What to Read to be a Diva

Hello Darlings,

I do not know where all of you live, but if you live here in the San Francisco Bay Area, I do hope you have been enjoying the Sunshine.

My little Diva Darling, Princess and I have been enjoying our early evening walks along the beach, but I do confess that towards evening it still gets a bit chilly.

I know that some of you are wondering what have I been doing for the last week or so, well Darlings, working with my Tax preparer and getting the Taxes filed, such work and making sure I have all the information, but it's done.

On Valentines day my other speical friend Kenneth and I had a wonderful dinner at a delightful restraunt in San Francisco, but I can't remember the name it was such a surprise.

And of course the mundane, grocery shopping with Juanita ( I really let her plan the menus, and shopping with her can be an adventure, if it's not up to par we go somplace else or we will find it at Andronico's), and having some men replace a damaged gutter that the high winds managed to bend, it didn't harm the house but it needed to be fixed.

Now Darlings, I’m going to talk to you briefly about reading materials, yes Darlings reading materials.

Now remember what I said the last time I posted that I use the public library. Well I still strongly recommend the library to save you money, think of all the subscriptions you do not have to buy, the DVD’s and CD’s and books you do not have to rent or purchase when you use the public library. As long as you return it on time it is a savings. Make going to the Library part of your shopping day, that is shopping for things for the home.

I prefer Thursdays myself, all the sales have started.

But there are subscriptions that you should think about getting and these are a few suggestions especially if you plan to invest.

Kiplingers Personal Finance (they also have a monthly news letter called Kiplingers Retirement report)

Money Magazine

Now if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and are thinking in terms of Real Estate or businesses there is the San Francisco Business Weekly and the East Bay Business Weekly (one covers San Francisco and the other the East Bay side of the Bay)

Investor’s Business Daily this is a daily newspaper that covers the business investment news

Business Week

The Economist

Now if you want something to cover Society and Fashion I recommend these 2 two of them are local and 2 you can find on the news stand.

The news stand ones are Vanity Fair and Real Simple. Now why those two, well Darlings Vanity Fair has the most wonderful articles much better than Vogue and it is always up to date on fashion. Real Simple has wonderful ideas on almost everything which can be inspiring.

The two that are locals are really for those wonderful Darlings that Live in the San Francisco Bay Area the first of course is San Francisco Magazine, it will tell you all about the Society events and wonderful places to go to as well as some very interesting articles that could lead you to wonderful investments.

The other magazine is a bit trickier, it depends upon where you live this is a local publication that will cover the city or county that you live it and it will have the name such as Oakland magazine or Diablo magazine etc. This will cover the events and list places to consider on your free evenings or days. And it will keep you up to date and in the know about who is who.

Now if you are those wonderful Divas that live outside of the Bay Area such as Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Chicago, New York etc. You will find comparable magazines of the same time in your local area, but the ones for investing you will find almost anywhere, unless you are living in a cultural desert for which I can only suggest to get out as soon as you can and only go back there just for mental vacations.

Because just as it is important about what you know it is equally important about who you know. But never forget where you came from and the family and friends that have supported you and have given you solid life values remember them always and cherish them.

Just as a “side-bar” although I have become very wealthy, that for my late husbands sake I cultivated social connections, I never forgot all the wonderful things that my parents did, the hard work my father did to get to a point of financial and social promince, my mother still being an old-fashioned home maker but getting use to the idea of having staff to assist (we never-ever called them ‘servants’ they were Staff always remember that my dear Divas) and still making time to always have family fun together, going to church every Sunday and always being aware that not everyone was as lucky and fortunate enough as us, that there were people for whom fortune did not always smiled upon but that within themselves they were as precious as gold.

My parents were right, there were several young people that I knew and became friends with and because I suggested to my father that it might be a good idea to help them out, one became a successful inventor, another a well-established artist and the third an editor for a publishing company, and we are still friends, even if we are still living in various parts of the world. Always remember that Darlings.

Now Darlings if you do not have the funds to subscribe to all these magazines do not worry, by going to your public library you can see which magazines would fit your needs and just subscribe to a few, while the others you can read in the library or photocopy those articles that will have the information that’s needed even at 15 cents a copy that is far cheaper than paying $4.95 for the whole magazine.

Investor papers such as Value Line, Morning Star, Mergent and the Standard and Poor’s stock guide should be available at your library and again you can photo copy those pages to see about the progress of a stock that may have your interest.

There are always books on how to read the financial pages, how to invest, but if you are still unsure about yourself, look for seminars or classes offered by schools or colleges that you can take classes in. It is possible that you can audit a class as a guest without having to sign up for college itself.

Now I have several young friends who are getting established in life and they want to know how they can have the Diva Look while they are still trying to get the Diva Bucks.

The first is avoid using your credit cards, only use them occasionally and pay it off with 3 payments, remember credit cards is a bad debt, whereas owning and paying on a home (that has been reasonably purchased) can be a good debt, now why is that? Very simple Darlings, the interest on a home loan can be taken off in taxes but not the interest paid on a credit card---interest paid on a credit card is money lost. Interest on a home loan is money gained.

There are many other things that you can do and I will cover that in another Blog.

The Sun is out and shining my darling friend Kevin and I are going to an estate sale auction that starts at 2 p.m. and being the hungry man that he is, he doesn’t want to miss out on the appetizers that they will be serving.

Until Anon Darlings, Kisses.