There is often denial in families about the emotional troubles of others in the family. This is particularly true when a mother is emotionally unstable and family members look the other way instead of stepping in and dealing with the issue. The problem with this kind of denial is that children are affected by a mother’s mood swings, alcohol use, rage, verbal put downs or neediness. The same woman that no one in the family can deal with is left in charge of the children. Often fathers have no idea what to do and avoid the situation by withdrawing and resigning themselves to a wife’s...

Last Friday night the Healing Money Issues program was featured on ABC’s 20/20. This is a 5 day live-in program at a retreat center in Tennessee that works with clients on money issues. I worked in this program as an assistant last november and learned a lot . Here is a link to the video if you would like to see it.  Healing Money Issues

On another note, I am starting my women and money ongoing group this fall. This is a group for women only as all the research and my personal experience leads me to believe that women work best on subjects...

After a review of the research on women and mathematical and technical skills, I have affirmed my theory that women learn best in small same-sex groups that are cooperative and encouraging of verbal connection. Most women enjoy sharing and communicating personal material and enjoy analyzing and understanding emotions and relationships. The emotive-relationship area of skill development is one that girls have been trained for beginning in the early preschool years, based on extensive observation of same sex play groups over years. This is the way that women learn difficult or anxiety-arousing...

The number of women owned businesses continues to increase. The Small Business Association estimates that women-owned businesses account for 28 percent of private businesses. While women are gaining in ownership numbers, the revenues they produce account for only 18% of the small business revenues….a big drop from the ownership numbers. In fact it looks as though in the most typical business for women is a sole proprietership in a service business with income of less than 50,000. Many of these women are married and running and running their businesses from home. More than half of the start-ups...

I just finished my copy of Suze Orman’s new book called “Women and Money” and I am glad that she is talking about the dysfunction that so many women have with money. The book is just fine and so is the information it it. But I wonder about a woman being able to work a 5 month program with a lot of information in it on her own. Women just do so much better when they are using personal support and relationships and talking to help them make lifestyle changes. It’s the difference between going to Weight Watcher meetings and reading a diet book on your own.
I notice...

Well Suze O’s theory is that women are so busy nurturing others that they have little left over to care for themselves. That is true some of the time. But there are also lots of young single women who do have enough time and energy but do not spend it on learning about money managment.

Where does the resistance come from? I think from my own analysis that many women are willing to trade competence for the feeling of “being taken care of” and loved by having their money managed by someone else…and if no one else is there to do it, they would prefer not to be reminded...

This letter is written to all young women who are in their 20’s and have the opportunity to go against the crowd and get on an unusual path. The way things are currently imagined in womens’ money lives is as follows:

the 20’s: student loans, travel, have fun, buy clothes, go out to eat and drink. This fits our culture’s ideas of the young years when one is supposed to be free before settling down.There is a lot of support for this way of being.

You may be hearing, “do it now before you are tied down.”

This is also a great time to get really...

Many people who have money have not really thought out how to be responsibly generous to their family and friends who may have work and/or money dysfunctions. Because women often are the caretakers of the less functional members of their families, this is an issue especially but not exclusively for women. Being responsibly generous means not allowing dysfunctions to continue unaddressed. The feelings surrounding poorly executed giving tend to sound like the following: I resent giving but feel obligated because if I have it, I should give it;I feel as though I am throwing my money down a black...

As women most of us were given messages by our families that were appropriate to developing money skills. Most of us were told to save, to spend carefully, to work hard and to watch out for debt. These are in fact useful money habits but by themselves they are not enough to help women become truly skilled in their money lives. We must also look at the real world factors and the role of societal messages that impact women and their money.

What are the 3 biggest money mistakes that women make repeatedly?

They do not plan their money lives. By that I mean they are not taught to look...