Books on my "To Read" list

I just finished one of my new favorite books "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I love finishing a book because it means I get to start a new great read. I have so many good books on my "To Read" list I don't even know where to start. Here is a list of books I am hoping to read. I am always looking for suggestions so please feel free to post any that you think I must read!

The Women's Murder Club Books by James Patterson

Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office by Lois P. Frankel
Chasing the Moon by Penny Chamberlain
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
I hope they serve beer in Hell by Tucker Max
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Quarterlife

Based on a recommendation from one of my favorite blog sites "Pop Candy" my friend Jeff and I (via AIM) just watched the the internet show Quarterlife. The internet show was created by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick who created one of my all time favorite shows My So-Called Life (can you say Jared Leto... before he got creepy).

The show is shot documentary style and follows a group of friends in their mid twenty's. One of my new favorite actors Scott Foster from Greek is in it (picture below)! The episodes are about 8 minutes long (just short enough to keep our generations attention) and is really good.

To watch you go to www.quarterlife.com

The Financial Makeover Event

Yesterday I went to a presentation at URI called "The Financial Makeover Event". It was held by the URI Women's Council for Development. Attendees included undergraduate, graduate, and PhD candidates at URI and alumna. The program discussed networking tips as well as great information about how to manage your finances. Panelists included employees from Money Management International, Ameriprise Financial, and URI professor Joan Gray Anderson, PhD.
They gave a lot of great information including the below list.


Top Ten most important things a recent college grad can do to ensure financial happiness.
Joan Gray Anderson, Ph.D

10. Create a spending plan and make it work; make friends with cash; track your spending; learn how to calculate your net worth (balance sheet) and enjoy watching your wealth grow over the years.

9. Buy a car that fits your budget (no more than 20% of your after-tax income for all transportation expenses including car or lease payment; gas; maintenance; insurance; parking and tolls).

8. Contribute to your company's 401(k) or other retirement plan; take all the match your can get- it's free money. Set up a Roth IRA and contribute regularly; put the money in an index fund and forget it for the next three of four decades.

7. Think twice before you commit to a major purchase; most contracts are a lot easier to get into than out of student loans, credit cards, mortgages, car loans.

6. Do it yourself: brown bag, potluck dinners, use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.

5. Worry about your credit history and your credit score.

4. Be sure you have adequate disability insurance.

3. Be sure you have adequate health insurance.

2. Pay off all your credit cards in full every month; use credit cards as a convenience not an additional source of income.

1. Spend less than you earn. Recognize that you can't have it all right now.

For more information check out Money Managements website. www.moneymanagement.org They have a lot of great online resources. At the conclusion of the program they gave all attendees one of my favorite money books. Suze Orman's, The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke. Check it out.

Movie Review- Gone Baby Gone

Last night I went to the movies with some friends from Newport. We saw "Gone Baby, Gone". The film was directed by Ben Affleck and stars his very cute younger brother Casey Affleck. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same title by Dennis Lehane. The movie was extremely good! Probably one of the best I have seen in the last year. I very rarely get surprised and this movie really got me at the end. The plot starts with two private investigators hunting for an abducted 4-year-old girl in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester. Just like Good Will Hunting the movie was filmed in Boston and really captures the city's charm (and accents). If you are heading to the movies soon I think you should have this one on your list.

If Victoria is doing it... it must be fun

Victoria and I on Newport's cliff walk

My best friend Victoria has always been my touch stone for what is trendy and fun. She started her blog over a year ago http://fleurdevie.blogspot.com and I love being able to keep up on her life when we are busy or the time difference is makes connecting on the phone hard. So I have decided to start a blog (plus November is National Blog Posting month... who even knew that existed??). So here it is... my first posting. I hope my best friend will be proud. Scoot.