Chick Jana

Age: 40

Occupation:
Training and
Development Manager

Born:
Minneapolis, MN

Lives Today:
Atlanta, GA

Education:
BA in Communication and English from
Augsburg College
in Minneapolis

Marital Status:
Married with children

Jana's Articles »

Hi There! I'm Jana, and I’m a Chick! I can't believe we Chickies have been
at this investment club stuff for almost 10 years!!! That's reason
enough to celebrate! This year I turned 40 and to my surprise, found
myself pregnant once again. Yes, our biggest surprise present
arrived in December, our new baby boy. Luv, luv, luv the baby, hated the
pregnancy. I'm also blessed to be the mother of Austin and Alaine. Yes,
I have the three smartest and cutest children in the world (really I'm
not biased). Before I became a mother, I was wandering through life
thinking I knew everything! Boy have things changed-- they're now
teaching me a few things about life. My husband is Mac Daddy, we've been
married for almost 3 years. Yes, we did things a little backwards,
having our children before we got married, but that's a story for
another day and a few margaritas.

Here's the short version of my investment life. I grew up in Minnesota
with the basic Midwestern philosophy...go to school and work hard. I
never learned anything about how to save or invest money. I went to
college and managed to graduate in four years without any school loans.
Without realizing it, I made my first great investment and it was in
myself! Can you tell I'm still a little proud? However, up until joining
this club, I didn't really understand the stock market or investing in
anything. I had no clue about my personal finances either. I was never
taught how to manage money.

The early part of my 20's I spent living paycheck to paycheck and
bouncing a few checks here and there. After I started my first job, I
began putting money away into a 401k, because my mom told me to (I
never disobeyed, hehe). I also invested in the company's employee stock
purchase plan. I had no idea what either of them were at the time, I was
just told it would be a good investment (whatever that was), so I did.
Well let me tell you, they were both great investments. The latest great
investment was joining this club - it's truly changed my way of thinking
and of course my retirement.

Since joining this club I've gained the following things - you never
know how a group of women can influence your life:

I have 7 new great girlfriends I get to see once a year AND I get to chat with them weekly via the message boards. How awesome is that? I get a girlfriend-fix every day!
I participated in a Habitat for Humanity Women Build project and built a house in a week!
I've attended the Yahoo and Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meetings - totally enlightening!
I now tell my 401k broker where to invest my money.
I've set up a brokerage account on-line and make my own investments.
I have my own investing philosophy.
I like watching CNBC and reading Fortune and Forbes.
I have conversations with people about the stock market and I actually know what I'm talking about.

I'm a Chick, Grrrrr