MONEY AND LOVE

Our personal lives (love) and our working lives (money) are intertwined like never before. We strive to give our loved ones and our colleagues the attention and commitment they deserve as universally we find ourselves doing our jobs at kitchen tables and in bedroom closets around the country. Should I marry this person? Should I take that job? Should I send my child back to school during a pandemic? Making strategic decisions has never been more valuable than right now. 

Labor Economist and Professor Emerita, Myra Strober, and Social Innovation Strategist (and one of Myra’s former MBA students), Abby Davisson, know that making these decisions can be agonizing; we often default to compartmentalizing Money and Love when obviously neither can succeed in a vacuum. We muddle through and rely on our gut instinct or what only best serves our professional interests in the given moment but sacrifices the long-term best interests of our loved ones.  In these stressful and uncertain times, the opportunity to deploy the wealth of experience and knowledge from Strober & Davisson in book form and beyond the Stanford classroom is a gift. It’s DECISIVE meets CRIB SHEET, meets DESIGNING YOUR LIFE.  The structure of the book moves through a life-cycle, as those are the moments and milestones in which we could really do with some intentional slow-thinking and strategic decision-making. The authors arm us with an invaluable framework (the 5 c’s of Choice, Check-in, Communicate, Consequence, Confidence) that is also a practical toolkit based on lifetimes of learning and teaching which takes the bias and uncertainty out of the decision-making process.  In subsequent chapters, we examine dividing household work (*take the quiz tonight, it’s illuminating!); having children and combining them with a career; traversing rough spots in a marriage; and providing elder care. Finally, they zoom out and look at the big picture: how societal norms change and how you can become a change agent, a “tempered radical”, at your workplace and in your community and how with some surprising and counterintuitive thinking that can positively impact you as much as your colleagues. Populated with fresh insight, new data and sticky storytelling, the tone of this book is warm, trustworthy and its wisdom is utterly essential.  

MONEY AND LOVE will appeal to a broad, curious readership in the social sciences, business, leadership, gender studies and academia.