Women's Worth: Finding Your Financial Confidence

By Eleanor Blayney

Put away your suspicions: This is not another "just stop buying lattes, girls, and you, too, can become a millionaire" book. Instead, it is a carefully considered, deeply researched guide by a financial planning luminary who has just founded a new practice called Directions for Women.

Eleanor Blayney has written a book you can confidently hand to female clients of all types, from brash business owners to worried widows. She explains budgeting, saving, investing and more with charm and concern-but also with depth of detail that shows her true professionalism. What's more, she gets people past the first steps toward financial independence and into the follow-through-an area many authors ignore (well, it is complicated) to readers' detriment.

Interestingly, Blayney is an advocate of the self-help method of financial literacy training, which she rebrands here as forming "circles" of friends akin to the sewing or knitting circles of old. The new women's world of book groups and "stitch and bitch" sessions may find group learning a handy way to counter the many obstacles, from logistical to emotional, that confound women as they try to take control of their financial futures. It's a great idea.

Marion Asnes became the editor of Financial Planning magazine in 2005. Financial Planning is the leading professional magazine for independent financial planners and has a circulation of 115,000. The topics covered on its pages range from industry news and trends to sophisticated discussions of portfolio management, estate planning and philanthropy. Asnes is the first female editor in chief of Financial Planning in the magazine's 38-year history.

Before joining Financial Planning, Asnes was a senior editor at Money, participating in the magazine’s coverage of personal finance, retirement, investment and health care issues. Her areas of expertise included retirement and 401(k) planning, asset allocation, estate planning and the particular financial challenges faced by women. In addition to her regular editorial duties at Money, Asnes co-edited Money for Women, an annual special issue that was featured exclusively on “The Today Show” on NBC.

A 27-year service journalism veteran, Asnes has contributed to a long list of national publications including Vogue, Elle, Glamour, Good Housekeeping, More, Mirabella, Working Woman and Lear's. She has spoken at conferences and symposia ranging from the National Endowment for Financial Education’s Retirement Summit to the National Football League’s Rookie Symposium. In addition, Asnes has appeared on national television programs as an expert on financial and economic topics including CNN, CNN Headline News, NBC's Today, ABC's 20/20, PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor.

Asnes graduated with a B.A. from Cornell University.