The Good-Enough Budget

"You have excellent math skills andyou deserve good things!"I have a half-developed pet concept I keep turning over called the "good-enough budget." The term is a take-off on that classic Winnicott term, the good-enough mother. Without getting into a whole history of Object Relations, the basic idea...

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Women and Money: The Sky Is Falling

Hey, girl. I know that money and investing topics are "intimidating" and "boring" to you, so you "tune out" when your advisor tries in vain to show you a PowerPoint on market returns. But you need to get it together, because according to USA Today, "Women's financial responsibility grows...

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"The Talk" About Money

I will admit that when I first saw a Billfold.com post about this PSA campaign from The National Financial Educators Council, I just about blew a gasket. But since this campaign is supposed to "elicit an emotional response that encourages parents to talk with their kids about money," I...

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It's Hard Out Here for the Rich

I settled down this morning with U.S. Trust's 2012 Insights on Wealth and Worth as a little light beach reading (sigh... if only. I'm still at the office). Some of the findings knocked me out of my chair. Among them: Six in 10 HNW parents are not fully confident their children will be...

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Thank You to My Parents, for Letting Me Be Stupidly Naive with Money (Seriously)

 For two years, I lived in a Brooklyn building built illegally on a commercially zoned block, wedged between two factories. Four of us lived in an apartment designed for two, with railroad-style bedrooms. We often barged in on each other while sleeping, reading, having sex. The post office refused...

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How to Spend Your Savings

It's time for Katie to liquidate her Moving Fund and head to her new place. The only problem? She fell in love:This is not Katie.Over the past few months, my aggressive savings has become a source of pride. I've watched the balance grow and I feel accomplished. Responsible. Safe.But soon,...

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Yes to the Dress! (No to the Entrees, Flowers, and Fireworks.)

Weddings are wonderful, but not if they create a financial burden and start your married life out on the wrong track. Even the most financially sane people can sway to the pressure of outside expectations and the desire to make everything perfect. Add to that the challenges inherent to the tasks...

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Fixing Education Debt: Too Much of a "Good" Thing

I work with a lot of artists and freelancers, which makes me particularly sensitive to people's issues with educational debt. Unless you can afford to attend college without borrowing, it is increasingly difficult to pursue any field that doesn't offer immediate and sustained financial success. A...

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Anxiety calling! Do you pick up?

I was giving a presentation with my colleague, Annette Lieberman, yesterday when she said the most amazing thing:"The way people manage their anxiety usually reflects how they manage their money, and vice versa."Can this be true? We often think about how money gets managed, but we don't often think...

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Are your finances a mess? That's curious.

When it comes to money, most of us have a problem-solution mentality. Got debt? You need a plan to get out of it. No savings? Here's a way to budget your way to a fatter balance. Hate to review your accounts? Try the butt-in-chair method.The limitation with this approach is that most financial goals...

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Treating is Fundamental

This morning I gave a talk to the graduating seniors of a prestigious arts college. One of the questions I got asked was how to deal with wanting to treat yourself. "I work so hard," the young man said, "and I feel like I deserve to spend money on something nice for myself once in awhile,...

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National Teacher Appreciation Day

I was always a geeky kid who loved school, so it's no surprise that I can name ten teachers off the top of my head to whom I feel grateful and who I think about with great affection. But hands down, the teacher who had the most significant impact on my life was never my teacher in any particular class,...

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