Manisha Thakor and Sharon Kedar, co-authors of ON MY OWN TWO FEET: a modern girl’s guide to personal finance, are best girlfriends with a combined 18 years of experience in the financial services industry. At various points in their careers they have worked as financial analysts, portfolio managers, and client servicing/marketing executives for leading investment management firms with billions of dollars in assets under management.

Both Manisha and Sharon earned MBA degrees from Harvard Business School and are Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholders. Manisha received her BA in American Studies from Wellesley College and lives with her husband in Houston, TX. Sharon received her BA in Economics from Rice University and lives with her husband and daughter in San Francisco, CA.

Manisha and Sharon’s financial literacy advocacy work has been featured in such publications as THE NEW YORK TIMES, BUSINESS WEEK, and US NEWS & WORLD REPORT. Manisha & Sharon are also frequent guests on TV & Radio shows around the country. On My Own Two Feet-- As Manisha & Sharon like to say, “More than a Book – It’s a Movement!”

Guest Bloggers Manisha Thakor and Sharon Kedar--

                         80% of men die married.

                        80% of women die single.

Personal finance is important to both genders, but it is EXTRA important for us ladies. Why? Because statistically speaking we are the ones left holding the bag at the end of the day. Literally. According to WISER (Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement), 80% of men die married while 80% of women die single. (No, it's NOT because we're killing off the men <joke>...it's due to high divorce rates and women's longer life spans.) Alas, the bag that us ladies are left with is not such a pretty one. For a whopping 2/3rds of women over the age of 65 today, meager Social Security payments are their primary source of income.  In plain English that means millions of women who devoted their adult lives to working hard and serving their families and others are now having to choose between food and essential medicine in their golden years.

That's why we wrote On My Own Two Feet: a modern girl's guide to personal finance (Adams Business, June 2007). As best girlfriends, Harvard MBAs, and women who both work in the money management industry, we know firsthand that if you do a few simple things right with your money in your 20s, 30s, and 40s--you will literally put yourself on the path to financial nirvana.  Good personal financial hygiene doesn't have to be complex. Every sold piece of financial advice falls into one of these three buckets: (1) Save, (2) Invest, and (3) Protect. Looking around, however, we saw lots of evidence that despite the proliferation of money books, shows, and magazines, these basic steps are still not getting widely acted upon. Thus began what we like to call, On My Own Two Feet: "More than a book--It's a Movement!"  We are literally on a mission to create a nationwide movement where woman to woman the word gets passed along about the importance of taking control of one's financial life.  The movement starts with the three most powerful words in personal finance: Start Saving Now!

Here's why. Take two women, Amy and Zandra. Both save $5,000 a year for retirement for 10 years. Both women have the good fortune to invest their retirement money in investments that go up at an average annual rate of 10%. Fast-forward to retirement and you'd think they have pretty similar lives, right? Wrong!! Amy is sitting pretty on a nest egg of just over $2 million.  Zandra doesn't have chump change ($300,000)...but that's a mere 15% of what Amy has.  How on earth did Amy end up with SEVEN TIMES more money than Zandra, given that they both saved the same $50,000 out of their pockets over ten years? Simple. Amy saved from age 20 to 30; Zandra saved from age 40 to 50. By age 65, that extra 20 year head start that Amy had, made all the difference thanks to the awesome power of "compounding," or earning interest on both what you originally saved AND everything you've earned since then.

As we've traveled around the country wearing our financial literacy advocacy hats, this simple anecdote brings gasps from the audience every single time we say it.  Asking when you should start saving is a lot like asking your dermatologist when you should start wearing sunscreen to prevent wrinkles. What does the doctor always say? "Right Now!" When it comes to preparing your financial future, the same is true. How much should you strive to save?

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Update on Mar 13, 2008 by At Basil & Spice

Seen At Reuters!