The Feminist Gold Digger
"Make sure you understand how each of your families handles money so you can understand how each of you works," says Bonnie Eaker Weil, author of Financial Infidelity. If you have different values on spending, you should have a separate "fun" account that you agree to use for whatever you want, suggests Lowlicht.
Photo Credit: Karin Catt
Elizabeth Ford and Daniela Drake — an Emmy-winning news producer and an M.D., respectively — are no bimbos. And yet, they've written what sounds like a bimbo bible. In a chatty, if bitter, tone, Smart Girls Marry Money: How Women Have Been Duped Into the Romantic Dream — And How They're Paying for It makes the case against marrying for love. We couldn't resist a few words with the authors.
MC: You're both accomplished working women, but you're telling us we should marry for money. What gives?
FORD: The juggling act required to be a successful woman, to be a good mom and to be a careerist, makes you want to say, "Screw it, I should've married money."
MC: So you're saying we should quit our careers?
FORD: You should definitely keep your job. But we haven't climbed the ladder as far as we should have. We have to keep that in mind when looking for a partner, and steer clear of seductive slackers.
MC: But what about all the gains we've made in the workplace?
DRAKE: You can always find a poster girl who earns more than a man. But the average woman earns one-third of what a man earns over the course of her working life.
MC: Did you two marry for love?
DRAKE: I did. And I've been happily married for 10 years.
FORD: I married the love of my life when I was 26 years old. Now I'm a single mom, and he's engaged to a girl 15 years younger than me.
MC: Oy, that sounds tricky.
FORD: I was with my husband for 13 years, and then he wasn't in love with me anymore. The bitterness is there.
MC: Thus the book's premise?
FORD: It's meant to be funny. It's meant to be catty. It's meant to be a good read. The title gets people's attention. You picked it up, didn't you?
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