Anita Renee Johnson, a native of Oakdale, Louisiana, has been passionate about finance for many years. She received her Bachelor of Business Science in Financial Accounting from National University in Sacramento, California, she then continued on to obtain her Masters of Science in Taxation. Currently she is enrolled in a Doctoral program with Walden University, in Minneapolis Minnesota, studying for her degree in Applied Management and Decision Sciences, specializing in Finance.
Ms. Johnson has extensive experience in teaching throughout the Sacramento area. She was a facilitator for the Elk Grove School District Adult Education Always Learning program, faculty member at Heald Business College, math tutor for Genesis High School, and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Cosumnes River College. The coursework ranged from preparing high school students for the mathematics exit exam, basic bookkeeping, business management, and how to be a successful entrepreneur.
Currently, Ms. Johnson is part of the faculty for Brandman University, in Sacramento, California. Here she instructs graduate students in financial statement analysis through online coursework. In addition, she is a faculty member at University of Phoenix also in Sacramento, California, where she provides instruction to adult students in such course topics as accounting, finance, writing, American Psychological Association (APA) Citation, conflict management, and how to conduct research.
In 2010, Ms. Johnson was awarded the Success Story Blog, from Walden University. She received the Business of the Year, Northern California, from the California State Black Chamber of Commerce, award in 1999, as well being recognized as Business of the Year, Sacramento, California in 1999.
Her professional affiliations are numerous, they include: Chairperson for the Small Business Development & Employment Advisory Board for the City of Sacramento, National Associates of Women Business Owners, Member of the Public Policy Committee, National Association of Black Accountants, to name a few.
During her career, Ms. Johnson has developed and instructed numerous courses designed to assist all ages in making sound financial decisions. These courses include: “Big Girls Don’t Cry – Taking the Emotion Out of Finances”, “Emotional & Financial Freedom”, “Entrepreneur Planning”, and “The Game of Life-Foster Youth”.
The most current project for Ms. Johnson is AR Johnson & Associates- “Money Wisdom for Women”. Established in 1998, her goal is to provide sound financial advice to her clients. This information is offered either in one-on-one consulting sessions, workshops, seminars, or conferences. Through ARJ & Associates, Ms. Johnson and her team have counseled over two thousand businesses and individuals in personal and business finance. Their topics include: tax preparation and planning, estate planning, Money Wisdom – the Board Game, Money Wisdom for Small Businesses, pre-retirement for Federal Employees, specifically the Environmental Protection Agency, and Race to Retirement.
I had the opportunity to interview Ms. Johnson and ask her some additional questions about her career and upcoming book signing event.
Who or what sparked your interest in finance?
I have been around money for over 30 years. I enjoy finances. It is interesting.
Why did Financial Advisor become a career path for you?
I have been in business since 1998, first with taxes and accounting. Now I am helping women realize their true worth when it comes to their finances. Women are emotional and do things that put their finances at risk.
I see that you are the CEO of your own company called Money Wisdom for Women; what made you decide to focus on women and their financial wellbeing?
For years I have been servicing women with their finances, there are some who have no clue.
Tell me a little about your book ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry: Taking the Emotion out of Finance’. How did you come up with the title of the book and briefly what is the book about?
This is not a novel about finances, but a book that you need a pencil or pen. When you finish you will have an idea of how your finances work and what you want to do about it.
It is estimated that 80% of women live in poverty after they retire. Women are care givers, always taking care of others and not ourselves.
The title is saying it is time we take care of ourselves, be selfish, don't cry about it, and stop being emotional.
For women we need to know we can control our finances.
Where is the location of the book signing?
Springhill Suites
12325 Johnston Road, Charlotte, NC 28777
What is the time range that you will be present?
6:00pm until 8:00pm
Ms. Johnson says: “my commitment is to inform and educate my clients so that they can make sound financial decisions” and “my job, purpose, mission is to equip women with wealth building skills”.
Anita Renee Johnson and associates website is www.moneywisdomforwomen.net
Forex: USD/JPY retraces, held at 79.33 - FXStreet.com
Black Money Scam robs woman of $217,000 - Toronto Star
It’s called the “Black Money Scam” and has been featured on American television programs such as 20/20 and Dateline.
Although this highly sophisticated fraud has been around for at least five years, Toronto police got a close-up look at how it worked last week and showcased it for reporters Monday.
The victim was a Peterborough-area woman in her 40s who believed she was going to collect a $12-million inheritance from offshore after responding to an email sent out randomly.
Instead, she was bilked out of $217,000 in “fees”, police say. None of the money has been recovered.
Police pulled off a sting operation at a Toronto airport hotel last week and seized the props used in the crime. An arrest was made in the parking lot without incident.
In the scam, victims are told the inheritance money has been coated with black ink so it can be smuggled into Canada. Or they have been told the money is black because it has been found buried beneath a basement floor.
The victim is shown the money, but is told not to touch it or get close because they must clean it with a toxic solution.
Behind the bills, police say, are blank slips of paper and below are wooden boards and a telephone book to give the appearance of millions of dollars stacked up.
To show the money is “real,” the criminals start cleaning some bills. However, in order to collect, the victims are asked to pay more money because the cleaning agents are expensive.
The victims are strung along with a “network of deceit,” Staff Insp. Bryce Evans told reporters, adding that the criminals build trust by bringing in reputed lawyers and accountants.
In this case, police had been alerted by Interpol in Singapore.
According to ABC News, three years ago the scheme ensnared many prominent Americans, including former U.S. congressman Ed Mezvinsky, who served a prison term for his involvement in the fraud, and Dr. Timothy Sloan, a California heart surgeon who lost his life savings to a con artist.
Evans said people must “wake up” to the fact that no one will promise an inheritance by email.
He suggests that people who think an inheritance is coming should sit down with a family member and a family lawyer before responding to any emails.
Ikechukwu Victor Ozumba, 32, of Mississauga — also known as Andrew Morgan — is charged with fraud and possession of a forged document.
He appeared in court last week and was released on bail.
Police believe there may be other victims. They say to call police if they have sent money to the following accounts: Andrew Morgan, Darkmoon International Holding, Akula Jackson, Samuel D. Maggwa and Lynn International T PTE.
Police are asking those who may have had dealings with Ozumba to contact Det. Sgt. Cathy Kehoe at the Toronto Strategic Partnership at 416-808-7325 or Crime Stoppers anonymously.
More Australians can't access money: report - Sydney Morning Herald
More Australians are having difficulty accessing emergency funds through mainstream financial services.
More than 300,000 West Australians do not have adequate access to day-to-day financial products such as a basic banking account, car insurance or even a credit card, a landmark study has revealed.
The research by the Centre for Social Impact - backed by the University of Western Australia - shows the ability to secure as much as $3000 in funds for an emergency through the mainstream financial system is becoming increasingly out-of-reach for Australians.
Instead, more people are relying on family or friends or turning to fringe credit products, such as payday lenders, who regularly charge substantially higher interest rates than banks.
Such products have seen a surge in uptake in recent years.
The report, to be released today, and partly funded by National Australia Bank, found even a moderate amount of credit was crucial to accessing key household goods that go beyond a monthly budget, such as a washing machine.
The lack of access to banking services impacted on people's ability to pay for basic household items such as electricity, telephone, food, clothing, car-related expenses, repairs, rent, education, health and repayment of other debts.
The report reveals 12,500 West Australians have no financial service products and an additional 293,000 are severely excluded, with only one service.
Residents in south east Perth are among the nation's top regions for financial exclusion, with more than one in five without access to basic banking services. That was 33 per cent more than the national average.
Regional West Australians also rated highly, with 20 per cent unable to access appropriate and affordable financial services.
South western Perth (18.7 per cent) and central Perth (18 per cent) also were below the national average.
Eastern Perth (11.9 per cent) was among the nation's most well-off areas, followed by northern Perth (13.3 per cent) and south western Perth (15 per cent).
Wollongong in NSW tops the nation with almost 7 per cent of adults without access to basic banking services.
The cost of basic financial services was the prime cause of financial exclusion, according to the research. The average annual combined cost of banking, credit card and either car or home insurance is $1794 annually.
A survey of financially excluded people also found the level of official identification needed to establish an account was often a hurdle, while many banks denied personal loans of less than $5000 as a personal loan, instead steering customers to credit cards that they were unable to access.
The distance to a bank branch, language and literacy challenges and poor credit records also were hurdles.
The report found capital city areas tended to have higher levels of access to credit, but lower levels of access to insurance, while country areas have lower access to credit, but very high levels of access to insurance, particularly car insurance because public transport is limited.
Many financially excluded people were reliant on government services such as Centrelink and also used fringe credit providers, such as payday lenders.
NAB chief executive Cameron Clyne accepted the banking industry was partly to blame, conceding it needed to lift its game by providing affordable products to more people.
''The absence of access to mainstream financial services does preclude people from advancing socially and economically,'' he said.
''Often it's the unexpected expenses [such as] if the car breaks down or someone needs to get to a job interview.
"There's an obligation for the banking system to improve financial inclusion."
The report comes just days after the federal Treasurer Wayne Swan brokered an agreement with the banking industry to provide free ATM transactions for Indigenous people in remote communities.
The study found the number of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders severely excluded from access to day-to-day financial services is more than double the national average, with 43 per cent operating outside the mainstream banking system.
While there are efforts to improve access to basic bank accounts and efforts to promote low cost credit products, there is a substantial gap in general insurance where there is little movement about delivering affordable insurance products.
- with Eric Johnston
Living on mobile money - BBC News
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my frustrating efforts to use various new mobile money applications on my phone. I promised then to have another go, to give up cash and try to pay by phone alone. So, how did it go? Not very well, I'm afraid.
I started by loading up my phone with a variety of apps which - supposedly - would help me get by without cash or even cards. My main weapons were to be O2 Wallet and Barclays Pingit, two new services which allow you to send and receive money from your phone. But I also installed the Paypal app, and a range of others that allow you to buy a coffee or pay for a taxi from your phone.
Within minutes of starting, I ran into trouble. It was my turn to buy the office tea and coffee round, and the coffee outlet only took cash. No problem - I would get my colleague Anthony to pay and refund him via one of my mobile money pay-by-text services.
With Barclays Pingit playing up (I never got it to work, even after deleting the app and going through the lengthy verification system again) I turned to my O2 wallet. Just two or three passwords later, I had texted a £2.80 money message to Anthony.
Then the fun began.
He spent days - quite literally - trying to make sure this and a couple of other payments from me made their way from his phone into his bank account. Much of that time was spent in increasingly intemperate phone conversations with O2. At one point the company told him their "triage unit" was on the case. Anthony's verdict? "No need for triage - it's terminal!"
I quickly realised that although I wanted to rely solely on my phone, this approach wasn't going to work. I would need to use credit and debit cards as well, plus my Oyster touch-and-go card for travel around London.
By paying for meals via my debit card - which meant I had to spend more than £5 - I did manage to get by without cash for a couple of days.
Then I took a trip to Oxford and had my first failure.
Getting on a bus to the city centre without a travelcard, I found myself obliged to dip into my pocket for some coins to pay the fare. And my bus trip proved a timely example of how useful mobile money could be if it were more widely adopted. On a busy route, every time we stopped dozens of school children and students queued to pay by cash, making our progress very slow.
While neither of my mobile money services proved at all useful over the week, there were two things - taxis and coffee - that proved easy to pay for by phone. The taxi app market is now fiercely competitive and I found Hailo, a service that lets you order a London cab, pretty efficient at delivering a driver to me within five minutes.
I also tried Ubicabs to order minicabs, and this again worked fine - although my driver ended up asking me to navigate to my destination. These services make it very easy to move around without cash or credit cards - if only in the London area - but they have one major downside. You end up racking up big bills without even thinking about it.
The same applies with the Starbucks app, which allows you to load money onto a virtual payment card on your phone, then swipe your phone against a reader to pay for coffee or a sandwich. Because this was the only easy way I found to buy food from my phone, I ended up spending far too much on cappuccinos.
When I ended my experiment, I breathed a sigh of relief - as did my colleague Anthony, who is still trying to extract from his phone the money I owe him. Trying to live off mobile money, which is supposed to make life easier, has been a stressful experience. The inevitable concerns about security are making most of these new services so complicated to use that you have to be slightly deranged even to bother.
That is not to say the whole idea is doomed to failure. We will see further innovation over the coming weeks as payments firms unveil plans to allow visitors to the London Olympics to pay with their phones.
But here's my advice to the companies pushing these services - your "triage units" are in for a busy time.
Spain Runs Out Of Money - Daily Telegraph Blogs
A Spanish protester burns a euro note
El Mundo reports that the country can no longer resist the bond markets as 10-year yields flirt with 6.5pc again, and the spread over Bunds – or `prima de riesgo' — hits a fresh record each day.
Premier Mariano Rajoy and his inner circle have allegedly accepted that Spain will have to call on Europe's EFSF bail-out fund to rescue the banking system, even though this means subjecting his country to foreign suzerainty.
Mr Rajoy denies the story, not surprisingly since it would be a devastating climb-down, and not all options are yet exhausted.
"There will not be any (outside) rescue for the Spanish banking system," he said.
Fine, so where is the €23.5bn for the Bankia rescue going to come from? The state's Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB) is down to €5.3bn, and there are many other candidates for that soup kitchen.
Spain must somehow rustle up €20bn or more on the debt markets. This will push the budget deficit back into the danger zone, though Madrid will no doubt try to keep it off books – or seek backdoor funds from the ECB to cap borrowing costs. Nobody will be fooled.
Meanwhile, Bankia's shares crashed 30pc this morning. JP Morgan and Nomura expect a near total wipeout. Investors who bought the new shares at flotation last year may lose almost everything.
This all has a very Irish feel to me, without Irish speed and transparency. Spanish taxpayers are swallowing the losses of the banking elites, sparing creditors their haircuts.
Barclays Capital says Spain's housing crash is only half way through. Home prices will have to fall at least 20pc more to clear the 1m overhang of excess properties. If so, the banking costs for the Spanish state are going to be huge.
The Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels puts likely write-offs at €270bn. We could see Spain's public debt surge into triple digits in short order.
As I wrote in my column this morning, the Spanish economy is spiralling into debt-deflation. Monetary and fiscal policy are both excruciatingly tight for a country in this condition. The plan to slash the budget deficit from 8.9pc to 5.3pc this year in the middle of an accelerating contraction borders on lunacy.
You cannot do this to a society where unemployment is already running at 24.4pc. Either Europe puts a stop to this very quickly by mobilising the ECB to take all risk of a Spanish (or Italian) sovereign default off the table – and this requires fiscal union to back it up – or it must expect Spanish patriots to take matters into their own hands and start to restore national self-control outside EMU.
Just to be clear to new readers, I am not "calling for" a German bail-out of Spain or any such thing. My view has always been that EMU is a dysfunctional and destructive misadventure – for reasons that have been well-rehearsed for 20 years on these pages.
My point is that if THEY want to save THEIR project and avoid a very nasty denouement, such drastic action is what THEY must do.
If Germany cannot accept the implications of this – and I entirely sympathise with German citizens who balk at these demands, since such an outcome alienates the tax and spending powers of the Bundestag to an EU body and means the evisceration of their democracy – then Germany must leave EMU. It is the least traumatic way to break up the currency bloc (though still traumatic, of course).
My criticism of Germany is the refusal to face up to either of these choices, clinging instead to a ruinous status quo.
The result of Europe's policy paralysis is more likely to be a disorderly break-up as Spain – and others – act desperately in their own national interest. Se salve quien pueda.
I fail to see how Spain gains anything durable from an EFSF loan package. The underlying crisis will grind on. Yes, the current account deficit has dropped from 10pc to 3.5pc of GDP, but chiefly by crushing internal demand and pushing the jobless toll to 5.6 million. The "unemployment adjusted current account equilibrium" — to coin a concept – is frankly frightening.
The FT's Wolfgang Munchau suggested otherwise last week, saying Spain's competitiveness gap has been exaggerated. I can see what he means since Spain's exports are growing even faster than German exports. But this is from a low base. It is not enough to plug the gap.
Spain is quite simply in the wrong currency. That is the root of the crisis. Loan packages merely drag out the agony.
A Spanish economist sent me an email over the weekend after the Bankia details came out saying:
"It looks like game over for the sovereign and the financial sector at the same time. Unless we get a Deus ex Machina, we'll be discussing much more seriously the benefits of a return to the peseta in no time."
It begins.
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