WIFE in the News

Money Clubs can teach women to teach selves
by Ann Perry
Union-Tribune, September 14, 2003

Maru Corrada, an Oceanside decorator, got into debt a few years ago she managed to bail herself out.

Yet that success left her hungry for more financial skills.

That's why she became one of the first to volunteer for organizing a new kind of club – part support group, part investment club with a more holistic outlook – whose goal is to teach women to teach themselves about finances.

They're called Money Clubs (www.themoneyclub.org) and their simple pitch is this: they're completely free, nonfattening and will give you a chance to spend time with your friends.

Corrada found that appealing. "I've always enjoyed working in groups. I knew it was the logical next step." she says. Her club of half a dozen members called $avvy Women meets monthly at a coffee shop.

The Money Clubs are the latest brainchild of Candace Bahr, a Carlsbad financial adviser and managing partner of Bahr Investment Group, and Ginita Wall, a San Diego certified public accountant, certified financial planner and author of eight books.

Fifteen years ago Bahr and Wall founded a San Diego nonprofit organization dedicated to helping women become financially independent. They called it the Women's Institute for Financial Education or WIFE (in the same playful sense as Gloria Steinem once said, "Every woman needs a wife.")

WIFE has sponsored a long-running Second Saturday program for women (and men) going through divorce, held every second Saturday of the month in Cardiff at the San Elijo campus of Mira Costa College. The group has also created an often visited and highly praised educational Web site, www.wife.org.

Still, the two founders felt that wasn't enough. When women wanted more hands-on education, they referred them to investment clubs.

"You can learn how to buy and sell stocks," says Wall. "But if you don't have the money to do it, it doesn't do you any good to have the knowledge."

So Wall and Bahr created the Money Clubs to provide step-by-step guidance on issues like debt, retirement and educating children.

"The Money Clubs really take a 360-degree view of women's lives," says Wall. "We've provided a series of small steps. Women are great readers. It's the "do" that's been missing. In 15 minutes or less every day they can take control of their lives."

1,500 members

The duo is confident the club model will work. They've been testing it since March and have 1,500 members signed up.

"We developed this program based on common sense and years of experience," says Bahr. "Based on the feedback, we know we're right. The concept is so simple, clean. Any woman can start a club."

One woman from a small town e-mailed to say she'd like to form a club: "It's hard to feel like you are alone in financial woe, especially as a woman. I believe there are a lot of women like me out there, who desperately need this assistance, who are savvy and smart about everything else in their life, except this."

Another woman wrote, "I would like to join because I have a fear of saving for some reason. It is like I think if I have money someone will want to borrow it from me, or take it. I want to be happy and financially stable, not broke and deep in debt."

Bahr and Wall expect membership to pick up dramatically with the January publication of their book "It's More Than Money – It's Your Life!: The New Money Club for Women" (John Wiley & Sons). Their goal is to sign up one million women members in five years.

Already the Department of Defense has committed to use Money Clubs in all its military branches as part of a major financial literacy push. Bahr and Wall say there are indications that some existing investment clubs are considering adding the Money Club as an alternative activity.
How to join

Women can participate in the clubs in two ways – either di

rectly by joining a club that meets regularly or by participating online. The purpose of meeting with other women is to better offer support, motivation and accountability for achieving goals, as well as friendship and fun. "Money grows in groups" is one of the Money Club sayings.

There is no cost to join or to participate. The Money Clubs receive financial support from the education arms of Visa and General Electric, but there are no strings attached.

All club members must register online, but the founders pledge that member information is entirely confidential. Those who register will receive a monthly e-mail newsletter and will have access to the materials used by the Money Clubs, including a 21-day program for getting out of debt.

The Money Club materials are especially geared toward women – filled with questionnaires, dealing with feelings about money and addressing the issues of control and empowerment.

One woman who was reluctant to join because she felt incapable of handling money came to a club's first meeting, where the first topic is "Money Attitudes From Your Childhood." The session got the woman talking about her first job and how her father had taken away her paychecks from the start, telling her she couldn't manage money.

When she got married, her husband did the same thing. This led her to believe she had no right to say what to do with her own money. Her big breakthrough, she later told club members, was when she went to a self-storage company and had enough nerve to ask whether they would give her a discount if she paid in advance. And they did.

Men are welcome to participate in Money Clubs, but few have embraced the approach.

"Men don't share information in groups," says Wall. "Men compare and women share."

Adds Bahr, "We've had a lot of men say, 'I don't get it.' The sexes sort of self-select."

Corrada, the Oceanside redecorator (she decorates using existing furniture), says one of the WIFE slogans that initially hooked her was "A man is not a financial plan.™"

Now she's going to get married soon to a fiance seven years younger, who is part of a more savvy generation that's started planning retirement early.

How does he feel about her joining a Money Club?

"He was incredibly relieved," says Corrada. "He felt it would only make the relationship better. If something happened to him, I could handle the finances. He felt it was great that I was taking the initiative."

Ann Perry is the author of "The Wise Inheritor: A Guide To Managing, Investing, and Enjoying Your Inheritance" from Broadway Books. She can be reached at moneyperry@aol.com.

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