On Wednesday, November 16,  the Money Works for Women program conducted the second workshop on planning for and living in retirement. We were once again joined by Marcy McGuire, personal finance educator for Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER) and Portland attorney and elder law expert Kate Geoffroy.

For more information, contact ehawkins@curtislibrary.com 207-725-5242 x.216 or mblasco@curtislibrary.com x 217.

• How can I find the best loan and bank rates?
• How do I find out about retirement savings account options?
• Where can I get information on financing my child’s college education?
• How can I find out more about investment opportunities?

This past Wednesday, November 9,  Martin Blasco, Curtis’s Financial Literacy Librarian presented ways in which you can do your own research to answer these financial questions and save time and money.

Chris Farrell’s book “The New Frugality” was given out to the audience for the  December book discussion. If you weren’t able to participate in this presentation and get a copy, you can get one by contacting:  Ellen Hawkins, ehawkins@curtislibrary.com or Martin Blasco, mblasco@curtislibrary.com

 

On Wednesday, October 19, the Money Works for Women program presented “ Getting Ready For Retirement” , the first of two workshops on planning for retirement:

• Planning and saving for retirement was presented by Shelley Taylor, Midcoast Regional Manager for Maine Centers for Women, Work & Community and Marcy McGuire, personal finance educator for Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER).
• Legal aspects of retirement was presented by Portland attorney and elder law expert Kate Geoffroy.

Don’t miss the Retirement Workshop Part 2; it will be Wed., Nov. 16 at 5:30 pm.

For more information, contact ehawkins@curtislibrary.com 207-725-5242 x.216 or mblasco@curtislibrary.com x 217.

On Wednesday, October 12, Money Works for Women presented “ Finance Professionals – All You Need to Know” .

Daniel Ford, former investment professional, discussed issues pertaining financial advisers: when do we need one, how to find them and best ways to “manage” a financial adviser effectively.

The talk was followed by a meeting of the educational investment club. Ellen Hawkins showed participants how to read the Value Line reports on stocks.   For more information on the materials presented go to www.curtislibrary.com/programs-events/money/program-materials-2/

Our Money Works for Women program hosted a workshop on consumer fraud this past Wednesday, September 14.

Protecting yourself from local scams and investment fraud were the topics presented in this workshop by both Detective Bill Moir from the Brunswick Police Department and Alyson Cummings, Investor Education Manager at the Maine Office of Securities.  Both presentations generated lots of questions and discussion.

If you missed this workshop, please feel free to drop by the Money Room and we will be happy to give you the evening’s materials and bring you up to speed with this important topic.

For more information, you can contact Ellen Hawkins (ehawkins@curtislibrary.com) or Martin Blasco (mblasco@curtislibrary.com).

 

On Wednesday, July 20 we learned about the more personal side of investing, as Bowdoin’s Assistant Directors of Career Planning, Sherry Mason and Sarah Paul shared their personal investment “journeys”. They talked about resources they learned to use, mistakes they made along the way, and how they developed confidence in their personal, yet very different, investing plans.

The talk was followed by a meeting of the MWFW Investment Education Club where participants  actually started to trade online using a real-life trading games (but not real-life money!). If you want to be invited to play Wall Street Survivor, please contact Ellen Hawkins, Financial Literacy Program Developer at ehawkins@curtislibrary.com

 

Wondering what financial experts (and real people!) are saying about money these days?  And what the hot money topics are?  Here are a few good blogs on money matters:

• National Public Radio’s Your Money is a very informative site covering relevant topics such as where to get airline deals, how the recent wild weather will affect food prices, and many more.  You can read the news or listen to the originating broadcasts.
• Named one of Time’s Best Blogs for 2011, Get Rich Slowly is a great personal finance blog with categories such as “Get Out Of Debt”, “Credit Cards”, and lots of great tips to save money and spend less every day.
• Another great one – the name says it all: “WiseBread: Living Large on a Small Budget”.

A big thanks to Katy Longley for her very informative presentation at the kickoff of Money Works for Women, and an even bigger thanks to all the attendees!!

Some interesting follow-ups from last night’s meeting:

See what CNN’s Money pinpoints as the 10 biggest money wasters (including items such as gourmet coffee and ATM fees).

Katy mentioned an article about the perfect portfolio for a wide array of ages, genders and life circumstances. Check it out here!

Here’s where to find out about the high(er) yield American Express savings account.

To recap those stats about how much money would it take to make you feel secure (from a poll question in the April 2011 issue of Money magazine):

38 percent said more than 2 million.

32 percent said $1 to $2 million.

12 percent said $500,000.

Check out the links on the left for tons of valuable and relevant financial information.

Try online budgeting – it’s free and secure – at mint.com!  And here’s where to get your free annual credit reports.

See you all at the June session on Starting Out in Investing!  Feel free to share feedback, requests, information, or anything else via our feedback form.