Fame & Fortune: Dr. Laura Schlessinger
No 'guilty' pleasures for her -- she's
earned them all |
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Bankrate: We know that
money problems are the leading cause of divorce in this country,
and certainly your callers bear this out. Why can't men and women
talk reasonably about finances?
Laura Schlessinger: First
some generalizations: Men take pride in providing; women worry about
security. With that generalization in place, one can easily see
that his ego gets attacked when his woman is nagging about money
-- reasonably or not -- and her fears get tweaked when her man is
not responsible. That means that they are each protecting themselves
from the other -- which makes it hard to have reasonable talk. It
is worse when either or both is unreasonable about money: The husband
demands that his wife work and put kids in day care because he's
used to more "things," or the wife makes more than her
husband and typically respects him less as a man because of it,
men's lib notwithstanding.
Bankrate: In your previous
books, you've explored the stupid things men and women do to screw
up their lives. What are the smartest things they can do when it
comes to money to make their lives happier?
Laura Schlessinger:
A) Pick a spouse from a relatively similar socioeconomic background.
B) Know each other at least two years before engagement/marriage,
and spend most of it really getting to know each other's financial
habits and expectations. C) Once married, act like you are a member
of a team, not simply a creature of entitlement.
Bankrate: How do the so-called
"echo boomers" rate when it comes to managing their money?
Will they overcome the bad money behaviors of their parents, or
do they seem to be repeating the cycle of miscommunication?
Laura Schlessinger: I
believe that younger folks are suffering from the selfishness of
their parents -- day care, cavalier sex lives and abortions, divorces,
shack-ups, illegitimate kids, sexual affairs, remarriage with new/step-siblings,
lost attention and so on -- and wish it to be very different for
their children. I believe most young people recognize that true
happiness in life comes from giving -- not grabbing.
Bankrate: Do you take
an active role in managing your money? Are you following your own
advice when it comes to making sure you have a financially secure
future? What do you favor and not favor as investments?
Laura Schlessinger: No.
I believe in division of labor. My husband and our long-term broker
take care of the money. ... Once a month I'm shown the graphs and
I smile. We are conservative in our investments and have not lost,
even when the market coughs because we are not risk-takers. I don't
gamble.
Bankrate: Have your money
behaviors changed over the years? Has financial success made it
harder or easier to enjoy your life?
Laura Schlessinger:
I work very hard for my financial success, and because of that pride,
my financial success brings me great pleasure -- as do all the things
I can do/have personally and do for others philanthropically.
Bankrate: What is your
guilty money pleasure, that thing you will spend money on but know
you shouldn't?
Laura Schlessinger: There
is no such thing for me. What I have, I have worked hard for and
therefore have earned the enjoyment it brings me.
Bankrate: What's the key
to a happy life when it comes to money?
Laura Schlessinger:
Ultimately, we are happy when our lives are meaningful; when our
lives have purpose, when who we are and what we do benefits others,
we are happiest. Money is often a means of bringing something important
to the world. I also believe you should enjoy the fruits of your
labors. Put those attitudes together, and you have a happy person.
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