Filthy Commerce

A cheap little thrill ...

... is the I-told-you-so one. My carping about how dumb it was to shut down Domino has been echoed by people who are actually experts in the media landscape. We all agree: abandoning a loyal audience is D-U-M, dumb.

The rich are different from you and me -- they have better books written about them

So I recently read three books that ought to be of interest to anyone who is keen to understand more about personal finance in America, and how stratified (or not) our spending is. I can recommend one; the other two come with heavy caveats.

Well, THAT was fast: the gendered take on the recession

No sooner had I finished reading this hilarious article about women who are shocked -- shocked! -- that their husbands might actually expect them to hang around for the "poorer" part of the "for richer or poorer" vow ("It's the Economy, Girlfriend," NYT, Jan 28, 09) ... than I opened my Powells.com email and got a link to Don't Get Caught With Your Skirt Down: A Practical Girl's Recession Guide. Quoth the publishers' pitch:

Jill Keto, a self-made entrepreneur and mother of two, gives you the real scoop on personal finance, the markets, and how to spend and save wisely the way only a girlfriend can, in a down-to-earth and straightforward manner we haven't heard from any of the experts.

Perhaps this is my cranky thirtysomething age talking, but I find something mildly off-putting about addressing legal female adults as "girls." (I also find it off-putting when people refer to legal male adults as "boys." So this is not some "You're infantilizing women!" gripe, but rather, "You're infantilizing everyone!" gripe. Because I am old.)

That quibble aside ... what is it about the whole "Women! You need special advice on how to handle money" genre that is apparently so compelling and/or lucrative?

To Jill Keto's credit, she does justify her gender pitch early on:

Unemployment since March 2007 has gone up more rapidly for women than for men. In the same period, women have seen a sixfold wage decrease as compared to men and are 32% more likely to have a subprime mortgage, thus putting women at a disproportionately higher risk of foreclosure. To add insult to injury, women still earn only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes, and have significantly less in savings to fall back on.

The pedant in me wants sources for all these things (are those apples-to-apples wage decrease comps or are we talking all employed women vs. all employed men? Full time or part time? And can we see a table comparing the number of single women homeowners to single male homeowners, as I seem to recall lots of press about a big gulf between the two, which might explain the subprime number) -- but it's a start.

That said, help me out here: What is the appeal to a gendered take on personal finance?

Add to your personal finance library for free

For those of you who are interested: you can go to the Oprah site and download Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan from now until midnight, central time, Jan 15, 09.

I haven't read it yet, but a quick skim of the table of contents reveals that it's targeted toward people who may be like, "Oh, crap! The economy is horrible! What do I do now?"

For what it's worth, Money magazine has been covering the same topics for the past few months. Naturally, none of the articles are online, because why would Time Life publishing possibly want to raise brand awareness among younger audiences or word of mouth? It's not like magazines have been struggling to maintain circ rates or build a loyal audience online.

ANYWAY, should you find yourself near a library, feel free to read the following:

• "What Do I Do Now?" -- Nov 08
• "Twenty-three Money Skills for a Richer Life?" -- Nov 08
• "Year of the Thaw" -- Dec 08
• "Get Your Money Back" -- Jan 09

I can vouch for those. Suze Orman? Not yet. Anyone read her? Spill your impressions below.