Girl, Get Your Money Straight

December 4, 2000
Using a variety of self-help techniques, journalist and "financial recovery specialist" Bridgforth has designed a "holistic" program for people who find personal finance stressful. While explicitly addressed to black women, this book would be useful to anyone comfortable with feel-good, recovery program lingo and practices, although those looking for detailed explanations of how stocks and mutual funds work should look elsewhere. Bridgforth advises meditating and repeating inspirational "affirmations" for those who find the idea of designing a spending plan daunting; lighting an aromatherapy candle on an "altar of abundance" may also help. Feeling good, she maintains, is essential to the success of any plan, while low self-esteem, which Bridgforth feels is a particular problem for black women, can result in ruinous, compensatory spending. She recommends careful recording of expenditures to help people get back in touch with the realities of their finances. Beyond debt management, Bridgforth urges readers to "fund" their dreams by constantly visualizing goals, wrapping up her program with a reminder to readers to tap into the spiritual energy of deity worship. While Bridgforth's basic position, that financial stress can be relieved with a better attitude and better record-keeping, may offend readers with a more political perspective on wealth and poverty in America, her consoling advice on how to stay calm and cope, which is attractively packaged for its target market, isn't likely to do much harm.