Personal finance press out of ideas

TheDeal.com executive editor Yvette Kantrow believes that the personal finance publications have officially run out of ideas after she read Money magazine’s article about how to marry a billionaire.

Kantrow wrote, “Yes, we know. Money probably produced this little primer with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek. But Spy magazine it ain’t. And we simply don’t need seven pages (yes, seven) of cutesy bits of dating advice — Wear Christian Leboutin [sic] pumps! Scan the obits for prominent names and heirs! — from a publication usually concerned with picking the 10 stocks to buy NOW.

“But this is what it’s come to. You can only trot out that stock, bond, mutual fund, fill-in-the-product-here story so many times, especially when investing is no longer seen as an activity for the masses, but something more fit for the Schwarzmans and hedge funders of the world. Indeed, the matrimony story is part of Money’s ‘Getting Rich in America’ issue, which implores people to throw off their 9-to-5 shackles — with their botched pensions, long hours and countless indignities — and become entrepreneurs. Sure it’s risky, Money admits. But, hey, ‘it may be more realistic than you think, once you get real about what it takes.’ And besides, it’s one of the only ways to make ‘real wealth’ these days, Money tells us, aside from marrying rich. So the dirty little secret is out. All those savings and investment tips the magazine and its rivals have spewed out all these years — all those skipped lattes! — aren’t going to cut it unless you stop working for The Man. Or marry him.

“The latest issue of Money’s Time Inc. sibling, Fortune, is also concerned with getting rich. It’s the annual ‘special investors issue’ and, just as it did last year, the cover features a perfect couple sitting at a perfect beach under a perfect sky and a headline imploring us to ‘Retire Rich.’ OK, already. So how much does it take, exactly, to make that happen? ‘We think $5 million has a nice ring to it,’ Fortune tells us in the issue’s opening. ‘And with the advice we offer in this issue, it’s not an impossible dream.’

“Are they kidding?”

Read more here.