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Authors of Financial Books
for Women
Kathleen Gurney, Ph.D.
Author of Your
Money Personality Who
is the founder and CEO of Financial Psychology Corporation
and why is she recognized as one of the pioneering experts
in the psychology of money and investing?
Throughout her career, Dr. Kathleen Gurney has been fascinated with the interaction between attitudes/feelings and the way in which people earn, spend, save and invest money. She has conducted groundbreaking research in the psychology of financial behavior; interviewing tens of thousands and using sophisticated statistical analysis. Over the years, she has applied her findings to individuals, couples, families and financial professionals.
Dr. Gurney's studies are also the basis for her best-selling book, Your
Money Personality: What It Is and How You Can Profit From
It, as well as her MONEYMAX® Personal Profile questionnaire.
Originally developed to help individuals identify, understand
and work with their own unique money management styles, Moneymax
has been embraced by the international investment and financial
industry as well, to better satisfy customer needs and investment
personalities.
Dr. Gurney is a popular guest on radio and television shows in the U.S. and abroad, including "Oprah," CNN and CNBC, PBS specials, and the "Today Show" in Australia and New Zealand. Major magazines and newspapers frequently interview her. Articles about her and her work have appeared in the Sunday New York Times, USA Today, the Wall St. Journal, Investors Business Daily, the Washington Post, Newsweek, US News and World Report, Forbes, Barrons, Money, Psychology Today, Mademoiselle, Cosmopolitan, New Woman, Self, Esquire and the Robb Report. Her own articles are published regularly at www.horsesmouth.com, an online subscription service for retail financial professionals, and www.aol.com.
In addition to her roles as researcher and author, Dr. Gurney teaches, trains and advises individuals, groups and businesses in the U.S. and throughout the world. Fortune 500 companies consult with her regularly. She has served as a faculty member at Harvard University's Annual Congress on the "Psychology of Investing" and was a featured expert on improving savings behavior among U.S. families for the American Savings Educational Council (a coalition of U.S. government and private industry leaders).
Comfortable with groups of 20 to 2000, Dr. Gurney has also spoken at a long list of conferences, both here and abroad. The groups she has addressed include: the Securities Industry Association Board, the International Association of Financial Planners, the American Association of Retired Persons, the National Association of Women Business Owners, National Association of Female Executives, and the Charles Schwab Annual Conference.
Dr. Gurney earned her Ph.D. degree from the University of Southern California and taught there from 1981 to 1987. She and her husband reside in Sonoma, California, where Financial Psychology Corporation is headquartered. The company offers innovative education, tools and services to provide individuals and financial professionals with insight into the psychology of financial behavior.
Visit Dr. Kathleen Gurney's website www.kathleengurney.com to learn more, enroll in a seminar, read her book or to discover your unique money personality with the Moneymax® Profile.
- What led you to write this book?
My pioneering work in "financial psychology" dates back to the fall of 1981
when I became my first client. I had just received my doctorate degree from
the University of Southern California and had accepted the university's
offer to lecture on psychology for the Department of Defense at American
military bases in Holland, Germany, Belgium and Spain. Per my request, my
paychecks were to be deposited into my checking account each month.
As I moved about Europe, I wrote checks at the PXs and banks on the military
bases to cover my living expenses and sent checks back to Los Angeles to
cover my home mortgage payment and other bills. At the end of six weeks
abroad, I tried to cash a check for $50.00 at a PX in Belgium and was told
that the check was no good. Soon afterward, bounced checks from all over
Europe began to catch up with me. I called the payroll department at USC to
find out what had happened and was told that due to an administrative
oversight my contract had not been processed and I was not on the payroll.
They would look into the matter and rectify the situation immediately. I had
enough money in a savings account to cover my bills for two months, but two
months later my checks were still bouncing because the payroll error had
still not been corrected. As a result, I called my parents to borrow money
from them.
As the weeks passed and USC failed to untangle the bureaucratic red tape, my
money anxiety began to grow. I kept a logbook of every dollar I spent and
all the checks that had bounced. I was blacklisted, had no credit line in
Europe or the United States, and felt powerless. Since I had very little
cash, I rarely went out in the evenings and spent a lot of time wondering
how I had allowed myself to get into such a financial fix. While I kept
telling myself that the problem was only temporary and I would laugh about
it someday, I was highly anxious. I lost ten pounds and began to suffer
bouts of insomnia. One of my journal entries at the time read: "My world has
fallen off its axis. I have felt frightened and lonely before but never like
this. What has happened to the sense of well being I've had all of my life?
Everything stable and certain in my life is in flux. Without money, how
vulnerable am I? What does money mean to me? I will never let money do this
to me again."
The university finally straightened out its financial error, but I knew that
I would never forget the financial and psychological impact of that year in
Europe. When I returned to Los Angeles, I began to take graduate courses in
finance and to read books about money. Although I found countless books
about money and investing, there was very little information about how
people feel about money and how feelings and attitudes influence the way
people handle their money. I felt there should be information and services
available to others who might want to know how to make money work more
advantageously in their lives, individually as well as in relationships.
- What do you feel to be the biggest challenge facing women today when
handling their finances?
Women must plan to depend more significantly on their own savings than on
Social Security benefits and employer-provided savings plans because women
tend to live longer than men and will need retirement income for a longer
period of time. How much time is still unknown. It is very difficult to
predict, but many experts are saying the average woman may live to 100. A
frightening thought for many women today who are unprepared financially to
take care of their future financial needs and well being. In addition,
women's pension and Social Security benefits tend to be smaller than men's;
in fact, a woman's benefit is less than 1/3 of her male co-worker's. Another
startling statistic reveals that taking just seven years away from the job
during a 40-year career may result in half the retirement benefits. Women
also earn less and generally have less money to invest through Social
Security contributions and payments to their 401(k)s or from their pay
checks.
Another handicapping factor is women's lower comfort level with risk. When
they do start to invest, women generally tend to be more conservative than
men. They select investments that may not be able to generate the long-term
growth they'll need.
In summary, there are many factors that can impede a woman's ability to
attain financial security and a sense of well being in her lifetime by
reaching her personal financial goals. Woman's biggest challenge is to learn
all that she can and her education must begin with knowing herself.
In addition to these financial challenges, women have personal challenges
because of their beliefs and feelings about money. They have more
emotionality about money, more anxiety, and less involvement in managing
their finances. They are still highly influenced by early imprinting and
societal role models. They also still have the lion-share of care-taking
responsibilities for the family.
The good news is that the solution is now available for women who will
devote the time to paying themselves first. If they will take the time to be
in control of the management of their finances beyond budgeting, their
confidence increases significantly. Women must learn all that they can and
begin now. They have to set realistic goals, stay focused and continually
monitor their progress. Their focus should be where they want to go instead
of where they've been.
- How has the atmosphere changed for women investors in the last 10
years?
In the last decade, women's role models have become more financially savvy
and powerful. The largest financial institutions have recognized women's
clout in the financial services arena and developed special programs for
them based on their needs for more consultative selling and rapport building
than transaction-oriented relationships. Brokers and planners are taught how
women want to be sold. There are special seminars for women. I toured
Australia with a firm dedicated to helping women become financially secure.
We had thousands of Australian women attend my "Your Money Personality and
How You Can Profit from It" seminars and embark on the journey to mastering
their wealth accumulation.
Women have also begun to form groups to invest and do what they do
best--reap confidence from affiliating in relationships. Investment Clubs
have given women the platform for self-education and self-confidence. They
are learning that all it takes is experience and education. Confidence is
not gender-specific.
- How will the atmosphere change for women investors in the next 10
years?
Women will continue to become more powerful, savvier and wealthier. If
demographics hold true, women will inherit money from their families and
spouses. They will continue to be enlightened and learn that it is their
duty to manage their money. With the power of earning and having more money
comes the responsibility of managing it for our greater good. Women can no
longer afford the myth that money management is someone else's duty, not
women who are going to grow and prosper. Women's self-image and self-esteem
must include the belief that they are just as capable of being astute money
managers as men are. Mastering their own financial well being is both a
right and a responsibility that must be addressed and conquered in the next
decade. I believe it is woman's last frontier.
- Where did you start your career and how did it lead you to where you
are today?
Also, see the answer fot the question #1
I realized that I must be a smart woman since I was teaching graduate
students and had done well in my Ph.D. program. But I certainly wasn't being
a very smart money manager. I attributed that to my own beliefs and
attitudes and realized that I lacked self-awareness and self-confidence when
it came to finances and investments. I certainly could prosper by more
education. So I audited Finance and Investment Classes and signed up for the
Certified Financial Planner Program. After three courses, I realized that I
had the basics of what I needed to know to make sound decisions but I still
lacked confidence. I was eager to have a context of knowledge about myself
and my style of decision-making that would guide me in making wiser
decisions.
I also found that I couldn't give my money to a broker to invest in 1981. I
walked out of his office mystified about how much risk I wanted to take and
what type of stocks would fit my comfort zone. That's when I decided to
create a questionnaire that would be easy to take but would be revealing in
offering some concrete practical information about how I could make better
use of my money whether I was earning, saving, spending or investing it.
That questionnaire and its reports, the Moneymax(TM) Personal Profiling
System, is now used by individuals and financial professionals worldwide. It
is the cornerstone of the work I've accomplished in changing people's money
lives and how they view themselves and their money, and the success and
content they achieve. It has helped literally tens of thousands of women
learn that they can be in control of their financial destiny. That has been
my greatest reward.
- How much money do you need to start investing?
A woman recently asked me via e-mail whether she could start with $50 or
$100 to invest. I'm not a financial advisor but I would start with whatever
money you can but start today. You must get in the habit of learning how to
prioritize your spending so that you pay yourself first. Put any amount of
money you can aside into a fund for investing. You can buy shares of stock
for dollars. The important point is to get in the habit of saving some money
for investing and learning that you can do it. That money will grow provided
you pick an investment that will grow. Start out conservatively until you
find your comfort zone and how you feel about losing money. The power of
compounding is amazing. I wish I had started earlier than I did, but we will
always have regrets. Start to think positively about the future and invest
something today that will be assured to grow for tomorrow.
- How should a woman get started investing with no investment
experience?
Personally I like Peter Lynch's philosophy of investing in something that is
familiar to you and that you see and use in your life. You can start by
investing in a stock or stocks of companies you do business with whether
they be a Wal-Mart or a Starbucks. You can also be protected with more
calculated risk by investing in a mutual fund of companies that you may
know. There are services and brokers that you can access off the web, like
Morningstar and Schwab, which will rate those mutual funds in terms of their
safety and performance. Companies like Schwab can be a great resource if you
think that you'd like to learn how to invest by yourself. If you are like
the majority of women, you may want a coach or financial adviser to guide
you. There are advisers who will charge you an hourly-consulting fee to
review your financial situation and recommend some options that you then can
buy from a Schwab. There are others who will be a one-stop shop and provide
the advice and also the investment like American Express Financial Advisers
or Raymond James Financial Services. You, of course, will pay the
commissions for this service and perhaps an hourly fee, but it may be worth
it if you find an advisor you can trust.
Remember to interview the advisor as you would a doctor. You must be able to
establish rapport and trust this advisor with your money. Stay involved.
It's your money and your life. I am not a financial advisor but I work
closely with advisors and they can be very helpful in designing a financial
plan and recommending investments, but you have to become a good client in
articulating what you want and need from them. Don't expect them to
understand what you don't tell them. Again, it's your money and your life.
- If a woman has debt, at what point should she become an investor?
If she can afford the debt and to save, I would recommend that she both pay
off her debt and get in the habit of investing. This question, to be
answered definitively, depends on the individual situation of course.
- Have you published any other books before this one? If so, what are
they?
No. I have published articles and had several columns published but never a
book before this one.
- What are your future book writing plans?
I have just completed my second book proposal, which I hope to sell this
fall and have published within a year. Many more books will follow.
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