Women Count: Smart About Money

Hosted by CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, this half-hour production whizzes through several scenarios in which women might find themselves needing financial advice: starting a new job, owning a small business, getting married, becoming divorced and/or a single mom, experiencing disability or the death of a spouse, and retirement. Via the testimonials of various women in these situations, and the advice and perspective of several financial experts (including the excellent Barbara Quint), viewers learn the importance of saving money, reducing debt, evaluating benefits offered by a potential employer, contributing to a pension plan, etc. While this is a professionally presented overview, the tape really tries to cover too much ground with too many story lines to be truly effective at any one. In fact, all of the situations presented here warrant full-length treatment (consider the multitudinous issues in small business ownership alone, for instance), rather than receiving the accurate-yet-thinly-rendered coverage here. Still, for the price, it certainly couldn't hurt to add this to your collection as a starting off point, especially if you have more comprehensive programming on individual topics for further research. Recommended. Aud: H, P. (K. Glaser)