Book Review: Flirting With Finance

If you’re more comfortable thumbing through the pages of Vogue than you are reading the Financial Review, if you can’t imagine chatting about the all ords, but dating and dieting are hot topics, then you will enjoyFlirting with Finance by Anneli Knight and Virginia Graham.

This book is a humorous introduction into the world of personal finance aimed squarely at women. The book uses topics that the “modern woman” will be familiar with: dating, fashion, dieting and of course flirting, to explain concepts in personal finance.

Despite the light take, the book was inspired by a serious issue. The Financial Literacy Foundation’s Women Understanding Money report found that 52% of Australian women find dealing with money stressful and overwhelming; 25% of women have absolutely no savings for retirement; and of women who do invest, less than 5% look at a company’s background information before investing. In a country where more women are single than are married, and where the divorce rate is almost 50%, increasing women’s financial literacy is an important issue.

1. The Art of Flirting

Why flirting with finance? Because flirting is fun. Flirting is not about what you have, it’s about what you do with it. Because “flirting is a tool to help you control your destiny by transforming your desires into reality.” Just as you don’t go into lifelong commitment with someone you just met, you don’t need to take an all or nothing approach when starting out in improving your finances. But if you don’t do anything, then opportunities will pass you by.

2. Shares and Men

The book explains types of shares in terms of types of men. For example, a blue chip share is your strong and dependable man – a dentist or a GP. He plays chess and doesn’t go skydiving. He has spend his lifetime building a solid reputation and doesn’t want to anything to jeopardise this. The book also includes more tradition definitions and information.

My only question is: if buying shares is like dating men, then diversification is like..?

3. The Economy and Fashion

So, the governor of the Reserve Bank is like the editor of Vogue. Just as she dictates the fashion trends of the season, the governor dictates the trends in the economy by adjusting the interest rate. The book explains the economic cycle, with a focus on how inflation works and how it affects our buying power.

4. Budgeting, dieting, fitness and health

I’ve always thought budgeting was like dieting – spend less than you earn – eat less calories than you expend. Easy right? Flirting with finance answers the question, “where do I find the money to invest?” It’s not about fad dieting, it’s about setting goals and following through. And like any good women’s magazine, there’s a personality quiz to help.

5. Romance

Just as romance is all about timing and patience, so too is investing. Before the first date, you’ve done some research (what’s he like?) and worked out an exit strategy. We enjoy the experience, we monitor it, we keep in mind our exit strategy and we learn from our mistakes.

6. Your Financial Horoscope

Do you make excuses when it comes to personal finance? Find out what your horoscope says about you. According to the book, as an Aquarian my sticking point is “I’ll get it done. Tomorrow. Tomorrow…” Yup. That just about sums it up.

7. And the serious stuff

As well as all the fun stuff, the book includes some good resources to further investigate aspects of investing and money management. There is a chapter on dealing with debt, finding experts like accountants and financial advisors and the questions that you should ask them, superannuation, insurance, death and taxes.

As the book states in the introduction, there are more single women than there are married women and investing alone can be hard, particularly in property. So the book includes an appropriate chapter on finding joint venture partners – investing with friends, family or investment groups and leveraging the power of more than one. 

My Thoughts on Flirting with Finance

I’m not a personal finance beginner, and I’m not much of a girly girl either, however I enjoyed reading Flirting with Finance and appreciated the humour. If you’re a female, and a novice to personal finance, then the book is a good introduction that puts the basics in easy to understand language whilst providing some resources for further reading.

As a woman, I appreciate the need for us to educate ourselves about finance. Too often we leave the decisions up to someone else. Too often we don’t think of the future or consider “what if..?” Too often we don’t take control of our financial security, and I’m guilty of this too.

My only reservation with Flirting with Finance is that despite its humorous approach, the book was inspired by a report that revealed some serious facts about women including a general lack of understanding when it comes to personal finance. While the book tries to address this by making the topic accessible, or by putting it ‘in terms we will understand’, I wonder if the authors are unintentionally reinforcing the stereotype that finance needs to be dummied down for women to understand and take an interest in it. I think that we need to give ourselves more credit than that.

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3. Book Review: Your Mortgage And How To Pay It Off In Five Years By Someone Who Did It In Three
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