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August 20, 2004/Elul 3 5764, Vol. 56, No.48
JCC offers a couple rich ideas
MICHAEL MIKLOFSKY
Staff Writer
When money matters, who is the better investor - a man or a woman - and how can individuals and couples more effectively plan for their financial futures?
Those questions and others will be answered in, "Smart Couples Finish Rich," a workshop presented by Adam Brooks CFP(r) and Lee Eisinberg, associate vice presidents of RBC Dain Rauscher, a national financial investment and securities firm with offices in the Valley.
The workshop is based on the New York Times Bestseller "Smart Couples Finish Rich: 9 Steps to Creating a Rich Future for You and Your Partner" (Broadway Books, $14.95 paperback) by David Bach.
"Financial issues aren't related to one person, but both people in a relationship," Eisinberg says. "If both people participate in a workshop like this, they tend to look at things together, instead of as opposing forces. It gets people to think about their financial situation and hopefully take action."
Often times, the major hurdle standing in the way of financial success is stress. Individuals or couples are overwhelmed by new expenses, or find themselves without a lot of money. The thought of saving or investing for the future may seem to be a great burden, but there are small steps people can take to rescue themselves.
The biggest mistake is when people don't do anything and have no long-term plans, he says.
"Before you know it, five ... 10 years (have) gone by, you've got children, you've got expenses," Eisinberg says. "The easiest way for all of us to implement a plan is to do something systematically, which might be a retirement 401K plan at work, or might be a systematic savings plan. If you have a better idea of where it's going to, then you can develop a system in a way that you can save."
On occasion, people find themselves over their head with their financial obligations and in search of a bailout, which is when they'll turn to a financial investment company.
In some cases, couples who have been together for years and are approaching retirement realize that they are further from financial freedom than they had planned on.
"They're trying to catch up and they're going to be maybe more aggressive than they should be," Eisinberg says. "If they need to catch up to where they should be at, perhaps with their level of investment savings, that could be a mistake ... trying to be maybe be more aggressive at a point in their life as when they would normally take less risk, then trying to take more risk."
The best way for people, both individuals and couples, to take ownership of their financial situation is to educate themselves, which is why Brooks and Eisinberg decided to host the workshop: to offer education to both couples and individuals.
"There are a few nuances in the workshop that relate to couples, but a single person could attend the workshop and would still benefit," he says.
So what's the difference between men and women who invest?
"Women make better investors," Eisinberg says.
"The key word is commitment and that's kind of a joke and women laugh at that, but men tend to get in and out of investments where women may have more of a commitment to something and stick with it," he says. "By sticking with that investment, they're often much better off at trying to time when to get in and when to get out of the market, or when to get in or out of a specific investment."
Women do have disadvantages though.
"They tend to be in the workforce for less time because they often are having children and may be out of the workforce and they're going to statistically outlive men, so they need to plan maybe a little differently than men do."
But men have more disadvantages when it comes to investing.
"Men tend to be the investors when we're dealing with older couples," he says. "It traditionally was the man that handled all of the investment and financial decisions.
"Women have only recently become empowered, so I think men have always sort of been in power either by society or by their relationship with their spouse, to handle investment and financial decisions."
Eisinberg says that reading the book and educating himself financially with the help of the workshop literature has helped he and his wife become better investors.
"I think it's helped us both realize that both of us are involved in the finances and responsibility of our savings, our investments and our future," he says. "In some cases, you have couples that you've got one that's a saver and one that's a spender and that can be difficult to get things accomplished because as hard as one works to try and save the best for the future, the other one might be spending."
Contact the writer here
Details
- What: Smart Couples Finish Rich workshop
- Where: Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale
- When: 3-4:30 p.m., 7-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 25
- Cost: Free.
- Call: Kathy Moore, 602-381-5320. Reservations required.
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