Money, a Memoir

Women, Emotions, and Cash

Liz Perle

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780805077124
• eBook ISBN: 9781429900812
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies

A "remarkable" and revealing account of one woman's finances—and how women's thoughts and feelings about money can wreak havoc on their lives ( Publishers Weekly, starred review).
Long ago, and not entirely consciously, Liz Perle made a quiet contract with cash: she would do what it took to get it—work hard, marry right—but she didn't want to have to think about it too much. The subject of money had, since childhood, been quietly sidestepped, a shadowy factor whose private influence was impolite to discuss. This denial eventually exacted its price, however, when a divorce left Perle with no home, no job, and a four-year-old with a box of toys. She realized she could no longer afford to leave her murky and fraught relationship with money unexamined.
What Perle discovered as she reassembled her life was that almost every woman she knew also subscribed to this strange code of discretion—even though it laced through their relationships with their parents, lovers, husbands, children, friends, coworkers, and communities. Women who were all too willing to tell each other about their deepest secrets or sexual assets still kept mum when it came to their financial ones.
In Money, A Memoir, Perle attempts to break this silence, adding her own story to the anecdotes and insights of psychologists, researchers, and more than 200 "ordinary" women. It turned out that when money was the topic, most women needed permission to talk. The result is an insightful, unflinching look at the subtle yet commanding influence of money on our every relationship.
"Profiles dozens of everyday women, spotlighting the anxiety, embarrassment and guilt money causes them. Commentary from financial experts, sociologists and others helps demonstrate Perle's thesis: women cannot afford to be ambivalent about money and must learn to separate feelings from finance." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Epigraph
• Table of Contents
• PROLOGUE: MONEY, A MEMOIR
• 1 - SECRETS AND LIES
• 2 - THE EMOTIONAL MIDDLE CLASS
• 3 - FAMILY MONEY
• 4 - WORKING GIRL
• 5 - YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO RICH OR TOO THIN
• 6 - FOR RICHER OR POORER
• 7 - THE DEATH OF THE INNER STEWARDESS
• 8 - EGOCIDE (OR DOWNWARD MOBILITY)
• 9 - MONEY CAN’T BUY ME LOVE
• EPILOGUE: MARK TWAIN WAS RIGHT (OR WAS IT THOMAS JEFFERSON?)
• ALSO BY LIZ PERLE
• NOTES
• SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INDEX
• About the Author
• Copyright Page