An Author Wednesday Interview with Susan L. Hirshman, author of Does This Make My Assets Look Fat?: A Woman’s Guide to Finding Financial Empowerment and Success.

 

Does This Make My Assets Look Fat? is the ideal title for this women’s guide to financial success, which compares professional financial advice to dieting in a clever and humorous way. Susan Hirshman emphasizes how women have the knowledge to control themselves from urges, like dieting, with their personal assets. Readers discover that they need to know all the necessary information about their current financial situation and how to manage their spending habits afterwards. By developing a positive attitude and gaining confidence, the reader will have control over his or her financial future but the hardest lesson to learn is when the reader finishes the book; Applying this mindset and making it part of a daily lifestyle.

Read more for the rest of this great author interview and to learn how you can win a copy of Susan’s book!

 

 

Q. Thanks for the interview. Can we begin by having you tell us a little bit about yourself and how long you’ve been working in and writing about this topic?

A. I have been working in financial services for more than twenty years – and over the years, I have become very passionate about increasing the financial literacy of women in order to make them an educated consumer and ensure that they achieve the financial success that they want and more importantly deserve.  

Q. What’s your new book about? Why did you write it? What main message will readers take away from it?

A. My book is about personal finance.  But don’t worry – it’s written in a way that is readable, understandable and hopefully a little fun.  The goal of the book is to take something that seems very unfamiliar to many people and make it something that is familiar to them. I do this by taking investing and comparing it to dieting.  You would be amazed by the parallels between the two.  My goal is to give women confidence in their investing competence – because as you will see; if you ever have been on a diet you already know the basic concepts of investing, you just don’t realize it.

Q. What inspired you to write this book?

A. Over the years, I saw too many good women not being involved participants in their wealth and have bad things happen to them. Being an active participant does not mean being a stock market follower – what it means is that you know what you have, where you want to be, and how you are going to get there.

Q. What were some of the greatest discoveries, lessons, or findings you came across while doing research and writing this book?

A.  The greatest finding for me really came after writing the book – from my readers. The finding was that my hypothesis was correct – if you can explain investing in a language that is familiar to people their capacity for learning, remembering and engaging is tremendous.

Q. What do you feel sets your book apart from others in the same genre?

A.  Humor, familiarity and forgiveness.  I hear it from women all the time – the guilt, the shame that they don’t know more about finance. 

Q. What are 5 things everyone should know in your area of expertise?

A.  1. The only person who is responsible for you is yourself.

     2. An educated consumer is the best investment client.

     3. Using an advisor does not mean that you don’t take ownership.

     4. There are other risks besides investment risk that you need to protect yourself against.

     5. If it sounds to good to be true… most likely it is.

 

Q. What does your typical day look like?

A. My day starts with waking up to CNBC to listen to market commentary, then do some blogging and tweeting, and then working with clients. 

Q. If someone were a complete noobie when it comes to the topic of your book, what are some steps they could take to dive in and get more educated in this area. (Besides reading your book of course!)

A. The first thing I recommend before anything else is to look at what you own and owe, what you have coming in and what you have coming out.  Most people really are clueless to this – often times because they are afraid of what they will find.  

Q. If you could write 1 Golden Rule to take away from your book, what would it be and why?

A. Control the things that you can control. You can’t control the markets but you can control what you do with your money.

 

Q. What other resources in addition to your book would you recommend to people to learn more about this area?

 

A. The CFP (Certified Financial Planner) board has just come out with a new website for the public, www.letsmakeaplan.org that i think is fantastic.

Q. What are some of your current projects you’ve been working on in this field?

A. Besides everything else – I am trying to speak to as many women’s groups as possible to spread the gospel of financial literacy.

Q. Thank you for the interview Susan. Would you like to share where we can find you on the web and how we can buy your book?

A. Bookstores on the website and of course Amazon (where it is available in electronic format) as well. 

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About the Author: Susan Hirshman is currently the president of SHE LTD, a consulting firm that concentrates on enhancing financial literacy and education for women.  She is also a chartered financial analyst as well as a certified financial planner. Hirshman was formerly a Managing Director for one of the leading financial services organizations in the world. She has also acted as a certified public accountant for an international accounting firm. Susan has traveled the country and has spoken at several wealth management conferences. The author has also been featured in publications and television programs, such as The NY Times, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and WNBC.

For more information about the author: www.myfatassets.com/shirshman-author.htm

RULES FOR GIVEAWAY – WANT US TO SEND YOU THIS BOOK FOR FREE?
WRITE A COMMENT: Times are tough and we want to know how you are doing!  Need to be on a tighter budget? Want to learn how to live “skinny”? Know you spend too much? We want to know how you are doing, how you are managing and what you think you an do better. In other words, why do you need this book?  The book won’t be given to the nth participant, but to the best story! Please include an email address we can contact you at if you are the chosen winner!

Want to be a featured author or expert? Send me an email at liz@dalesiegel.com and let us know about you and your book, and we will contact you with the guidelines. If you want your interview to coincide with the day your new book drops, let us know in advance. Be aware, we book months in advance, so get on the schedule early.

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