Suze Orman - The Ann Coulter of Money Matters?

While gathering information for our weekly book event listings, LAist couldn’t help but notice the title of Suze Orman’s new book, which she’ll discuss on Friday night at Vroman’s in Pasadena: Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny. The heart of Orman’s sage advice for women is “Get your own account in your own name.” She has even made arrangements with Ameritrade to give every woman $100 if they make 12 consecutive monthly deposits into their new savings account.

Now. It may sound fine on the surface. It may seem like a lovely financial planning guide with sound advice for saving wisely, retiring wealthy and all of that. Harmless, right? Sure. If you are a chauvinist male who feels that women simply cannot be bothered to understand the intricacies of things like a savings account, an IRA, an ATM card.

Yet, such a book has been written and is selling. Adding insult to injury, this book has been written by a woman. So LAist must ask a few obvious questions: Is the modern woman so un-initiated in the ways of finances that she needs a book written just for her to spell it all out? Or is this just a thinly veiled attempt to sell more books to a targeted audience?

If the reader reviews are any indication, it seems that the book is a hit with women. Who are these women and where do they live? How old are they and could someone tell them it's 2007? It seems highly unlikely that any self-respecting Angeleno gal would find herself in a situation where she is not in possession of at least one, if not several "accounts in her own name."

It is one thing for a woman to decide, upon co-habiting, that she wants to relinquish bill paying duties to her partner. Fine. We don't totally get that, but perhaps we're independence freaks. Filing taxes and worrying over portfolio growth isn't always a path lined with roses. We see that. Yet, it is hard to believe that any woman in our fair city didn't, at one time or another, have her own account. Ever.

Yet since the book made it past the publisher's gates, we must say that it seems a throwback at best (a huge subversive slap in the face at worst) to write a book that makes money matters "easy for the average woman to understand." We're also forced to wonder: Are there women out there - in our beloved LA -- who have no idea how to manage their own finances? Pay their own bills? LAist wonders what kind of planet these women are living on. And what galaxy it is in.

Or, if our hunch is correct and LA's ladies have their money matters in order, doesn't a book like this kind of...piss you off?

Photo by otherthing via Flickr