I attended the "Smart Women Finish Rich" seminar yesterday. It wasn't very informative.

Main Point of the Seminar: Women need to invest and learn to take care of their own finances.

Translation: Come to Morgan Stanley and we'll help you take care of your finances.

They tried to strike a chord with the women's emotional side, talking about values (intangible-making a difference) vs. goals (tangible-saving for that vacation), and said women need to invest in order to achieve their values, not goals. Blah freakin Blah.

This is how I imagine the translated conversation to take place...

Clueless Woman: I don't know what I need to do to invest for my future.

Morgan Stanley Woman: Oh! You made a great first step by coming to this meeting. And how convenient! I work for Morgan Stanley. Fill out this form and we can set up a time for us to work through building your "dream basket." And I'm a woman. So you can trust me. As women, we need to stick together... we're working towards the same goals.

Yep. So that was the gist of my seminar.
Some interesting facts: (Used as support for why women should manage their finances... especially the women that think, "I'll just let my husband take care of that stuff." Hate to admit it but I'm in that boat.)

-Women live 7 years longer than men. (Please refrain from comments about men dying early so they can get some peace and quiet. Comments like that are not appreciated. haha)
-The average age of widowhood is 56.
-25% of all widows go through their husband's death benefit in 2 months.
-One in two marriages end in divorce.
-Women are out of the labor force an average of 11 1/2 years for child rearing (meaning less time worked, meaning less pension accrued).


On an unrelated note... just something I thought was funny. The guys at church last Sunday were making conversation with my cousin, asking him where he's been and where we've taken him. Then they ask, like they're shocked, "They haven't taken you to Castro yet?!?! Dude, you can't come to San Francisco and NOT visit the Castro." So clever, making my poor cousin think he's missing out on something big. I had to jump in and say something, because my cousin commented that he always passed by the station on the MUNI and the guys were saying he should check it out. We got a good laugh out of that one. :)