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We had our second official Money Talk meeting last week, and it was satisfyingly productive. Every person there (and some that weren’t) had been inspired to make at least a few changes in their financial systems since the previous meeting. We all agreed that one of the most useful consequences of meeting regularly about money was that we were all spending much more time just investigating our own financial situations.

TIME.

I read somewhere that as with most subjects, it took simply took an investment of time to learn about money matters. This was a revelation to me. If I wanted to learn Spanish, I would unquestionably dedicate at least several hours a week to learning that subject, but for some reason, I was balking at even spending a couple hours a month figuring out my expenses, my budget, my investments, etc. Now, with the incentives of good food and good friends, I am encouraged to pay more attention to my finances.

We started the evening by talking about a documentary about American credit card usage called Maxed Out. Only two (including me) of the six women there hadn’t seen it, but it sounds worth a watch. Sounds like a precautionary tale about credit card debt.

Then, each woman shared some credit card information with the rest of the group. Interestingly, it didn’t emerge that one person was necessarily doing the “right” credit card thing, but that there are all kinds of credit cards – and that we need to choose the one that suits our own lifestyle.

Woman #1 has a Citibank Mastercard that used to give 5% back (in cash!) on gas, grocery, and drugstore purchases. No annual fee, and she doesn’t pay any attention to the APR, because she pays in full every month. Sounds pretty good, only she was recently “upgraded” to a higher credit allowance, and now she only gets 2% back on gas, groceries, and drugstore purchases. I guess the perception of “upgrade” depends on the eye of the beholder.
She and her husband also keep another Chase Visa account open (very similar benefits as the Citibank card), “just in case.” Having two separate accounts also works to their advantage, because there is a cap of $300 cash back per year on each account.

She has recently seen an ad for a Discover card that gives 5% back – but my questions is, Who accepts Discover?

Woman #2 has an REI Visa through US Bank, which also has no annual fee. She gets 1% back in REI merchandise every year, and if she doesn’t spend it all, she can get the remainder in cash.

Woman #3 juggles eight credit cards to finagle the lowest APR on her credit card debt.

Woman#4 uses the credit card that comes with her bank account. She is considering changing banks – and when she asked which banks we all liked – turned out that three of us banked with Bank of America, but had nothing particularly good to say about it except that it was convenient; and two of us banked with Downey.

Woman #5 has a credit card that earned her free Starbucks coffee through Chase. She told us several spine-tingling tales of identity theft, which led to a discussion about identity protection:

1. Buy a good shredder, and don’t let any personal info leave your house.

2. Most credit cards and bank cards will put your picture on the front of the card for free.

3. Although some identity theft may occur through unsafe online purchases, you are generally protected by your credit card’s company’s insurance policy.

Woman #6 earns American Airlines frequent flyer miles with her Visa through Citibank. While she is happy to earn one-round trip year (25,000 miles), she is shopping for a card that doesn’t have a $85/year annual fee.

Finally, we discussed the first three chapters of Suze Orman’s The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom and decided to finish the book for the next meeting. At the next meeting two women will bring their personal living trusts (vs. a will) and share them with the group (here at my house! at the beach!) According to Orman, if you own property in California, when you die, your heir(s) will be required to pay probate fees, which are calculated based on the market value of the property. These fees can be BIG, and potentially disastrous for the inheritor. Having a trust instead of a will can avoid probate fees.

And finally we tried to pick out next financial book, but we got nowhere. We tossed about many books: High Finance on a Budget; The Millionaire Next Door;  The Millionaire’s Mind; The Money Drunk (by Julia Cameron of The Artist’s Way); Get a Financial Life; Rich Dad, Poor Dad; and several books by the Motley Fools, Your Money or Your Life and You Have More Than You Think, but none of them were just right for the moment. Most of the books seemed already out-dated, having been published in the 1990’s (scary that the ’90’s are already so far in the past).

If you have any suggestions for good financial books, please let us know!