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 That's us... the Chicks Laying Nest Eggs Investment Club. Chick
Karin got the idea back in March 1998 to gather a bunch of her girlfriends
across the country and start an investment club. Only glitch: it had to
be online... travel was a problem. We live in St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Atlanta,
St. Paul, Los Angeles, Orlando, Portland, (Maine), Annapolis, Scottsdale
and Canada. It's a little hard to make our regular monthly meetings when
we're scattered across North America.
For our first meeting we decided to get together face-to-face in
Minnesota to discuss the logistics of the club. Everyone was assigned
an investment book to read before we got there, so we could get a little
more familiar with this new arena. How much should we invest? How often?
Cabernet or Zinfandel? And what should our criteria or approach be to
investing?
Blood was drawn, agreements signed, and the beginnings of the Chicks
Dozen Investment Approach were formed. We decided to incorporate what
we had learned from Peter Lynch, Warren Buffett and The Motley Fool books we had read. Of course we continually fine tune
it, but we're women, and we are granted that right at birth. We like it
the way it is now, and to date we are beating the market by 50%.
Soon after our Minnesota meeting, we got online and started to
conduct our business there... in cyberspace. Originally we all were on AOL so we used their Buddy Chat rooms,
and we had our message board over on www.fool.com.
Both of those websites were ahead of their time and we LOVE them both.
(We bought stock in one of them and the other we will always live and
breathe.)
But, we really wished there would have been a How to Start an Investment
Club book out there that was fun and easy to read. We were determined not to sacrifice any of our fun in learning the stock market,
nor give ourselves a panic attack learning new words. We decided to
write the book. (You can find out more
about it here. It's a great book that will reinforce what you learn
here on our website.)
Then, itchin' for another trip... we all booked a flight to Las Vegas.
(No comments please about the investment club in Vegas oxymoron.) We called
it our Semi-Annual Investment Club Attendance Required meeting. Our husbands
couldn't say no. I mean, we do get out our research papers, pens and the
calculators, but not without the food, wine and laughter far behind. Or
does that stuff usually come before? Anyway, now we meet every six months
face to face, and have added it to our Agreement signed with more blood.
Feel free to peck around our site, pick up the book, or purchase some
pajamas. Get a feel for being a Chick. Ease your way into becoming financially
savvy. See what it's all about. And then, call up some girlfriends, and
ask if they want to embark on a new future. It will be well worth everyone's
time, and couldn't you use a night out? Oh wait, that would be a night
in, just shut the door behind you.
Girls just wanna have fun... Chicks wanna learn something along the way. |
