Ignore the hackneyed gender cliches and take control of your financial destiny
I recently picked up a copy of personal finance guru Suze Orman's latest book, Women & Money.
It is her eighth book, which means she knows that by now she can turn off a few readers and still retain a vast following. That is the impression from reading Women & Money - the tone is a bit reprimanding but not altogether disagreeable.
Indeed, Orman makes some very valid, if familiar, points - that women are often too generous with their money and time to the detriment of their financial and personal success. 'I simply want you to give to yourself as much as you give of yourself,' she implores.
Her advice may move you to get off your butt and start doing something about your finances, which can only be a good thing. But there is always - at least for me - an underlying sense of inadequacy beneath the rah-rah support of financial advisers such as Orman.
We must bow our heads in shame for not being able to handle money well, are too meek to ask for raises, and are mad shopaholics who spend half a month's rent on a Louis Vuitton purse.