CAREER

While you may know that love usually doesn't come with a guaranteed fairy-tale ending, you probably are still holding out for, or trying to have your marriage live up to, the idea of truly passionate and romantic love. Elizabeth Ford and Daniela Drake, M.D., authors of the new release Smart Girls Marry Money: How Women Have Been Duped Into the Romantic Dream -- And How They're Paying For It, are here to change your mind, or at least tell you why "happily ever after" hasn't quite happened to them. Read: Marrying "Up" AOL Health: Can you explain the theory that your book is based on -- the idea that women will be better off in the long run if they marry for money?

Not everyone sees Helen Gurley Brown as a great feminist. Some, in fact, see her as completely the opposite of that. As the editor of Cosmopolitan for 32 years, she celebrated sex and consumption. And in her interviews and bestselling book, Sex and the Single Girl, she advocated for men footing the dinner bill and women using their feminine wiles as a weapon. But a new book by Jennifer Scanlon argues that Gurley Brown was, in fact, one of the great trailblazers, right up there with Betty Friedan (The Feminist Mystique) and Gloria Steinem. Entitled Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown, the biography inspired us to look back on some of the late, great editor's wisest words, and the lessons we can take away from them.

If you're one to consult your Tarot deck before any big life decision, then you'll soon clear a space between your patchouli incense, astrological charts, and healing crystals for fresh packs of Love and Money Kismet cards. Created by Chiera King—a life coach, psychic medium and astrologer—Kismet (a Turkish word meaning destiny) Cards are meant to help thrash through the vines of life's uncertainties with insight to some of our most tired questions. Wonder why things aren't working in your current relationship? Ask the Love deck. Wonder why you can't for the life of you get promoted? Ask the Money and Career cards.

Two new sex surveys revealed their findings this week—giving us a glimpse of what goes on the between the sheets of our fellow Americans.Consumer Reports interviewed 1,000 people between ages 18 and 75 about the frequency of and satisfaction with their sex lives. Working Mother conducted a separate survey of 500 readers—and presumed working moms—about the amount and quality of their time in the sack.

Dying to try online dating, but worried that the guy that you're digitally winking at is really a cyber stalker? Then watch Love U's "Online Dating Translator."

Job dissatisfaction is pretty common. Numbers vary, but between according to Forbes.com in 2005, up to 87% of people were unhappy at work; in 2007 LiveScience put the number at over 50%; and earlier this year MarketWatch reported that only 9% of people liked their job so much they'd marry it. So job dissatisfaction is rampant, even male porn stars are in on the career-hating action! Today we learn, via Debauchette, 7 Reasons Why It Sucks to Be A Male Porn Star. Watch out, that link is NSFW, so we'll bring you the highlights below.

Unlike Bridget Jones, today's old maid isn't obsessed with her solo status. In fact, she revels in it. A fresh, liberated twist on the old stereotype.

When you're married to a doctor, particularly a resident who has to be at the hospital all the time, you end up spending a lot of time alone. In this essay newlywed Rebecca Ascher-Walsh describes how she learned to accept her workaholic husband in all his over-achieving glory. "When my internist asked if I knew that marrying a doctor-in-training was a recipe for disaster, I laughed. What did he know of the power of young love? What he might have asked in return was: what did I know of my husband? And what, at 22, did I know of myself? For three years, I glimpsed him as he came in the door and headed to bed; when I prepared dinner to entice him en route, he would fall asleep, fork in hand. I was a married single person with none of the perks of either, and when it became clear— too many tears later—that there would always be a person who needed him more urgently than I did, we separated."

Margaret Vangeli loved her job when she left the music business 10 years ago. And who would blame her? She ran the international departments of Polygram and Atlantic Records. But family health circumstances forced her to make a change. She was able to accommodate that change and start her own successful business. This led not only to career success but more time for family.

The author's generation fought to have careers as well as families. Now, more and more young mothers are opting to raise their kids full time. But what happens when a husband leaves, gets laid off, or dies? Leslie Bennetts makes the case for keeping the day job. "I spent many years establishing a rewarding professional life before having two children — just as my biological clock was winding down—and ever since then I've felt as though I won the lottery. A great career! A wonderful husband! Two beautiful, healthy children! Lucky me! Imagine my surprise, then, to learn that Having It All—the quintessential goal of recent generations of women—has gone out of fashion. Who knew?"