"What's Up With Women and Money?" by Alison Kosik

Before Alison Kosik wrote What's Up With Women and Money?: How To Do All the Financial Stuff You’ve Been Avoiding she’d been a business correspondent for CNN, often filing stories from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.Kosik interviewed heads of business and corporate experts regularly but relegated financial decisions to her husband. Although dealing with business on a daily basis on the job, when it came to her own personal finances, she decided not to get involved.Although in what she called “a bad marriage,” she confessed to being terrified to leave for fear of running aground financially. All of which led to her learning about things like buying a car, a house, and saving for retirement, issues she put off getting involved in for years.What’s Up gives a step-by-step action plan on various money topics as well as providing interviews with women who share their tales of why not learning about money decisions can lead to problems.  Kosik saw the irony in her position. “How could I, of all people, CNN’s business correspondent on Wall Street, be in this position – feeling trapped in a failing marriage because I didn’t have the self-assurance to make important financial decisions that would also impact my young children,” she said."I was afraid of making mistakes whether it was our investments, the car buying, or insurance. I didn’t think I had the knowledge and good judgment that comes from experience of 'doing the financial stuff.' I was embarrassed and ashamed,” said Kosik.Kosik also realized other women were in the same position. "Compared to previous generations, women are more educated, they’re carving out careers and running companies. But what I learned through dozens of interviews and research is that even many of these high-achieving women aren’t fully involved with managing their financial lives. They’re pawning it off to their spouses or just plain avoiding it. And they’re not readily admitting it because they don’t want to seem unintelligent by their peers,” said Kosik."I hope you discover, as I did, that these financial things aren’t as complicated as you first thought. In fact, once I began tackling these transactions, each little victory made me gain a little more confidence. And over time, I wondered what I had been afraid of in the first place. And why I didn’t start sooner,” she said.