Helaine Olen is an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

based in New York. She is a columnist for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' and, before that, ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

'', where she wrote the column ''The Bills''. She is the author or co-author of three books, ''Office Mate'' (2007), '' Pound Foolish'' (2012), and '' The Index Card'' (2016).

Biography

Olen graduated from

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

and attended the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. She is married to the script writer Matt Roshkow and has two sons. Olen is critical of the personal finance industry's typical advice to consumers, suggesting that it leaves them unprepared for major downturns such as market crashes, layoffs, and medical bills.

Selected works

* * * *

References

External links

Personal website
* Living people Smith College alumni University of Minnesota alumni American women journalists Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers American women non-fiction writers The Washington Post journalists Slate (magazine) people {{US-journalist-20thC-stub