@JoelECarlson: Hello everyone, and please welcome @gailmarksjarvis as my Twitterview guest today. Lets get started!
Q – #1 I’m glad we can make this work this time. :) So to begin with @gailmarksjarvis, where did you grow up and attend school?
Gail: I lived in Texas, Chicago, Michigan and Minnesota as a child. High school was in Duluth Mn.
Best memories come from northern Michigan, which had so much snow you sometimes had to dig your way out of a snow-covered door.
I didn’t learn to ski, however, until I was an adult in Minneapolis.
Q – #2 What did you do after High School, and how long did you end up staying in MN?
Gail: After high school I attended the U of Mn, studied journalism and became a journalist
Q – #3 How did you get interested in the financial world? Where did you get your first start in the news business?
Gail: When I began journalism, I wanted to cover government and politics. But after doing that in three cities it got old.
I felt I was covering the same stories repeatedly. The places changed, but quotes were the same — political mush.
I decided that if I didn’t understand business I wouldn’t understand thing. So I asked to cover business…eye opening
I covered the auto industry, steel and labor in Wilmington, Del. Then went to USA Today when I moved back to Mn.
Q – #4 When did you transition to being a financial columnist, then an author and speaker?
Gail: In Mn covered banking, insurance, retailing, airlines; then finally was asked to do a behind the scenes deals column.
Many of those deals meant digging deep into financials and my sources were worldwide. But I was speaking to insiders.
I wanted to help regular people struggling through their financial decisions. So I became a personal finance columnist
Watching people struggle, I decided if I could walk them step by step through basic investing they’d get it. Hence..
….my book, “Saving for Retirement without Living Like a Pauper or Winning the Lottery.”
This sounds like self promotion. But if everyone would read that book, the nation wouldn’t have a retirement crisis.
Q – #5 I think I know then where @rebeccajarvis got some of her skills from. :) Has this recession increased your readership?
Gail: Yes, @rebeccajarvis was one of my early students….a delightful and smart one…not a bad daughter either.
The book was best-seller the year the market started to tank. I get sweet emails — people say the book saved them.
Q – #6 Worthwhile then for sure! @gailmarksjarvis In your time as a columnist, has this been the most difficult time to direct people?
Gail: People are still desperate for financial help…debt, investing, housing messes. I try to guide them Wed & Sun
Tough times @JoelECarlson. Seniors are scared — less than 1 % interest on lifetime savings starts to run out.
Boomers are scared @JoelECarlson. 1 in 4 had 90 % of 401(k) in stocks before the crash. And those people lost big pre-retirement
50 somethings can’t get jobs if laid off. They are the ones unemployed for more than 6 months So @JoelECarlson it’s tough
20-somethings get laid off more, but statistically find jobs sooner. But @JoelECarlson they are loaded with student debt.
Q – #7 Ouch! What are 2-3 tips you’d give to people who are struggling financially? Either as Baby-Boomers or Gen-Xers?
Gail: Well @JoelECarlson the biggest lesson of the last few years: Shocks happen, so you must save for your future when you can.
Everyone in jobs should be saving. They might think it’s hard. But taxes will go up and it will get harder later.
Finally @JoelECarlson. Saving isn’t enough. Investing is critical, and it’s not rocket science to do it well.
Just 50:50 stock & bond index funds work. Some fear stocks now, but the combo worked — first survival; not up.
Q – #8 Lets briefly shift to more about you. Your Favorite: Restaurant, store, comfort food, recent book or article.
Gail: My downfall: potato chips. But I love a good ethnic restaurants — especially Thai, French. Love creative cooking
Am reading @Dianabhenriques great Madoff book now, and one of my favorites is Nassim Taleb’s Black Swan
As for stores @JoelECarlson. I’m too busy to shop. Plus, covering retailing ruined the fun. I know what pricetags mean.
@JoelECarlson: Thank you VERY MUCH for your time, comments and financial advice today @gailmarksjarvis! Keep up your great work in helping people!
Gail: it was a pleasure. Enjoy the summer.