BOOK REVIEW: Money, A Memoir: Women, Emotions and Cash

Money, A Memoir:  Women, Emotions and Cash

By Liz Perle

www.moneyamemoir.com

   For many people, money is about the bottom line - nothing more, nothing less.  For Liz Perle, money was about acceptance and security.   In her latest book, Money, A Memoir: Women, Emotions and Cash, Perle describes her personal relationship to money and relates her experiences to the money relationships of women in general.    Starting in her childhood, Perle takes the reader through her "money" life and describes the lessons she has learned about money at various stages of her life.  As a part of her story, she includes anecdotes and stories from about 200 women that she interviewed as part of her research for the book.  Those other voices and experiences emphasize her point that, in general, women attach value and emotional meaning to money that men don't.    Of women and their money relationship, she writes, "We've granted it the authority to single handedly make us feel safe and cared for."  She continues this thought by saying, "Money is never just money; its our proxy for identity and love and hope and promises made..."    Perle spends time examining how consumerism changes money into something more than a tool.  She devotes an entire chapter to "The Emotional Middle Class".  In that chapter, she describes a middle class that most members of previous middle class generations don't recognize.  She states, rather matter of factly, that "We marched past the simple desire for comfort to a need for luxury."  Within this "emotional middle class", Perle points out the rise of debt and an inability to dinstinguish wants from needs.  Underneath everything, Perle says, "Our identities as women are so wrapped up in fulfilling these dreams that we inadvertently mortgage our lives as we try to fulfill them."    A significant amount of attention is given to her working life and her experiences - as a single woman, a married woman and, eventually, as a divorced single parent.  Obviously, these are situation that have MAJOR money issues attached to them.  In spite of the strong emotions attached to those circumstances, Perle manages to describe her thoughts and fears during these times without making the reader feel sorry for her.    When describing money and marriage, she observes that "For women, money, romantic love, and being taken care of are all tied together."  She also addresses how money indicates power in a marriage/relationship and how it can be a distraction from more emotional issues that married people face.    While this is not a book about the actual dollars and cents of the money in a bank account, it is most definitely about money.  It is not just a book for women, but it looks at women and money in a way that few people are willing to explore.     In the end, Perle lets the reader know that she has come to see money in a less emotional light.  She states, "I realized that the biggest promise money ever made to me had come true.  And it turned out that it had nothing to do with love or dependency or social status or even need.  It was simply this:  If I carved out a place in my life to take care of my finances in the same way and with the same lack of emotional charge that I paid my electric bill, bought my groceries, and got my car tuned up, then money would help support the people I love.  Nothing more and nothing less".    This book does not have any specific plan to help you become a millionaire overnight or erase your debt in a matter of days.  What it does have is honesty and insight that will change the way you think about money from now on.