Maxing Out: Why Women Sabotage Their Financial Security (Hardcover)

by Colette Dowling (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
"If you had suggested to me ten years ago, even five, that I would methodically (if unconsciously) set about destroying my financial security, losing all the money I'd made on a bestselling book, losing, even, my furniture, I would have laughed. I would have told you I was over my biggest hurdles, that I knew who I was and had the financial comfort and psychological equanimity to prove it."

So begins Colette Dowling's Maxing Out, a compelling personal-finance autobiography. Dowling recounts the gritty details of three years of mindless overspending that culminated in a tax bill that forced her to sell off two homes in order to pay off part of a debt to the IRS. From there, the 55-year-old bestselling author of The Cinderella Complex culls her full life story (and incorporates short bios of half a dozen professional women) to forward her premise that even today's younger generation of women often fall into a stance of almost willful noncomprehension of personal finance in line with a cultural bias against women who are financially competent and independent.

Women on the hunt for detailed financial guidance will want more than this book. But for the insecure woman who's just acknowledging the limits of her financial knowledge, this book can give some helpful context to some women's struggles, as well as the sense that one's got--in Dowling--a very sympathetic and wise fellow student. --Jean Lenihan

From Publishers Weekly
Dowling takes one step further the concept of female dependency discussed in her bestselling Cinderella Complex in this investigation into why women don't manage money effectively. After the author fell into financial ruin despite a large income, she spoke with psychologists, financial planners and other upper-middle-class women with similar money problems to understand what had happened to her. Drawing on these interviews, Dowling concluded that even successful women refuse to take financial responsibility for themselves because they've been culturally conditioned to fear independence. This fear, according to the author, leads women to amass large credit-card debts and neglect planning for a secure future because they fantasize about being rescued by a male. Although Dowling offers interesting insights and suggestions for overcoming such dependency, her anecdotal evidence is not enough to strongly support her theories about women and money. The author highly recommends Debtor's Anonymous, whose 12-step program she credits with putting her on the path to monetary health. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 292 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T); 1st edition (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316191205
• ISBN-13: 978-0316191203
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #986,429 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Prince Charming Ain't Coming to the Rescue, November 30, 2000

By A Customer

This book combines thoughtful insight into the emotional, behavorial and psychological reasons many women get into deep debt and fail to plan financially for retirement. There is no doubt that both men and women get into deep debt. Dowling suggests that women are more prone to lose control of their financial well-being because of gender scripting we get from a very early age. The challenge of the book is to see through this gender scripting, decide how it may be affecting your financial decisions and then take charge of your financial life. I loved it!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars save your money; don't buy this book, June 30, 1999

By A Customer

I'd be better with money if I avoided buying books like this one. The author's recounting of her money trouble is interesting, but drawn out much too long. And too much time is spent praising Jerrold Mundis; I thought references to "Jerry" were cutesy and inappropriate. If you like your authors to rely on anecdotal evidence, generalize from their own experience to the universe, and write with the level of sophistication encountered in women's magazines, you'll love this book. If you want more than this, avoid it. It would have benefitted from a better editor.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars More autobiography than self-help, November 5, 1998

By A Customer

Even though I'm a self-supporting, avowed feminist and non-traditional young woman, I still find myself dealing with the occasional "rescue fantasy". So I eagerly picked this book up, hoping for some insight into my own ambivalence about supporting myself as well as practical suggestions to avoid self-sabotage. However, the book left me disappointed. Dowling writes in an egocentric fashion, and most of the material is autobiographical rather than helpful or illuminating. A brief description of her difficulties with money and shopping would have been fine. Dowling goes on tangents--into unnecessary, droning detail about irrelevant aspects of her personal life--so often that, while I was able to identify with her a bit at first, by the end of the book I wished she'd just shut up about her dream analysis, IRS debt, and shopping sprees so she could address her readers more directly. I was left with very little useful advice and no sympathy for her. (Her idea of "cutting back" seems to be spending "only" $1300 at Crate & Barrel to furnish her apartment.) I also think that, while claiming to speak to women as an inclusive group, she focuses on stereotypical white upper-class female behaviors far too much (for example, she spends chapter after chapter delving into minute details about shopping sprees and lavish home remodeling and how "giddy" women get about compulsive spending on their homes.) Her insights might have been more palatable if she had broadened her focus to include women who are NOT compulsive shoppers but still have money issues. She does provide an insightful comment here and there, about the effects of societal conditioning or psychological resistance to change, but it's tough to ferret them out among all the useless personal anecdotes and the focus on the Debtor's Anonymous 12-step program. (I've never been fond of 12-step programs).

Recommendation: If you're patient enough to slug through a self-indulgent autobiography focused on Dowling's finances for the sake of a few gems of wisdom, read it. Otherwise, skip it and pick up "Money Freedom: Finding Your Inner Source of Wealth", by Patricia Remele, instead. Though it's not focused solely on women, it's far more readable, practical, and inspirational.