My mother too. She knows the markets, and spreads it around. Treasury bills, stock funds, bonds, etc. She used to keep buckets of gold coins in her basement for an emergency. Once I was down there helping her move something and spotted the buckets…’What are you planning for, an Argentina-like run?’ She said you never know. She’s the ultimate girl scout. Always prepared.

Star, Have to agree with you there. I don’t know what it is have tried to listen to her because she’s popular…and just can’t. And even have told myself that’s ridiculous…obviously the woman is talented so listen. But just bugs me. Gurus I like others can’t stand. I really liked Louis Rukeyser when he was alive….he drove women I knew nuts because he was always walked the short distance onto his stage by a girl, they said like a Dean Martin lounge singer. I thought it was funny. So there you go.

Cath—“The last 2 dollars in my pocket were my last 2 dollars, period. i bought a beautiful flower that smelled great: a gardenia, a peony.” Love that! Maybe not practical…but beautiful and brave and seems like abundance thinking to me.

I’ve not yet paid cash for a home, but did own first home at 17, and bought second one at 21. Have paid cash for almost every car. Would rather walk than make car payments…have a real aversion for that. I’m putting that one my to-do list….pay cash for a house. That would be terrific.

Great advice, Joan. Even Jackie Kennedy only left her children $250K in cash and the rest in trusts, because she wanted them to work. Although I’ve known trust fund babies who never did anything but play tennis, get tans, married and remarried, and drink. And people who worked hard, saved and then lost everything in fluke situations. Like pensions disappearing overnight as in Enron where both partners worked for the same company, invested all their money to retire early, and then were left with no job and no money in their 50s.

Phyllis, ”Why do you need a new one? This one works perfectly well.” My grandmother’s family also had a lot of money, but were very frugal, and everyone admired her style. She also said buy few classics, and take care of them. She gave my mother real Chanel suits (ie from Coco Chanel’s time), which she had slightly restyled for her, and then she gave them to me and I did the same, and they looked beautiful. A special favorite was a boucle wool beautiful pink with silk shantung facing on the collar and 3/4 length sleeve, and beautiful braid trim. Today a lot of Chanel is too overdone. But this particular suit three of us wore, got lots of compliments, and a year ago I sent it back to my mother who had it restyled again, taken completely apart and new lining etc. I bought a pair of classic Chanel sling-back pumps for my son’s HS graduate that were $250. When I wore them at his college graduation they looked new and had gone up in price to around $350-400. Whoever heard of shoes appreciating. Have worked with a few women who looked terrific and then discovered they bought everything at consignment shops, and clever about how they mixed it up. I love getting money’s worth even if it’s overtime as in investment wardrobe…I could never have a packed closet. Would go against everything that was ingrained. It is satisfying to know really got money’s worth from things.

Vivvy, Excellent story! You Dad is a prince!

Dona, “Give it to them as a gift.” My sentiments exactly. My policy (for the real friend) is to say it’s a gift. Glad to do it this once, and pay it forward if/when you can. Then forget about it. When give something away it always comes back in some form later. When in school the nun’s had an expression, “If you have two watches, give one away.”

My mother was and is a meticulous money manager/investor. Her expression was, “Sock it away” shorthand for compounding interest, etc. My best advice was my first job working for the then ‘Tiffany’ (as it was called) of stock brokerage firms. I traveled all over the US selecting and leasing their locations, and managing the design/construction. Worked with financial wizs and as a result got a stock broker’s license and licensed on all exchanges, NYSE, OTC, etc just to have the knowledge. It taught me to see trends, understand the markets, and to know that bad investments result from fear or greed, and over 90% lose money on fancy vehicles like options trading. Careful investigation, slow and steady is key. If I’d had a daughter her first magazine would have been, “Money.” Marilyn Monroe said diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but I’d rather wear Kenneth Jay Lane costume stuff and have a large well managed portfolio in euros, Asian, and emerging South American countries currencies.

Beverly…Whoa….this sounds complex and you have gumption. Think I would have tried finding him another woman so could distract him (have done that before, don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings so fix them up with a girlfriend, jeesh if I have to find one online in the grocery store.) But lucky you had a great lawyer on your side. I was fortunate not to have community assets. Nothing to argue over. Will keep it that way if ever take the plunge again. I also designed/built a house on a lake with a man I was engaged with. Loved that house. But when finished, decided didn’t want to get married and walked away from that too. He was lots of fun to be engaged to, just not to marry. Very sporty. We built on a lake so could water ski in summer, and then in winter the snow ski area was about 1/2 hr from the house. We both loved to ski and took lots of ski trips, great memories. Gee, maybe I would like to get married again thinking about these two. And don’t you live in Portland? And you’re the one who was smart and bought units so have rental income? Is that right? Now what do attribute all those money smarts too? Being a Republican so more money conscious? My brother lives on a lake up there. He’s also a Republican. Handsome too.

Gianna, So sorry I missed your comment on the other thread, I look for the other avatar you had. I’ll go back and read it, very sorry to hear about your brother. I’d been wondering about how the dinner went with your daughter? Good I hope. Why let strangers make you feel insecure? They don’t know you and your life and vice versa. I’ll go read your post, am always interested in what you have to say. Take care, Gianna. (France—my people!! Ha.I kiss the ground.)

Christie is forced to do this because of the disparity in assets, hers are substantial and should go to her children. And she must put the pressure on to get him also to sign a confidentiality clause…otherwise there’d be a book deal, and she’s managed her reputation, which is also a legacy for her children: ie; Elvis is the #1 money maker among deceased celebrities. She knows the future benefit of keeping that Golden Girl sheen for her children. My second husband and I had a pre-nup because he was 26 years older, a CEO, was a New York Republican elite and had been a naval pilot. His accountant wrote a hefty monthly check to his first wife, an heiress whose family has been in the NY Social Register since its first issue, and was a classmate of Jackie’s at Vassar. He didn’t want to write a second check. I liked his ex-wife, and her very adorable mother. After their daughter’s law school graduation we all went to her beautiful home in Darien, CT for a big reception and weekend and had a terrific time. Was always glad to see them in California where they came for winters. When I decided to leave my husband wanted to preserve the relationships. I waited until my son’s school term was over, and after I’d leased a fabulous home. My son was close to him and also his daughter, a great girl who became a senior partner of a high-profile Boston law firm. While we were married and his business was in a downturn I’d offered to sell property I’d owned with my brother and said he was welcome to the cash. He said I should keep my property. We always had a formal household and unwillingness by either to ruffle the pretty veneer. I took not one cent from the pre-nup. My ex was a very smart man, and respected my brains, style and abilities, and my relationship with my son. And since he was the only one alive who lived in the same house with us…the ambiance we three created together had a lot of value to me, as did his friendship. I wanted to preserve all of that in memory. Many women (as his first wife did for a long time) can look the other way about affairs that some men feel are superficial entitlements. I didn’t, but I didn’t feel particularly punitive about it either because I liked him a lot and could somewhat see his point. He just needed to pick another woman who agreed with it.

“Everything you WANTED us to see in you is now meaningless.” Liza D try not to be so absurd to imagine anyone wants the ROTFLMAO dooobie crowd’s good housekeeping sign of approval, except yourselves. Who cares?? I’m off to France for the summer….where are you going? Get a clue, OK?

I loved Kurt Vonnegut, he was a super brain and also did and said a lot of stupid things like smoking unfiltered Pall Malls and referring to that as a “classy way to commit suicide.” When he died Fox News ran an excoriating report calling Vonnegut “the irrelevant sacred cow of the New York literary scene”. Which are the kinds of jabs one sustains if you don’t wrap yourself up in cotton wool, and other benign inanities.

Oh, and Liza—-You have 486 comments to my 180 something…I forget. Since you state you’d like a job at home you could be on Craigslist answering ads for paid bloggers, ie taking action instead of posting that you are depressed, concerned about going into a shelter, and advising a woman who you don’t know, and with a great life in San Francisco. Mugsy’s Victim’s Unite Club can help you set up a blog if you need it, and a paypal, and then it’s a very simple matter to answer the adds on Craigslist….you can go all over the US and apply for ones that need paid bloggers. So your choices seem to be 1) Whine about your situation, 2) post all sorts of irrelevant stuff along with your “kewl” ROTFLMAO Mugsy Troop, 3) answer the actual question of this thread, 4) take actual action to improve your situation.