Unfortunately, this “stuff” sells. The media is trying to capture as many eye-balls (and ears) as possible to maximize profits and the more provocative the content, the better. Some of the worst offenders are the most visible – talk show hosts or political analysts who get away with name- calling and worse, especially during political campaigns. The film has some clips of the likes of  Bill O’Reilly, Pat Buchanan and Rush Limbaugh spouting some nasty commentary in regards to women candidates. Who can forget the Hilary bashing during the 2008 campaign with much airtime about the tone of her voice, her hair and attire?

Imagine the impact on the younger generation in the U.S. who are continually exposed to these viewpoints? My friends and I, who are past the bloom of youth, reacted to the film similarly at first – so, what else is new? But we realized after some discussion that this documentary is an excellent wake-up call that all-is-not-as-it-should-be and that perhaps we should get over our complacency and be part of the solution.

After all, women have power. They make over 80% of consumer purchases in the U.S. – from soap to cars to houses. Women also control a lot of private wealth – $14 trillion at last count (out of approximately $55 trillion). Women make up 51% of the U.S. population. In contrast, within our most powerful institutions – media, government and business – female representation is shockingly low. Only 3% of women hold clout positions in the mainstream media, only 17% of seats in the House of Representatives and merely 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs.

How can women use their buying power and majority to help more women get promoted, elected and recognized? Wouldn’t it be great if instead of the explosive growth in cosmetic surgical procedures performed each year on American girls (more than tripled between 1997 and 2007) there was this kind of growth in the number of women in our legislative bodies? Wouldn’t our dollars be better spend on education instead of liposuction?

Becoming a conscientious consumer is one way to stimulate change. Some ideas:

• Buy products that support, instead of offend, your values.
• Select media (movies, television, games,magazines,books) that portray positive messages about gender.
• Support men and women political leaders with your vote and/or dollars who fight for the ideals you believe in.
• Go see Miss Representation! Bring the children and men in your life.
• Take the Miss Representation pledge.

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”   Alice Walker

Related Links:
Blog post from Sally Around the Bay: “Money Honey”
Blog post from Small Change: when deju vu draws the same blank
Blog post from Tam Holland: The Week of Representing

But it’s not only her unique voice. The book is organized in a very logical and helpful way. Each chapter, beginning with Chapter 1: The Small Business Checklist, has a To-Do List and Questionnaire to review before you read the chapter. At the end of each chapter is a complete list of resources to make it easy to get even more information and do research on the topic at hand. If you are short on time, you could get a lot of information by just reading these two sections. However, it would benefit you to read through the chapters. Rosenberg is a tax expert and there are many gems of tax wisdom contained in the chapters where you will find yourself thinking, “Oh, I didn’t know that,” or, “Great idea, I think I will incorporate that tax strategy into my business.” It’s a workbook, so get out a pen and take notes where needed!

The book is really a small business bible, not just a tax book. The chapter titles tell the story: Business Plans You Know and Trust; Entities; Record Keeping; Income; Common Deductions; Office in Home; Vehicles: Everyone’s Favorite Deduction; Employees and Independent Contractors; Owner’s Fringe Benefits, Retirement, and Tax Deferment; (the dreaded) Estimated Payments; Online Businesses; and Audits. Ms. Rosenberg really wants you to set up your business right, from the start, for growth and profit! And we all know that taxes play a big part in the outcome.

You can download worksheets from www.YourBusinessBible.com that will help you stay on track as you complete the tasks in the book. She provides a different password to the site each month that you can only retrieve by owning the book. Clever!

I plan to keep this book nearby as a reference for those questions I often get from my business-owner clients. And if you are a business-owner yourself – whether you’re just starting out or not –  This book is a must-read.

Please note: This book was provided to me free of cost by McGraw-Hill. Even so, this is an honest, objective review of the book!

Carol Moretti (seated) and Lisa Deane

In my living room sat an architect, a CPA, a healthcare executive, a innovation consultant, a marketing and branding expert, a retired attorney, a writer for the Huffington Post, a clutter coach, an interior designer, a home staging specialist, a jewelry designer, a technical writer, and a newspaper columnist. We were joined by an IT manager, a freelance interactive producer, an owner of a cooking-party company, an owner of a company specializing in culinary health education for kids, a development director, a yoga instructor, a marketing consultant, a personal fashion stylist, a trade marketing manager and a business student. All women. All interesting and accomplished.

Women are as diverse as any other group of people in their career choices and in their lifestyles. But women also share distinct attributes: They are great communicators, relationship builders and nurturers. They also share unique financial planning needs. For example, many women are concerned that they will be old and poor and alone. Look at these facts:

• Eighty percent of American women will find themselves the sole keepers of their personal finances at some point during their lives, However, most of those women feel financially insecure, despite controlling more wealth, having more education and being more involved in financial decisions.
• Women still make less than men make in similar occupations.
• Women’s careers are often interrupted by family needs, such as childcare and eldercare, which limits their opportunity for income and retirement savings growth.
• Many women fear losing everything and becoming bag ladies (and it doesn’t seem to matter how much money they have or make).
• Two-thirds of women over age 65 rely on Social Security as their primary source of income. Consequently, women are twice as likely as men to live out their golden years at or below poverty levels.

In my living room, we nibbled bites of grilled salmon covered in sesame seeds, ginger chicken, and artichoke frittata while sipping champagne cocktails. Everyone listened attentively to presentations on serious topics such as the 2010 tax relief act and the new healthcare law, but also to fun topics such as the top ten wardrobe essentials and how to save money on your wardrobe. In between speakers, we women did what we are great at: connected, made new friends and perhaps got a business lead or two.

About Cathy Curtis
Cathy Curtis, the writer of this blog and owner of Curtis Financial Planning, specializes in the finances of women, their families and their businesses. You can find out more about her on her website www.curtisfinancialplanning.com and follow her on Twitter @curtisfinancial, on Facebook Women and Money and on LinkedIn Women and Money.

Alison Covarrubias,Julie Abrams,Cathy Curtis,Ayesha Mathews-Wadhwa

It was my pleasure to moderate a panel of women who have made it part of their life’s work to help and support women entrepreneurs. Julie Abrams as CEO of Women’s Initiative; Alison Covarrubias as Co-Founder of The Hatch Network; Baat Enosh of  NCWIT and Women 2.0 and Ayesha Mathews-Wadhwa as a Director of Savor the Success.

We started our discussion by exploring the popular notion that women will “rule the world” and that the economic recovery will be largely led by females. We went on to discuss the challenges women face securing funding for their companies, the conflicts inherent to being a parent and running a company, and the unique circumstances that women of color face on their road to successful entrepreneurship.

The panelists agreed that a gender war wouldn’t do anyone any good, but that bias still exists. Until influential men become more balanced and realistic in their opinions about women’s abilities, change will be slow – particularly in the area of venture capital funding. The fact that so few women are partners at venture capital firms is a roadblock,  as people tend to invest in people they are most comfortable with and more women V.C.’s invest in women owned businesses.

On the positive side, studies indicate that women-owned businesses are run more efficiently, achieve a higher return and are focused on more than just the bottom line  – usually with an additional mission benefiting the greater good in some way. The current recession may be the catalyst that women need to be recognized as leaders with unique qualities that are necessary to gain an edge in our increasingly competitive and global world.

You can view the entire discussion on a series of youtube videos, here are the links.

Opening Comments and Introductions of Julie Abrams and Alison Covarrubias

Introductions of Baat Enosh and Ayesha Mathews-Wadhwa

Women Will Rule the World?

Funding Your Business

What About Women of Color?

Can Women Do It All?

Final Words of Wisdom

Please comment and share your views!

The Irrepressible Trudy

Lots of women know their hair stylist almost as well as they know their closest friends. That’s why we don’t dread haircuts the way men do – we actually look forward to the 1-2 hours when a friendly person will make us beautiful with the added bonus of a good  heart-to-heart. No staring glumly at the mirror until it’s done for us! Topics of conversation in a hair salon run from love life to clothes, movies to food, and of course, my personal favorite, money.

Meet Trudy
So without further ado, please meet my hair stylist, Trudy. She’s 40-ish,  a single-mom (of a 13 year old daughter), a homeowner, a fashionista, and, as you can tell from this photo, irrepressibly vivacious.

On my last visit, we got into a chat about money because Trudy had just completed a loan modification and was more than happy to share the details with me. I was very interested because I knew banks were considering loan modifications, but hadn’t heard of anyone actually getting one.

Trudy’s story is typical of many American homeowners who were enticed by loans that “magically” made debts disappear and lowered mortgage payments.

Here’s what happened. Trudy bought a condominium in Hercules, California in 2003. She paid $248,000. She put $50,000 down and took out a 30 year fixed rate loan for $202,000.

She was thrilled to become a homeowner and excited by the prospect of home price appreciation.

When a Refi is a No-No
Fast forward a couple of years later. Her condo had appreciated but so had her credit card debt. Enticed by all the refinance offers that came in the mail daily, she decided to investigate. Not fully understanding what she was getting into, Trudy refinanced her loan to one that offered a myriad of payment choices, better known as an “option-ARM.” The lowest payment option caused the loan to negatively amortize – which means the deferred interest is added to the outstanding loan balance – the exact opposite of a fixed amortizing loan where part of every single loan payment reduces the mortgage balance.

Like many other homeowners before and after her, Trudy chose this option in order to improve her cash flow and at the same time pay off her $30,000 in credit card debt. It’s understandable why this would seem like a good idea, but unless you truly understand what you’re getting into, the ramifications can be devastating.

By the time she applied for the loan modification in December of 2008, her deferred interest had grown to $22,000, her loan was now $260,000 and the interest rate was 7.11%.

All hell broke loose in September 2008.  Trudy received child support from her ex, which helped make ends meet. But he was a mortgage salesperson and with the fall-out from the credit crisis his income was slashed by $80,000 a year.  He was able to get the court to reduce his child support from $1200.00 a month to $180.00 a month. Ouch!

House Underwater
Trudy notified her mortgage company in October that she wasn’t able to make her payment. She had few options. Her loan balance was larger than her home value (also known as being “under-water”) so selling wasn’t an option.  She knew foreclosure was next and starting thinking about moving in with friends or family to regroup.

She found out about loan modifications and applied with her lender. She was turned down in January – the lender cited “information contained in her credit report.”

With a Little Help From Her Lender, Trudy Pulls Through
Then, as fortune would have it, President Obama’s mortgage relief program “Making Home Affordable” was launched in March. Trudy re-applied and this time she was successful. She received a letter of agreement on April 10 from her lender. Here are the new terms:  1. The lender agreed to reduce her loan balance by $53,442.4 to $208,402.44.  2. A new payment and interest schedule starts with a 2% interest rate and gradually increases (.75) per year to 6.5%. 3. Interest only payments are valid, but the borrower can choose to make a fully amortizing payment.

After hearing Trudy’s story, I did a little sleuthing to get some updates on the Obama administration’s $50 Billion mortgage relief program.  Turns out that Trudy was lucky. So far, the results have been disappointing, as lenders were not cooperating. But there are signs that this is changing.

Lenders have sent out offers to reduce monthly payments to around 19% of 3 million eligible borrowers’ -  – this is up from 15% at the end of July. Here’s the story>>

In the end, Trudy’s persistent and irrepressible self saved the day. She’s learned a lot of lessons from this…one of which is to always read the fine print and to better manage her use of credit cards.

You can find Trudy at the beauty salon at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley, 510-843-3000 or at Altogether Different in Corte Madera, 510-334-5401.