Amazon.com Review
"If you had suggested to me ten years ago, even five, that I would methodically (if unconsciously) set about destroying my financial security, losing all the money I'd made on a bestselling book, losing, even, my furniture, I would have laughed. I would have told you I was over my biggest hurdles, that I knew who I was and had the financial comfort and psychological equanimity to prove it."

So begins Colette Dowling's Maxing Out, a compelling personal-finance autobiography. Dowling recounts the gritty details of three years of mindless overspending that culminated in a tax bill that forced her to sell off two homes in order to pay off part of a debt to the IRS. From there, the 55-year-old bestselling author of The Cinderella Complex culls her full life story (and incorporates short bios of half a dozen professional women) to forward her premise that even today's younger generation of women often fall into a stance of almost willful noncomprehension of personal finance in line with a cultural bias against women who are financially competent and independent.

Women on the hunt for detailed financial guidance will want more than this book. But for the insecure woman who's just acknowledging the limits of her financial knowledge, this book can give some helpful context to some women's struggles, as well as the sense that one's got--in Dowling--a very sympathetic and wise fellow student. --Jean Lenihan