“Buy less, wear it more” is a great mantra for the season. When faced with an impulse to excessively shop, just repeat over and over while backing out of the shoe department.
Fashionista Fact:
Even Michelle Obama is repeating outfits: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/14/michelle-obama-repeats-an_n_186783.html
Add comment April 16th, 2009
Some statements ring true: “I love those shoes!” Some false: “No, you haven’t gained any weight.” And, some you just plain ignore.
What do you do with the statements you receive from your bank or from your investments? Do you use them to reconcile your checking account? Do you actively look at your portfolio? Or, do you do you toss them unopened into a drawer?
As daunting as it can seem, it really is a good idea to open them up and take a good long look. You should reconcile your bank account very month. Reviewing your statement and balancing your account ensures you know where every penny of your money has gone – except of course the cash that keep disappearing from your wallet; we’ll save that for another blog. Reviewing your statements also helps prevent identity theft for the same reason – you’ll know quickly if someone has been using your accounts.
Your brokerage statement is no different. If you have investments you should be reviewing them regularly. You want to make sure your investments goals are being met and that your portfolio is diversified.
Not convinced? You’ll need to know how much money you have before you can know if you afford this season’s staple: the statement dress. The best way to do that? Open your statements.
Fashionista Fact:
This season it’s all about the statement dress. (www.net-a-porter.com) It’s a great solution for any event – office to wedding. Add a blazer for the office, leggings for day, high heels for evening, or belt it for a new shape. Find a great one … but not two or three!
Add comment April 14th, 2009
Researcher Kent Monroe has developed a test to tell if you are a shopaholic. The new test includes six statements, for which individuals answer on a 7-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree:
1. My closet has unopened shopping bags in it.
2. Others might consider me a “shopaholic.”
3. Much of my life centers on buying things.
4. I buy things I don’t need.
5. I buy things I did not plan to buy.
6. I consider myself an impulse purchaser.
Respondents who score 25 or higher are considered compulsive buyers. Monroe administrated his test to 550 staff members and found nine percent (men and women) qualified as shopaholics. LiveScience.com reports that previous studies have shown that between two percent and eight percent of the population are shopaholics.
Add comment March 16th, 2009
Our consumer society has stopped consuming. Whether for big ticket items or smaller desires, we have stopped shopping. But is this a temporary reaction to the current economy or something deeper and permanent? Have consumers changed their ways for good?
Consumer spending makes up approximately 70 percent of the economy. It topped out at 71 percent in 2005. Current economic conditions combined with the upcoming credit card bust (see “Credit Cards and Hemlines”, December 1, 2008) means that many folks will not be able to borrow money at good rates for a while. People who have lost 40+% of their net worth over the last six months won’t soon forget this year. Stories of hoarding for years after the great depression are common. On the other hand, 20 years from now, consumers who are now in their 20’s may not remember this downturn when they reach their peak spending.
Prevailing wisdom says that permanent change will never happen to the American consumer. What do you think? Has our love of owning plentiful and fine things altered permanently?
Add comment March 13th, 2009
Finance, and therefore money, often gets a bad rap. Women who like money and want more of it are too often considered ambitious, greedy or gold diggers. However, having money can be a truly enjoyable – even life changing – experience. At its best, money is about freedom and choices, about having options and opportunities. It’s about being able to live the life you want to live in the way you want to live it. Money allows you to travel, to go to school, or to work at something that offers you full satisfaction, regardless of compensation, instead of being stuck in a job you hate just to pay the bills. Money gives you the freedom to choose whether to buy that Prada bag or the Gucci boots or, in a perfect world, both. Money allows you to be self-sufficient; with the confidence that comes with being independent and the freedom to make life choices that are right for you. It doesn’t guarantee all this, but it certainly ups the odds. It’s a means to an end we all aspire to.
So knowing how to manage your money is vital. There are a lot of decisions to make (student loans, buying a car, buying a house, how many pairs of shoes you can own without being obscene) which will rely on your having a basic understanding of your personal finances. Money can be cheap or expensive, depending on what you know about how to use it. For example, if you charge those Manolo Blahnik shoes – the ones you know perfectly well you can’t afford – to your credit card and don’t pay the bill in full when it arrives in the mail, the shoes become a lot more expensive than the original number that was on the price tag because of the interest the credit company charges.
I know many of you think finance is boring and that you are not good at math. But understanding the basic connects of money management is crucial – just look at the mess the economy is in. So please make an effort – I promise it will be worth it. (Especially when you are able to afford whatever it is you want without having to stress about when the credit bill is coming).
Add comment February 23rd, 2009
Kitty tried to slam down the phone receiver. Damm her lack of opposable thumbs and damm Barbie. They had been vying for sexiest toy title for years. Kitty thought she had Barbie beat when she went for the big time bling. But now the diva was topping her with a runway show on Feb. 14 in Bryant Park, complete with designer inspired Barbie clothes. What was the world coming to? Then Kitty sat back and purred – she still had her line at Neiman Marcus and a higher net worth (see November 17, 2008 post for more on net worth). And, wasn’t Barbie turning 50?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/fashion/05ROW.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
http://www.neimanmarcus.com/search.jhtml?N=0&Ntt=heloo+kitty&_requestid=15797″
Add comment February 5th, 2009
Starlets and their cell phones. Inseparable. Gossip? New movie deal? No, smart money management. Two new cell phone applications help you shop:
Lucky Magazine has created Lucky At Your Service which ties into stores’ inventories. The app featured over 70 shoes in its March shoe guide. Click “find it near you” and either GPS or a zip code can tell you which stores have what you’re looking for. The best part, it’s free. Download it at: http://corp.nearbynow.com/luckyatyourservice
ShopSavvy (www.biggu.com/applications) also acts as a personal shopping assistant. You scan an items barcode with your phone’s camera and the app shows you the lowest prices online and at nearby stores.
Even starlets need to save.
Add comment February 2nd, 2009
In his inaugural speech, Obama quoted the Bible: “the time has come to set aside childish things.” The question is does that include an obsession with shoes? He asked the nation to grow up and cited our “badly weakened economy” as a consequence of not just “greed and irresponsibility on the part of some but also our collective failure to make hard choices…”
So yes, sadly, it applies to shoes – or at least our obsession with them. A poll of 1,057 women by the Consumer Reports National Research Center for shopping magazine, ShopSmart, found that U.S. women on average own 19 pairs of shoes, although they only wear four pairs regularly; 15 percent have over 30 pairs.
Carrie: [In shoe store with Miranda]: Where did all my money go?
Miranda: At four hundred dollars a pop, how many of these do you own? Fifty?
Carrie: Come on…
Miranda: One hundred?
Carrie: Would that be so wrong?
Miranda: Four hundred dollars times one hundred, there’s your down payment.
Carrie: That’s only four thousand dollars.
Miranda: No, that’s forty thousand dollars!
Carrie: I spent forty thousand dollars on shoes and I have no place to live? I will literally be the old woman who lived in her shoe.
Carrie, with her disregard for her spending habits – tossing off hundreds of dollars for things she doesn’t need and will, in all likelihood, never wear – might be incredibly chic but is a very bad financial role model.
Managing your money, taking control of your finances and living within your means requires hard choices. However, if you put off or don’t make the hard choices, they become impossible.
Add comment January 22nd, 2009
Today, Michelle Obama wore Isabelle Toledo and the girls wore J. Crew. This is a great example of mixing high and low (well, J. Crew is not exactly a low). It is your prerogative to be a slave to fashion, and especially expensive designer items, if, but only if, you can afford them. Coco Chanel once said, “Fashion is made to become unfashionable.” If you can’t afford them – and most of us can’t, let’s face it – there are always alternatives, notably second label lines, which are cheaper but still high-styled.
Smart shopping requires four things: Planning, focus, investing and finding bargains. Most of the following tips come from In Style Secrets of Style:
Plan:
Focus:
Invest:
Bargains:
Last but not least, try, just try, to exercise some discipline.
Add comment January 20th, 2009
There are as many different investing philosophies as there are fashions trends (According to Vogue.com Spring ’09 promises us: Nudes, metals, sky high stilettos, tribal, harem pants, and God forbid, jumpsuits.) The investing beginner should ignore this and choose with an eye towards the future, not just what is in style today. Day-to-day, stocks and stock markets, mutual and index funds will go up and down, sometimes a lot. If you did your homework before investing and kept current on your investments, you shouldn’t get overly excited either way.
There is a school of thought in investing that following crowd behavior – trends – creates opportunities. For example, if everyone believes denim jackets are back this season (Jcrew.com) and you spot the trend ahead of other people – you realize denim is going to be so this season before everyone else – you can profit by buying ahead of the crowd. You make money as denim prices increase.
However, there is also an investing school of thought who believes in eschewing trends: If denim is in, they ignore it and invest something else – such as leather. They believe that since everyone will be buying denim, and no one will be buying leather, denim will be over-priced and leather will be under-priced. When leather comes back into style, you profit because you bought leather when it was cheap and out of fashion.
Who is right? Both. However, unless you are a seasoned investor, remember, “Fashions fade, style is eternal.” Yves Saint Laurent
Add comment January 13th, 2009