Financial security

no matter your gender, the basics still apply By Tim Suffish CFA, CPA Vice President, St. Germain Investments At the most basic level, whether you're man or woman, the big money issues are the same: 1. Save while you can and invest for the future. 2. Do your best to grow your portfolio to, at the very least, keep up with inflation, and ideally to increase your purchasing power over time. 3. Position your assets in a way that doesn't keep you up at night, worrying about the safety of your nest egg. Too much anxiety leads to the wrong moves at the wrong time. 4. Either get comfortable taking care of your finances by yourself or find a trusted advisor that can help you navigate the waters. Doing nothing about your financial future is simply not an option ! Where women fail When working with women, however, there is a specific body of facts, statistics and research that we need to consider, in addition to the general rules and goals for financial security. Those statistics say: 1. Women have a longer life expectancy; government statistics show that the average 65-year-old woman can expect to live nearly three more years than her male counterpart. 2. Women exhibit more uncertainty regarding financial matters. Also they tend to be more conservative investors and are less willing to take on risk. This means that if you are a woman and you are currently not involved in the "family financials," this is a situation you need to remedy. Chances are, you'll be the one balancing the family checkbook at some point down the road. Budgeting, planning, investing, rebalancing the portfolio; these are all part of the financial routine that you need to be prepared for. Getting comfortable now with the various investment options available to you from CDs at one end to aggressive mutual funds in the 401k or IRA will be critical to the long term success of your nest egg. So will a working knowledge of such investment tools as risk and return and long term and short term investing and how a blend of strategies suited to your "time horizon" is the key to financial security. Most importantly, you need to be involved and comfortable with what you have and how it is invested. This is especially true in the market that we are dealing with now. As our leaders in Washington hash out a plan to deal with the fallout from years of imprudent lending in the housing market, for the informed investor there is real comfort in knowing how the different pieces of your portfolio will perform. Bonds are up due to the flight to quality; cash is stable but low yielding; and stocks will remain volatile in an uncertain market. Just knowing what the pieces are and how they will react can create comfort. Fear of the unknown is something that can be conquered. Column provided to PRIME by: St. Germain Investment Management; 1500 Main Street, Springfield, MA; Phone is 413-733-5111 or 1-800443-7624; web site: www.dgstgermain.com