Jimmy Choo will bring its international glamour and covetable shoes and bags to selected H&M stores. Woo Hoo – talk about style on a budget!
The collection will be available from November 14 in around 200 stores across the world.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124522785484222715.html
Add comment July 28th, 2009
No more excuses! A new iPhone app from Quicken connects you with your bank and also let’s you enter your cash purchases.
You know…the money that seems to leave your wallet without your knowing it… and which you can never figure out where it went…
It even tells you what’s left – how much money you have in your account. What, no iPhone? You can still use their simplified version at m.quicken.com.
http://blog.quicken.intuit.com/2009/04/30/introducing-our-first-iphone-app-quicken-online-mobile/
Add comment July 27th, 2009
Lace is so last year. In 2008, one of the big fashion trends was lace. In 2009, apparently it’s see-though. Now, I know there is a recession and that times are tough for a lot of folks. However, might I suggest that rather than forgoing a shirt, shop your closet and wear last year’s.
You don’t want to wear something you might really regret…and then have pictures to prove it:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/21/sheer-genius-2009-is-the_n_242275.html
On the other hand, you’ll certainly get your drinks paid for!
Add comment July 23rd, 2009
In addition to treasury bills, treasury notes and treasury bonds, the US government also issues savings bonds. There are two kinds of savings bonds: “I” savings bonds and “EE/E” savings bonds.
I savings bonds can be purchased for as little as 25 dollars up to a maximum of 5,000 dollars. They pay an annual interest rate which is adjusted twice a year based on the consumer price index. The consumer price index is a measure the government uses to calculate inflation. As the index changes, your interest rate rises or falls during the time period of your bond. This is how the amount of money your money earns for you keeps up with the rate of inflation: when inflation is high, you earn more interest; when inflation is low, you earn less interest.
Note: Inflation is the reason keeping your money in a shoe box or under the bed is a bad idea. A dollar today will buy more than that same dollar tomorrow. If you put your money in a shoe box, and decide to spend it ten years later, the amount of money you put in will be worth less (you will be able to buy less with it) than you would have at the time you tucked it up in your closet.
Note #2: Fashionista Fact:
Manolo Blahnik’s first shoe collection appeared in 1972, when after presenting the legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland with some theater design sketches, she advised him to “go with the shoes”. Today, a pair of his fabulous shoes (known to Fashionista’s everywhere simply as Manolo’s) start at 500 dollars. In 1972, they would have cost 102 dollars—102 dollars in 1972 is the same as 500 dollars today. That’s inflation at work.
The interest paid is added to the value of the bond each month and is paid to you when you cash the bond I savings bonds must be held for one year but can be held as long as thirty years. There are some penalties if you hold them less than five years, but the maximum penalty is the forfeiture of three months interest.
EE/E savings bonds have many of the same characteristics as I savings bonds: they, too, can also be purchased for as little as 25 dollars up to a maximum of 5,000 dollars. They also must be held for one year but can be held for as long as thirty years. They have the same penalties as I bonds, forfeiting three months interest, if you hold them less than five years. However, unlike I savings bonds, EE/E savings bonds pay a fixed interest rate. Instead of calculating the interest rate based on the consumer price index as Series I bonds do, the interest rate is a combination of a fixed rate, which applies for the life of the bond, and a semiannual inflation rate which is calculated on an average six-month rate of interest on US government treasuries.
So the biggest difference between the two kinds of savings bonds is how the interest is calculated. And how the interest is calculated determines the interest rate you receive and, of course, reflects how hard your money is working for you.
You can buy savings bonds or treasuries, learn what interest each type of savings bond is paying, and otherwise get additional information at www.treasurydirect.gov. This website is managed by the Department of the Treasury. Reviewing this site is a good way to determine which of the two Series are best for you.
Add comment July 21st, 2009
The lowest risk investment class is those which are either federally insured or backed (meaning “guaranteed”) by the United States government.
Continue Reading Add comment July 14th, 2009
I have started to get some nice reviews on my book. I wanted to publicly thank the folks who have taken the time to read and review So Many Shoes, So Little Money – A Girl’s Guide to Finance.
Links to their reviews are below (please provide them with a lot of traffic):
http://selfhelpbooks.suite101.com/article.cfm/so_many_shoes_so_little_money_by_lisa_serwin
http://www.everythingfinanceblog.com/2009/07/so-many-shoes-so-little-money-girls.html
Thanks! For additional information you can also check out my website somanyshoes.net
2 comments July 9th, 2009
As told through shopping….
So, be a saint and not a sinner: Next time you hit the stores, try, just try, to exercise some shopping discretion.
Add comment July 8th, 2009
Why use fashion and shopping to explain money management? Because learning to manage your money does to have to be staid, boring or dry!
Continue Reading Add comment July 6th, 2009
Some women believe that a sound financial plan is to marry well. I have written a post on this before – “you need a plan not a man” – but with all of the recent headlines about cheating husbands (John Edwards, Governor Sanford and Senator Ensign) and their suffering wives it bears repeating.
First of all marrying rich is never a given and rarely the solution. Second, there is no guarantee the relationship will work out. A lot of marriages end in divorce; it is a myth that you will always wind up with half of the assets. Third, having your own career means you are at no ones mercy. You answer only to yourself and are not dependent on anyone – a very empowering notion.
To paraphrase Maureen Dowd, if you give up your career to focus on your husbands/significant other/or at the request of a “special friend”, it is not his/her/their fault if things don’t work out and it turns out you sacrificed more for the relationship than they did. “Like an investor in a down market, you took a risk without a guarantee that it would pay off. If you make your significant other your career and you lose them, you lose your career too.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/opinion/01dowd.html?_r=1
Raising your joint children is no guarantee either. Mrs. Edwards, Mrs. Ensign and Mrs. Sanford all have children. Religion is not a savior – Governor Sanford considers himself a very religious man. Jobs can be lost – unemployment is currently 9.5%, and, in a worse case scenario your significant other could die.
The best thing you can do to take care of yourself (and your children) is to make and learn to manage your money.
Note on divorce rates:
Married adults now divorce two-and-a-half times as often as adults did 20 years ago and four times as often as they did 50 years ago… between 40% and 60% of new marriages will eventually end in divorce. The probability within… the first five years is 20%, and the probability of its ending within the first 10 years is 33%…
—Brian K. Williams, Stacy C. Sawyer, Carl M. Wahlstrom, Marriages, Families & Intimate Relationships, 2005 as quoted on Wikipedia
Add comment July 3rd, 2009