"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." — Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Smart Girls Marry Money by Daniela Drake and Elizabeth Ford

Please note: Links pointing to Amazon contain my affiliate ID. Sales resulting from clicks on those links will earn me a percentage of the purchase price. So buy and read now!

Summary: Don't let love or hot sex rob you of long-term financial security. Marry Money. 

I've done it all wrong.

You're never supposed to marry and put your husband through graduate school.  Apparently I wasted all those early years sacrificing my career for him.

You marry him just after he becomes a success, while you're still young and hot. Whoops! I did marry him when we were both young and hot, but he was far from a success at the time.

You never ever make more money than he does. (even if you are putting him through school). The only way I could put my husband through school is because I was making more money than he was.

Brazilian waxes are just wrong, according to the authors.  Well, live in California for a few months, and then we'll talk.

This book was hard for me to read and finish partly because I felt the authors gave conflicting advice. Get married as soon as the man is successful, not before. Then don't have kids, because if you divorce, you become less desirable. But if you do have kids and you work, then hire a nanny because you'll never be successful if you cater to your kids' schedule. And lock your husband into marriage and make it too expensive for him to divorce you. Get a job, because that's the best way to meet men. Use your sexuality at work to advance your career, but never become more successful than the man you're pursing or married to, because then he can't perform. Lower your standards about who's acceptable, because looks fade, but mutual funds can go the distance. And the book opens with the words:
"If being in love is a valid reason to marry, then being out of love is a valid reason to divorce."
It doesn't get any more cheerful than that. Basically, arrange your own marriage, settle for like instead of love and get a good financial planner (and attorney).

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