Quick tips to jump-start your journey to financial empowerment.

These tips are excerpted from Barbara Stanny's books, Prince Charming Isn't Coming, How Women Get Smart About Money and Secrets of Six-Figure Women, Surprising Strategies to Up Your Earnings and Change Your Life. You'll of course find a deeper discussion of these ideas in each book.




Join or start an investment club. If you're feeling overwhelmed with your learning curve, sharing the adventure makes it much more enjoyable—and possibly more profitable! According to the National Association of Investors Corporation, women's investment clubs regularly outperform men's investment clubs in average annual return. Visit NAIC here for information on starting your own group. NAIC is an independent, non-profit, member-driven organization committed to teaching individuals how to become successful long-term investors. They also offer their own official guide, Introduction to Successful Investing Handbook to take you through the process of forming and operating a club. Here are the NAIC's four principles of investing, as good advice as you'll ever see:
1. Invest a set sum once a month, regardless of market conditions.
2. Reinvest dividends and capital gains immediately.
3. Buy growth stocks—companies that are increasing at a rate faster than industry in general and should continue to do so.
4. Diversify. Invest in different fields.



Examining our source. Our beliefs and attitudes toward money essentially stem from five different roots. The deepest of these is often the messages we learned from our family. Analyzing these potentially harmful messages is a big step to pruning away limiting beliefs. Very often our financial difficulties can be traced directly to our parents' attitude toward money. Did dad make all the decisions? Was mom closemouthed about money? Were your parents raised in poverty during the Depression? Did they stuff their savings under the mattress or spend every dime without thought? Is there a history of compulsive shopping or gambling? Everything our family did or said about money carried a powerful message. We internalized those messages, and though they may be long forgotten, they can still shape our behavior. So spend some time journaling and ferreting out those negative ideas about money.



Think long-term investments. The best way to protect ourselves from stock market swings is to have a long time horizon—at least five to ten years. One or two bad years makes little difference over time. But if you're hoping to double your money in a year or two, then your expectations are unrealistic and could well lead you to make risky investments. Based on Standard and Poor's 500 index of stocks, since 1926, the chance of losing money during one year is 29%; over a five-year period 11%; over ten years 3%; over twenty years 0%. It can take real guts to ride out a downturn in the market, but history assures us that what goes down will come back up—if we can afford to be patient!



Fear is opportunity to grow. When you get right down to it, there's only one thing that stands between your decision to make more money and actually having it. It's not your job, your children, your spouse, your age, gender, lack of credentials, or whatever you thought it was. Your biggest barrier is fear. There's nothing wrong with being afraid. Fear is normal. We all have it. Fear is the natural reaction to real or perceived danger. But the operative word here is perceived, though fear does serve a purpose if it keeps you from acting impulsively. I once got an email that gave me a good laugh while vividly making this point: "I can jump out of an airplane, but take control of my life and make more money, now that's a REAL challenge!" No matter what you're trying to achieve, dealing with ever-increasing levels of fear is essential for your progress. If you allow fear of taking the next step to stop you, that's where you'll remain until you whip up your fortitude and approach that door again. For fear is indeed a door to the next level of growth and progress toward your goals. The quickest way to empower yourself financially is to do what you fear. Start with small steps, but keep upping the ante and you'll be thrilled at how your self-confidence rises with the degree of difficulty of the task you accomplish.



How you cut up your pie is critical. There are only five basic  places or asset classes where we can invest: stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate and cash or cash equivalents. Each class can be subdivided further, such as foreign stocks, small-company stocks, preferred stocks, specific business sectors, new issues, etc. Figuring out how to divide our assets among these categories is the most critical investment decision we will make. This one decision, asset allocation, accounts for 93% of our investment performance. According to research, only 2% of our return comes from stock picking, another 2% from timing and 3% from luck! Don't get hung up on the riskiness of a specific security, and don't try to predict the market. If we put together a widely diversified portfolio of well-managed funds or good solid companies and top-rated bonds, over time we should do well. Charles Schwab, mutual fund families like Fidelity, Vanguard or T. Rowe Price, all have booklets available that explain various allocation plans to help you determine which is right for your age and lifestyle.

Automation equals painless discipline. One key to successful investing is to invest regularly—monthly or at least quarterly—regardless of the state of the market. This is known as "dollar cost averaging" and the result is that we avoid investing at the top of the market or at the bottom. And if the market drops or is at a low, we'll be accumulating more shares at a better price. If we set up a deduction plan with a bank, brokerage firm or mutual fund company to shift money automatically from our paycheck to our investment account, then we eliminate the possibility of procrastination, resistance, or spending the money we meant to invest. Start small if you need to, but above all, start!



Pointers for starting and staying on track. 
1. You don't have to have it all together. Just start.
2. It's okay not to know, as long as you're willing to learn.
3. If in doubt, reach out. Get support.
4. There are no stupid questions. Just make sure you understand the answers.
5. Stay informed. Update your portfolio regularly.
6. Progress, not perfection, is the goal.
7. Mistakes and losses are always opportunities for learning.