Most of us know the difference between a TV fantasy and real life, but Ms Fairly doesn't seem to think that we do. Throughout the book, Ms Fairley not makes the presumption that ALL women are trifling love starved fashion victims with no common sense, she also perpetuates insulting and ridiculous stereotypes about women living in rural areas by comparing them unfavorably with women who live in major cities. What she says about city and rural lifestyles may have been true about 50 years ago, but nowadays, we Oregon "hayseeds" are also able to enjoy many of the amenities that our big city sisters have at their well manicured fingertips. We're able to shop at Bloomingdales, Dean and DeLuca or even Harrod's on line, and even the smallest of towns now boast of having least one manicurist,day spa and gourmet coffee house, plus we have the added benefit of beautiful forest, clean air and water reasonable cost of living and a low crime rate!
Thanks to Oprahs book club, amazon.com, cable TV and the Internet, we are just as was well informed as the average city dweller. Someday, we may even order Manolos on line, but why someone would want to spend the equivalent of two paychecks on a pair of shoes is beyond me!
Many of us "country bumpkins" enjoy arts, culture, fashion, and the other pleasures of city life. We just have an antipathy toward paying overpriced rents, noise, congestion, high crime, incessant rudeness, plastic people and the relentless competition for questionable men and for pithy "assistant" jobs which are really coverups for mundane office jobs. Women who live in rural areas are not necessarily "unsophisticated hicks with no ambitions or dreams"--it just may mean we are SANE! Even Lisa Douglas (Eva Gabor) on the 60's sitcom "Green Acres" never gave up her pegnoirs and champagne, dahlink!
Also, I wonder what makes Ms Fairley such an expert on all men? My man happens to LOVE flowers as well as cats! Real men like women who aren't afraid to be themselves instead of ones who knuckle under pressure to be what some media produced "image" tells them to be.
The actual financial advice given in the book is sound, but it's hard to sift through all the hubris to get to it. There are many great well written books out there offering cogent and sensible financial advice to young women. Sadly,I can't say this book is one of them.
There are also great tips worthy of any other personal finance tome on how to start saving, investing and buying real estate.
I do disagree with the generalizations of what men want i.e. too many pets scare away guys. They're stereotypes and detract from the otherwise smart content of the book. My guy friend actually urges me to adopt a cat!