Money makeovers: like placing Band-aids on deeper political wounds
Superficial tips and tools gloss over the main point – Americans have a political problem not a money management problem
When I sold the proposal that became Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry, the original subtitle was "How the Cult of Personal Finance Turned us Into a Nation of Dreamers." I didn't think of personal finance as a dark side vs a light side. I...Read more.
Internships: why paying for experience is bad business
It's no longer enough to be willing to work for free – now you need to pay for the privilege of working for no salary
Psst. Want a job working for Miami Heat basketball star LeBron James? There's a nice internship in online marketing and another in content development currently being advertised on his website. If you are interested, you best get on it quick. Applications are due Tuesday.
Salary? Funny you...Read more.
Internships: why paying for experience is bad business
It's no longer enough to be willing to work for free – now you need to pay for the privilege of working for no salary
Psst. Want a job working for Miami Heat basketball star LeBron James? There's a nice internship in online marketing and another in content development currently being advertised on his website. If you are interested, you best get on it quick. Applications are due Tuesday.
Salary? Funny you...Read more.
Hormones don’t hurt female investors – inequality does
Thoughts about sex and stocks have a long lineage on Wall Street, and they're not meant to be helpful to women
If a gaffe, in the famous formulation of journalist Michael Kinsley, can be best described as when someone accidentally admits the truth, then hedge fund star Paul Tudor Jones made a doozy of one at an off-the-record chat hosted by the University of Virginia last month.
"You will never see...Read more.
Homeward bound: why leaning into the past is not what women need
Generation Y's retreat into domestic bliss is all well and good – but it's only an individual solution to a systemic problem
It's a truth universally acknowledged that most women will eventually find the work world overwhelming. Perhaps the final straw will come when the boss is less than understanding when the kid is sick and needs to stay home from school. Maybe it will come when you realize everyone in...Read more.
Payday loans: Washington needs to step in and regulate the industry
A bill to reduce Alabama's 456%-high interest rate failed this week, further proof that Washington needs to step in now
The latest evidence that we need Washington to step in and provide comprehensive reform of the payday loan industry came this weekend courtesy of the state of Alabama, where legislation that would have capped such loans at a 36% interest rate died in the final hours of the state legislative session.
Even...Read more.
Boston highlights healthcare’s lost promise: it’s charity now, policy later
Charitable donations have been rolling in fast for Boston victims – but wouldn't better healthcare policies help them more?
It's a little more than a week since the bombing of the Boston Marathon, and the charitable donations are rolling in fast.
"Our hearts are broken, we are outraged, and we are looking for connection and meaning," says Richard Audsley, a former United Way official who has worked with fundraising efforts to assist victims...Read more.
Social security payments: grandma and grandpa need a raise
Traditional retirement savings strategies are fast becoming a thing of the past – social security is just about all we've got
It's time to discuss raising social security payments.
What? Aren't the talking heads in Washington trying to cut social security?
Right you are. Their idea is that social security is running out of money, and that unless we raise the age of eligibility, cut benefits, or preferably both, the system will collapse on...Read more.
If you have to celebrate National Princess Week, don’t buy the goods
Disney princesses are a $4bn industry – but parents, hold onto your wallets and read your kids a book on Elizabeth I instead
National Princess Week is just about upon us. Parents, hold on to your wallets.
No, National Princess Week is not a celebration of the former Kate Middleton, with London tourist shops holding giveaway sales on leftover wedding memorabilia, in order to clear it out in time for the...Read more.
Why ‘financial literacy’ is a bunch of hooey – and why the banks promote it | Helaine Olen
Companies and colleges say that if we all understand our finances, financial crises won't happen. This is simply untrue
April is National Financial Capability Month. You know what that means. We will be subject to many a tedious lecture, telling us how the financial crisis would not have happened if only those darn, irresponsible Americans knew how to handle their funds. And, of course, we'll believe it.
Almost all of us are...Read more.
About Helaine Olen
I am the voice of The Bills, a column about the intersection of money and life, at Slate. At Inc., I contribute to the Spread the Wealth personal finance column. My work on politics, economics, workplace culture and women’s issues has been published in numerous other print and on-line publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Salon, Pacific Standard, and The Los Angeles Times, where I wrote and edited the popular “Money Makeover” feature.
I'm the author of the critically acclaimed book Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry, and The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to be so Complicated, which I co-wrote with Harold Pollack.
What else? I’m a passionate bibliophile, a fan of 1970s pop music and a lover of rummage sales. I live in New York City.
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