IT'S BEEN A WHILE
With all the changes like new management and new projects at the Florence Branch I've neglected to write anything in my blog since January. And what a bitter cold January is was! Just feel the heat now and you know that summer is here.

My Women & Finance Book Club is going great, here are the books we've read so far:

• Women & Money: owning the power to control your destiny by Suze Orman
• Money, a Memoir: women, emotions, and cash by Liz Perle
• Rule #1: the simple strategy for successful investing in only 15 minutes a week by Phil Town
• Pay It Down?: from debt to wealth on $10 a day by Jean Chatzky
• Live Well on Less Than You Think: guide to achieving your funancial success by Fred Brock
• 7 Money Mantras for a Richer Life: how to live well with the money you have by Michelle Singletary
• Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett's Omaha by Jeff Matthews
• Make Money, Not Excuses: wake up, take charge, and overcome your financial fears forever by Jean Chatzky
• Half the Sky: turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide by Nicholas Kristof

Maybe you like basking in the sun with a hot new read, or perhaps you'd rather chill with a cool one. Granted, our atypical book club doesn't read steamy romances or bonechilling thrillers but we're learning a whole lot about money and finances and investments.

For example, Phil Town's Rule #1 taught us how to use free online resources like Yahoo Finance and MSN Money to research businesses to determine the best business to invest our money. He advocates in the style of Warren Buffett -- buy a good company that you know well, and buy it for less than it's value.

Town also showed us how to use simple formulas to figure out a company's future probabilities based on its 10-year history. I applied some of his principals and selected Sprint. I like Sprint Nextel. I'm a long time customer and they've provided me with and excellent product and superb service. That was a good start for me on selecting a company. The next thing I did was find the annual report and read the CEO's letter to his investors. I liked his style of writing and sensed that he was down to earth and honest about disclosing information that wasn't misleading.

I also found, on Yahoo Finance, the executives who are investing in Sprint; its history; its P/E (price per earnings ratio); and a lot of information that helped me determine that this was an good company whose stock was less than the value of the company. Hence, I made my first investment on my own through a local brokerage firm. Very exciting for me, especially since the stock has risen in value more than 10 percent in less than two months! I feel I made a good investment.

The book we're reading now for our June 15 discussion is a little different from what we've been reading. Half the Sky is a story about the harrows of women's sufferings around the world and how women are learning to break away and become self sufficient with the help of organizations that provide micro-loans to set up micro-businesses. With the cards stacked against them, these women are being empowered and learning to take control of money matters. It is said that if you educate a man you educate the man, but if you educate a woman you educate a village. Women are powerful creatures and we can all learn something from each other.

This well-written book is enlightening and inspiring. I hope you'll read it and join us for our next discussion on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. at the Florence Branch Library.

Best,

Cynthia