Does This Make My Assets Look Fat?: A Woman's Guide to Finding Financial Empowerment and Success »

Susan L. Hirshman is a managing director at a top global financial institution . She holds an M.B.A. from Baruch College and is a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Financial Planner, a Chartered Life Underwriter, and a Chartered Financial Analyst.  She lives in Manhattan.

A revolutionary personal finance guide for women that applies the rules of dieting to money management, written by a top wealth strategist at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Publishers Weekly

A comprehensive and coherent breakdown of basic financial and wealth management information from a J.P. Morgan financial adviser. An increasing number of women are controlling more and more of the wealth in America, but studies suggest that women's financial literacy is not increasing. Hirshman, who counsels investors on their personal finances, uses comparisons with dieting--a framework also used in Alice Wood's excellent Wealth Watchers--and the metaphor holds up well: both dieting and investing require discipline, take time, and yield rewards. Hirshman presents reviewing a net worth statement as "stepping on the financial scales," and investment categories as the basic food groups. Though it's not overtly stated, the advice is aimed at an audience with a fairly old-fashioned view of finances--she speaks passionately about the need for women to be equal partners in their marital finances and admonishes women that "a man is not a financial plan." Hirshman provides all of the information necessary for a solid financial background, and cheers on her readers with a positive message: "The only person responsible for you is you." (Sept.)