Carol Chapman member for 23 weeks 4 hours Send a message

Are you haunted by an inner bag lady, by a fear that you’ll be waiting tables and soaking your aching feet at 65 instead of heading for the retirement of your dreams?

Last week I met Jennifer, a glowing, confident woman of about forty or so who confided in me that she had just given herself some praise while in the shower the previous morning. Her boyfriend was away on business, and she was getting ready to go to work, as the director of an assisted living center. She suddenly realized, as she was generously lathering her skin, that she was financially independent. Finally. And it felt really good, she recalled, as she counted her blessings – and her accomplishments.

She owns a house, she’s paying down her mortgage, and she manages her stock investments, including a retirement account. She doesn’t have to worry about whether or not her boyfriend will always be there, or whether his business will always be successful. In fact, he had recently made some unsound investments, but that didn’t become an issue between them because her own finances are secure. And so she gave herself a little pat on the back, she said, as the water swirled away down the drain.

Jennifer has managed to do something that many women haven’t managed to do yet. She’s figured out how to banish the inner bag lady, that nagging, lowly image of poverty and need that lurks in the backs of our minds. Lots of us still feel a shiver of dread as well as sympathy when we see a raggedy woman, grown old before her time, hair askew and threadbare socks bagging around her ankles, trundling her belongings down the street in a battered shopping cart.

“That could be me, but for the grace of God,” we say, superstitiously, no matter how secure we might actually be at the moment. Or we might imagine ourselves having to bus tables or wait on rude twenty-somethings instead of heading for the spa or the resort of our dreams at age 65. In our heart of hearts, we know that we can’t count on the men in our lives, on social security, or on the lottery to take care of us in the future.

So how do we get rid of this worrisome insecurity? Well, for one thing, we can make sure we’re investing enough of our money – and investing it wisely – in order to build a solid nest egg. The sooner we start investing, the better we’ll do, by a truly astonishing margin. And it doesn’t take as much time or as much money to get started or to maintain a portfolio as many women fear. If you have $100, you can get started in a good mutual fund, as long as you set up an automatic investment plan with a company like T. Rowe Price.

If you check out my Web site, http://www.womanwithportfolio.com, you’ll see a section on setting up simple portfolios, which you can call either a lazy woman’s portfolio or a busy woman’s portfolio, depending on your point of view.

So you don’t have to wait for Prince Charming to kiss away your fears of turning into a bag lady. This is something we can do for ourselves!