A Girl Needs Cash: How to Take Charge of Your Financial Life

by Joan Perry

Book Overview

TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE! The easiest way to lose control of your life is to lose control of your financial life. Joan Perry's spectacularly successful Wall Street career shielded her from... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812931351
• ISBN13: 9780812931358
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (CA)
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

You NEED this book!

This book belongs in every woman's library. It is entertaining and easy to read, but makes finances and saving for retirement easy. Honest, even if you "aren't good at math."

Loved this book...

I just wish it had been a little more "condensed", if you will. I'm extremely busy with not a lot of time to just sit around reading a book, and this book in particular could have been a bit quicker to read without all the personal anecdotes and individual examples. BUT...this is a good book if you want to learn about taking charge of your financial future. For the most part, her strategies sound very accessible. For example, she recommends paying your mortgage plus the next month's principle, which is highly do-able. Most financial gurus admonish us to pay no less than double our mortage payment (yeah, right). And, I love the fact that the author advises readers to NOT wait until credit cards are paid off to begin saving. Another refrain of financial gurus: "it's absolutely ridiculous to put money in a 3% savings account when you could be paying it on your 20% interest credit cards." Granted, theoretically that is sound advice, but it's just not logical for most of us, including me. I for one do not want to wait until my credit card is paid off before I start building a savings account. After all, the only way to prevent more debt is by having cash available, and how will you have any if you're paying every nickel and dime on your card? I also love how the author describes credit cards as "the Draculas of the financial world, draining assets out of our lives", how true! A great and very insightful book. It wasn't entirely easy to understand (unless you're already a financially-minded person) but the more I read it, the more I get out of it. The author also encourages readers to sit down and map out their financial future, for instance, if they want to have $1,000,000 to retire on, they need to actually write out how much that will require per month and how they will get it. I did that for the first time after reading this book, it's something I've never done before, and it has given me a more tangible goal to shoot for. I love this book and others like it for encouraging women to take active control in their financial future, not just mindlessly float around expecting someone else to take care of them.

A Declaration of Financial Independence At Last!!!

For the first time in my life, I feel in control of my finances -- and what a great feeling it is! As a professional woman with feminist leanings, I've long perceived myself as being in charge of my career and my love life. But economically speaking, I've always been more or less out to lunch. For some reason, I zoned out when the topic turned to finances...I let my father -- and then my husband -- handle my money. Well, no more. After reading this book, I feel more than capable of managing my money myself. I dare say I now know more than either my husband or dad, both of whom now defer to my judgment. I've bought copies of this wonderful book for my sister, my best friend, and my niece. And I'll continue to give copies of "A Girl Needs Cash" to my nearest and dearest female friends -- anyone who would benefit from this one-of-a-kind gift of financial independence.

Great motivator with good financial info

Perry's "A Girl Needs Cash" is a great motivator. I was especially happy to hear here opinion that an investor shouldn't wait before credit card balances are zero before saving/investing. The book also encourages self-reliance when it comes to money matters, which is a terrific goal for any financial planner trying to help a client.I was dissapointed that Perry several times in her book referred to home ownership as having no ability to provide future income. A reverse annuity mortgage may provide needed income to a retiree. She also refers to variable life insurance products as "private pension plans". Despite being marketed as such, referring to insurance as a pension plan borders on the unethical.Despite these minor problems, I certainly recommend this book as one of the several men and women should read while trying to organize there personal finances.

Any working girl needs to read this book!

I was pleasantly surprised to read this book as if it were a mystery novel. I loved following the financial lives of the working and non working women she presents in her book so brilliantly. I actually read over 100 pages at my daughters volleyball practice and was able to enjoy it despite the noise surrounding me. I had and have many ongoing questions of our families finances and our future. I wish I had read this book when I was working in a higher paying job and jet setting around for a company with an apartment on the Marina Green in San Francisco! Joan thank you for this great book and I highly recommend it to any girl that needs cash! And let's face we all do.