Personal Finance From the Inside Out

I am excited to announce that my 4-week intensive course: Personal Finance from the Inside Out is now available through teleconferencing!

Yes, that is right, you do not have to live in the Monterey Bay area to partake in this transformational money management course! Whahoo!

"Take charge NOW of your financial future in a fun, inspiring and creative way"!



Learn your money personality, Feng Shui and money, A new way to plan and budget, Goal setting, Stimulate your investment ideas, improve your relationship with money and MORE!

$250.00 for the full 4-week intensive and bring a sign a friend up for FREE!
Please email me after you have paid to complete registration
(my email address is on the receipt page)

Class will begin as soon as enough people pre-register.
I intend to begin on Monday, February 8 at 6:30 p.m. (PST)

Tell me your name below

Tell me your friend's name

Thank you for making the decision to join me! This investment is one to feel great about! It is my intention that you are among the 95% who will feel the shift to empowerment and take charge for your financial well-being!

Personal Finance From the Inside Out

Do you realize that more than 85% of the households in this country are run by women? Yet where did we learn to do this? Slowly over the last 40 years, men have turned this job over to the women!

This class is a lot of fun ... we take a closer look at the household income and expenses; Like my friend Ahnalisa says, "Cash in and cash out, it is like the breathe of the household".

CLASS BEGINS: Thurday, May 21, 2009 6:30pm to 8:30pm

• In this class, we take a look at our attitudes around money and ask our selves what financial freedom means to us.
  
• We take a look at how simple, or not as difficult as it may seem, to achieve financial freedom.
  
• We learn some simple guidelines for how to set up a budget and follow the budget.
  
• We learn some goal setting and list what needs to happen to obtain those goals.
  
• Journaling happens!
• W e take a Money Personality Test; get to know your personality around money.
  
• Learn to start thinking about how you can invest and empower yourself around money! ... and more!
  

If you live local in the Monterey Bay area and want to sign up, please email me directly at: jewleyd@comcast.net I will eventually teach this course over the internet, so keep in touch if you are interested!

Cheers,
Julie

Retreat in the Sierras with Women From My Investment Club

A retreatful weekend; I spent two days in a cabin in the California Sierras (in a small town called Pine Crest) with nine uniquely wonderful women! It was truly relaxing and rejuvenating; a memorable weekend to say the least.

This is the clubs second annual retreat. Each participating member is in charge of a project for an hour to two hours in length. The project can be about anything as long as it has something to do with money or empowerment. Our weekend began with a walk out to large rocks sitting above water level in Pine Lake for morning meditation. Upon returning to the cabin, Mel lead us in a journaling session, then Lisa showed us her system for goal setting, Jill brought wool yarns and we each made short scarves using a uncommon technique of crafting them, we grazed through magazines and each created a collage -- some people called theirs vision boards. We ended the first day with a movie that Elizabeth brought, "Splendor in the Grass" a classic staring Natalie Wood and Warren Beaty. Sunday morning, Christy had us on a scavenger hunt through the Wall Street Journal and Kimberle shared about some recycling tips showed us how to make a simple and safe cleaning product for our home. I must add that we ran out of time and I did not get to share my project which was to play a very fun game that Robert Kiyosaki came up with called Cash Flow 101. And we unknowingly ate all the eggs, so Nicole did not get to show us how to make face masks. The next time we go on retreat, we will have to add another half day.

As I share and write this recap of our weekend, it sounds so simple -- it was -- but I got so much out of being with people who are like-minded. I was inspired by hearing the more personal details of my friend's lives and listening to how they have overcome the roadblocks and how the are setting goals for the next adventures in their lives. I loved hearing my friends share their ideas and dreams. I like to see how different we all are yet see how we are also so similar as humans, as women and some of us as mothers. I appreciate so much how we each give in our individual ways. The real beauty of it is when we are being authentic we give and enrich others without even realizing the impact we make!











Blessings, Jules

Writing the First Issue of my FREE Monthly Journal

Well, I do feel I have another rewarding accomplishment completed, yet just beginning ... "Phew" and "Wow" at the same time. I had a lot of fun creating this first issue of my journal (newsletter)!

Right now the only way you can get it is to subscribe to it. You can sign-up here on this blog. Just go to the top right of the page and you will see the sign-up box.

I decided to name this newsletter: "From the Pages of Copia's Journal". I write about all areas of a woman's life; her family life, social life, lots about her financial life, her health, her spiritual life (not religion) and the life styles we choose, which is a culmination of all of the above. ... just thought about her sex life ... hmm will have to add this one later ...

I really feel like I have found my life's purpose and have begun a journey to great and wonderful accomplishments! I invite you to join me, follow me and subscribe!

Enjoy,
Jules

A Maya Angleou Poem from Ms. Mia

Today when I went to work in the office at my kids' school, I found a poem written by Maya Angelou on my desk. It was given to me from one of our dear and wise kindergarten teachers, Ms. Mia. Thank you Mia for this gift!

Maya Angelou's "What Every Woman Should Have"

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
Enough money within her control to move out and rent a place of her own,
even if she never wants to or needs to ...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
Something perfect to wear if the employer, or date of her dreams wants to see her in an hour ...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
A youth she's content to leave behind ...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
A past juicy enough that she's looking forward to retelling it in her old age ...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
A set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra ...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
One friend who always makes her
laugh ... and one who lets her cry ...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
A good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her
family ...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
Eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems, and a recipe for a meal, that will make her guests feel honored ...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
A feeling of control over her destiny ...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ...
How to fall in love without losing herself ...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to quit a job, break up with a lover,
and confront a friend without ruining the friendship ...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
When to try harder... and WHEN TO WALK AWAY ...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ...
That she can't change the length of her calves,the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents ...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ...
that her childhood may not have been perfect..but it's over ...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ...
What she would and wouldn't do for love or more ...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ...
How to live alone... even if she doesn't like it ...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ...
whom she can trust, whom she can't,
and why she shouldn't take it personally ...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ...
Where to go...be it to her best friend's kitchen table...or a charming inn in the woods ... when her soul needs soothing ...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ...
What she can and can't accomplish in a day ... a month ... and a year ...

March: Spiritual Book Club

I don’t’ think I have told you yet. Once a month I join four other lovely friends for a spiritual book club. We are on our third book now. We came together nearly a year ago and started with Eckhart Tolle’s book, A New Earth, Awaken to Your Life’s Purpose. I couldn’t put the book down and reread it three times! I even have the book on CD and would listen to certain chapters over and over again like a reference book. You know what? I’ll write book review on a later day, so be in touch.

The second book we read I did not like very much. I was the only one out of the five of us they felt this way, I think..

Now we are reading The Anatomy of the Spirit, The Seven Stages of Power and Healing by Caroline Myss, PH.D. I love this one too! It is all about taking full responsibility for our health, emotional and physical. She teaches how to manage our energy. When I am done with this book, I’ll write a book review on this one too! Keep you posted!

Blessings,

Jules

Investment Club Meeting: February

Yep, that time again! Last night I went to my investment club meeting. Each month a member is assigned to be our education coordinator. She is in charge of organizing the education segment of our meetings. It was my turn last night and I invited a guest speaker to talk about empowerment. What an amazing hour of information and stories! I will be sharing some of what I learned in my upcoming monthly journal.

We did some journaling from the book The Energy of Money by Maria Nemeth, Ph.D. We worked on Life's Intentions which will eventually lead each of us to a list of goals. Personally, I set goals often and revisit them every few months. I even have some great tips and tools on how to set goals and achieve them. It is really nice to see a new way to develop goals; the way Maria Nemeth show us in her book. I would recommend to you to buy the book and start a group. It is a great way to be decifer what you might want in life and more fun do share the process within a group of supportive friends!

And the last item to mention is that many of us in the investment club will be reading The Great Depression Ahead by Harry S. Dent Jr. I have already started reading it. I am finding it easy to understand and most of all finding comfort in knowing that there are many directions to choose to prepare and ride out and even prosper during this upcoming downturn in our economy. Look for my book review in a few weeks!

A Quote for Today: February

My friend Melina came over with her daughter this evening. It has been a few weeks since we have had time to catch up with each other and just visit. Mel brought me a gift -- a wall hanging -- perfect for my office! It reads:

"Success is not the key to happiness
Happiness is the key to success.
If you love what you are doing, you will be successful" --Buddha

"Join hundreds of other women who are moving in new directions!"

With the New Year ahead most of us make new resolutions and set new goals. I am certainly doing that! I love this feeling of reflecting on the past year and bringing it to a close. Then, I ambitiously make new plans for the coming year and set new goals. One of my projects is to create a FREE monthly Journal where you will find articles, tips, stories and more about women and how they manage finances, hold successful careers, nurture and raise healthy families, keep themselves healthy too, find time to socialize with friends, keep the fire in intimate relations and devote time to important causes in their communities -- "how we balance it all".

How to do YOU balance it all? I bet you are closer than you think, but if you are not sure, my FREE monthly Journal will show you how I am doing it and how others do it too! So join my community of women who want to focus on one or more of these areas in their lives during the New Year to come. Sign up for my FREE monthly Journal!

My other aim for the New Year is to share my expertise on budgeting (dry boring word - maybe you can help me come up with a new word) and teach workshops on streamlining household cash flow. I can see a demand for this with the changing economy. And I am writing a book somewhere in all of this too!

How about you? What’s important in your life? Which areas of your life will you be focused on in the new year ahead? I would love to know!!

Please participate in the poll on the right column of the blog page and share with me.

Warmly,
Jules

A Quote for Today: January

"If you do not see great riches in your imagination,
you will never see them in your bank balance".
~Napoleon Hill

Investment Club Meeting: December Holiday Party

The investment club had a regular meeting and annual holiday party this evening. Out of the 15 guests from last month's Open House, there were seven prospective new members who attended this regular meeting tonight (first of two meetings they are required to attend). That is such a good feeling to see so many interested -- that tells me we are group offering something very worth while!

At our December meeting we always vote the new officers in for the New Year. I will remain the treasurer. Our current secretary will remain as secretary. We will have a new president and new vice president -- which speaks volumes about the personal growth of these two ladies! ... And we got a lot of business done! I love productive meetings like this one.

Our hostess for this meeting had hidden a Christmas fairy in her living room and for whomever found it she had a gift. I found it! She gave me a book called Green Investing, A Guide to Making Money through Environment-Friendly Stocks by, Jack Uldrich. I'll read it and let you know what I think of it.

And we did a journaling activity this evening. All of the members agreed -- we were pleasantly surprised by how all the guests tonight openly shared their results of this journaling activity.

A Quote for Today: November

A friend and co-worker sent me an email today - a slide show of a Chinese Proverb. I like what it said very much. Then at the end of this slide show one slide states that this Chinese Proverb originated in the Netherlands. I found that to be perplexing -- odd. Regardless of where if is really from I genuinely like what the message said. So I share it here:

"With money you can buy a house but not a home.
With money you can buy a clock but not time.
With money you can buy a bed but not sleep.
With money you can buy a book but not knowledge.
With money you can buy a doctor but not good health.
With money you can buy a position but not respect.
With money you can buy blood but not life.
With money you sex but not love."

A Quote for Today: September

Today I share some of my favorite Oprah Winfrey quotes. Others may have said them too because some of these I have heard similar versions before, but Oprah is quoted as saying these and I resonate with them:

"I believe the every single event in life happens in a opportunity to choose love or fear".

"Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough".

"My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment".

A Quote for Today: August

"The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything;

they just make the best of everything they have".

~Unkown

A Quote for Today: July

This is written in the Hebrew Talmud...

"Be very careful if you make a woman cry, because God counts her tears. The woman came out of a man's rib. Not from his feet to be walked on. Not from his head to be superior, but from the side to be equal. Under the arm to be protected, and next to the heart to be loved."

A Quote for Today: June

F.E.A.R.

False Evidence Appearing Real

90% of what stops people from realizing their dreams is FEAR

I have heard this said many time in various places. Thought I'd share it here.

Investment Club Meeting: June

I went to my monthly investment club meeting tonight. Our current president opened up the discussion about increasing our membership. We currently have five women in the club and our by-laws allow for 12 members. After discussion of this, some of the members like the small group and the rest of us (including me) would like to see more women join. I made some suggestions for changes ... I think everyone will consider. I'll let you know if we implement this changes. I think they are exciting and over all improvements!

We also talked about what will do as a group for community service this year. It looks like we will volunteer at the local food bank in September.

We did not journal this evening due to our journaling leader is out of town.

A Quote for Today: May

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain"! -- Unkown

Investment Club Meeting: May

I started a women's investment club four years ago. I had always wanted to learn about investing in the stock market and investing in real estate. So I decided to start a club. Three of my friends (after asking many) decided to join me and help start one.

The investment club meets once a month; the second Wednesday of each month. We are structured as a general partnership complete with by-laws. We do have club dues and currently invest in the stock market together with those funds.

Last night was our May meeting. We just started a journaling series (we do many activities around the theme of money besides investing) and I want to share with you the activity we did last night.

Last year, one of the club's members discovered a book called “The Energy of Money,” by Maria Nemeth. As a club we occasionally like to read books together. We have started to explore this book chapter by chapter together. Last night we each wrote and shared our "Money Biographies'. It was fascinating to write about and hear about the negativity around money that we each were exposed to while growing up. We each had positive ideas around money while growing up too. And our stories were so different from each others. Already I can see that the author, Maria Nemeth, is demonstrating that our ideas about money can be debilitating or empowering.

The club will work from chapter 2 at our August meeting.

Looking for a Job ...

So this morning I was pondering on what do to about finding a job. Well, that seems obvious; get the paper and look in the help wanted section, or go to Craigslist and see what might me posted, put the word out to friends that I am looking for work ... blah blah blah. But, I loathe the whole job hunting process; filling out applications and hoping for a job interview and then sitting through a job interview hoping I made the perfect first impression (of course I am qualified otherwise I would not be applying for the position). It is just not in my nature to jump through the hoops. I would rather create a business and my own hoops. I am doing that with my friend. We have Nature by the Drop as a budding side business that I have every reason to believe will blossom into something fabulous. But right now, this month and next and the one following that, I need cash flow from a "job" -- maybe for a year or two at the very most. I will do what ever it takes ... as long as the process to get there is "effortless and easy" as my friend Pam would say.

So how am I going to do that?

The job I really would love to have is the office assistant position that begins in July at my kids' school. That could very well be the dream job of any single mom of elementary aged children -- It is definitely my interim dream job! Well the day I turned in my application I was told they had just filled that position. I was bummed but asked them to please keep my resume because you never know what might happen.

Anyway, I did mention to one of my friends who is a doctor just building her practice that I could help her out in her office ... she is thinking about it ...

So how am I going to do create myself a job effortless and easily? I just will!

* * * * * * * * * *

So you are not going to believe this! I am so excited (I get excited easily, but this is pretty cool)! I left this blog entry about two hours ago to runs some errands. I came home and checked my email. There I find an email from a friend I have not talked to since October so she doesn't even know I am looking for a job or even getting a divorce and someone she knows is looking for a stay-at-home mom who can help sell ad space for her local radio show. I can do that! You bet, I replied to that email! I called her on the phone too -- job sounds very interesting and very flexible. I've got to have flexibility in a job while I have two young children . I am meeting with Deborah on May 27 to talk more about what she is looking for.

Now that was effortless and easy! Yay!