The “Forest City Women Investors” has been recognized as the longest running stock club in Iowa. The group formed in October of 1983 with 21 members. It’s been meeting monthly for the past 40 years to study stocks and add to their portfolio.
“It’s a good way to learn about the stock market and grow your investment over time,” says group co-chair Sheila Davis.
Members invest no more than $50 a month. Purchasing a particular stock requires a majority vote among the members. “It’s a group portfolio, but we calculate how much on a percentage basis how much each person owns,” Davis says. “We have to do that on an annual basis just to figure out taxes on the gains or if you’ve sold stock within the period and so forth.”
All members of the stock club are women and Davis says the activity has been empowering. “It’s become a very good growth opportunity for us both on a personal level and for our financial purposes,” Davis says.
There are 13 women in the club today and two were members when it formed in 1983. A representative of the Heartland chapter of Better Investing met with club members recently to recognize the group’s longevity milestone. Better Investing was formerly known as the National Association of Investors. It’s a non-profit that was formed in 1951 to educate Americans about investing.
(Reporting by A.J. Taylor, KIOW, Forest City)