. When I sold that in 1990 and was looking for my next challenge, my first book, Our Wildest Dreams, pointed me towards the needs of girls. My journey has been a little unothodox, , but internally coherent as far as I am concerned. Years ago I remember mentioning something about a "career ladder" to the man who hired me at Polaroid and he went ballistic: Ladder! What makes you think life is orderly enough to have ladders! he yelled!! It was a great response to my youthful naivety and stuck with me. I have followed the important questions of my brain and spirit over the years, not tried to climb any mythical ladder.

6. How much money do you need to start investing?

   $10. You save $10 a week until you get to $100 and invest in something, anything...WAiting until you have some number--$1000 or $50,000 gives you a perfect route to procrastination. Just do it.

7. How should a woman get started investing with no investment experience?

   Practice and do your homework. Whether you use an online portfolio or just paper, pen and financial pages of the newspaper. Choose a couple of stocks, make soem "practice investments, do research on the companies you like and see how you do. Mistakes will be made--but after 6 months of practice. There is no reason not to make a jump to the real thing.

8. If a woman has debt, at what point should she become an investor?

   Yesterday.

9. Have you published any other books before this one? If so, what are they?

   A college text book years ago; Our Wildest Dreams: Women Entrepreneurs Making MOney, Doing Good, HAving Fun (HarperBusiness); and coming out in the spring is Twenty Secrets to Independence (St. Martin's Press)

10. What are your future book writing plans?

    Constant...

Visit Joline Godfrey's website at www.independentmeans.com

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