Reviews for Positively me

The average rating for Positively me based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-09-02 00:00:00 Scott Lawrence I'm not sure who this book's intended audience is. Maybe women of a certain age and of an upper middle-class background who are recently divorced or widowed, and are just now having to learn about how to manage money? The expectation throughout is that there is money, including inheritances, which seems odd today'11 years after the book was published, after a global recession, after the hollowing of the middle class, when the stock market no longer has historical returns of 10.4 percent annually, and after the growth of the "sandwich generation," squeezed at both ends from rising tuition costs for their children and rising healthcare costs for their parents. She expects that if we're not already contributing the maximum to our 401(k)s, it's because we don't know that we should'not that we don't have the $18,000 just floating around and waiting to be put to better use in retirement savings. Additionally, this book emphasizes the cult of homeownership and scaling the property ladder (understandable, given that this book was published in 2005 before the housing bubble burst). For some, buying a home can be the answer, but homeownership hasn't proven to be the solution for everyone, especially now that houses are becoming increasingly out of reach for all but the wealthiest of people. Frankel's work also entrenches gender norms, presuming that every woman is going to be a wife and/or a mother. That every woman "dream[s] of our first home as being the one into which our husbands will carry us over the threshold" (loc. 2119). That we must be concerned with "the male ego...a fragile thing" (loc. 999) that must be preserved. But beyond this dated narrative, the advice seems...off. Frankel explains budgeting'presumably because her intended reader doesn't know how'but later blithely states that 401(k) contributions are protected by ERISA laws, without explaining what, exactly, those laws are and why we should care. She also gives advice similar to what I read and hated in The Economy of You: Discover Your Inner Entrepreneur and Recession-Proof Your Life: monetizing hobbies and starting side gigs without any serious guidance on how to do so. She flippantly states, "If you have a message, consider writing books or making documentaries or producing shows/films that have meaning'and turn a profit at the bookstore or the box office" (loc. 2455). Sure, like it's really that simple... Frankel, understandably, emphasizes her other book (which I actually enjoyed) but the constant references to that book got tedious. There's some good advice in here, especially about maximizing employer-provided perks (assuming you get them), but if you're looking for a basic introduction to figuring out how to plan your finances, All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan and The Behavior Gap cover the information in more depth and understanding of broader economics.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-12-31 00:00:00 Jeremy Struthers This book changed my life. I couldn't put it down. I'm the kind of person who thinks that thinking like a man is beneath me, but I guess it makes sense with regards to money. It made me think about the real reasons why I spend (elliciting some self-induced Dr. Phil moments), but it has inspired me to be more cautious about how I spend. I mean, I can't even walk into a store without experiencing cognitive dissonance or thinking about the condo that I so desperately want to purchase in the next 7 years. Total priority shift.