Money Quote for Tuesday: Pound Foolish Author Takes a Stand

I’m currently reading “Pound Foolish,” a book by journalist Helaine Olen, which discusses the dark side of the personal finance industry (that’s basically the subtitle). I am still finishing it up and I plan to review the book, however, I have run across one quote by the author which has stuck with me, and I think it’s important to share:

“I simply want to help people realize that, just because they’re not millionaires, doesn’t mean they’re failures.” — Helaine Olen

I don’t mean to take this quote out of context; it’s on page 11 of the book’s Introduction where she talks about how she doesn’t think all financial advice is useless, but that wouldn’t it be great if Suze Orman and the rest of the financial therapy gang could rock your world. And she does, as another reviewer precisely said, filet all the personal finance gurus.

On the other hand, Olen is trying to make a point that yes (and I’m grossly oversimplifying the next sentence), we overspent when we shouldn’t have on things we shouldn’t have bought–but we need to also take into major consideration that utilities, food, property taxes and just about everything else continues to rise…and our incomes have not kept pace. What she’s saying is this: our financial situation is not always our fault thanks to global economic conditions. There is some truth in that because we can only control what we can control…