Coruscation

Desperation, fear and insecurity can be a salesperson's best friend. Ms. Olen learns how lucrative it is to sell financial services to the elderly, many of them terrified of outliving their savings. A 2009 AARP survey found that nearly one in 10 people over 55, or about 5.9 million Americans, had attended a free financial seminar in the last three years.

At the World MoneyShow, an annual event in Orlando, 80 percent of attendees were over 55. The author writes that "a panicked baby boomer is their best customer."

And while Ms. Olen roundly attacks the myth that women are too emotional or ignorant to handle money well, she notes that they often lack confidence in their money management skills. Women also live longer than men and earn less. Saving more money, as women are exhorted to do, isn't the issue, Ms. Olen says: "How they should do this with a lesser income that's expected to do more goes unsaid."

Unusual, and refreshing, is her inclusion of so many women's voices throughout the book, such as the writer Jane Bryant Quinn; the financial adviser Manisha Thakor, the labor economist Teresa Ghilarducci, and Elizabeth Warren, recently elected to the Senate from Massachusetts.

One woman who comes in for some scathing treatment is the best-selling financial adviser Suze Orman, whom Ms. Olen criticizes as offering "financial platitudes" and making huge amounts of money by telling others to be frugal. Ms. Olen writes that "Orman's supposed wisdom often contradicts itself," and that her affiliations with companies like FICO and Lending Tree raise questions about the impartiality of her advice.