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Moms and Money Matters
Increasing Your Financial Proficiency
By Gina Roberts-Grey, LCSW
Juggling multiple responsibilities is something most mothers gracefully handle with ease. Running from the dry cleaner's to the grocery store, stopping to pick kids up from soccer practice and dropping them off at ballet are just a few typical feats accomplished by mothers every day. Keeping track of each child's schedule, the names of every coach and where your children's best friends live is routine. The contact information for your financial planner, insurance agent, lawyer and accountant, however, are not always as readily committed to a mother's memory.
At some point in their lives, eight out of 10 women will be the sole financial decision maker for their financial lives. Whether stemming from illness, divorce or widowhood, many women find themselves faced with the challenges of assuming the full financial responsibility for their household and families. Having a keen understanding of your family's financial position bolsters your confidence and security in the event of an abrupt change in your lifestyle.
"Women are disempowered when it comes to handling money," says Neale Godfrey, author of Making Change: A Woman's Guide to Designing Her Financial Future (Fireside, 1999). Because most women wholly immerse themselves in the lives of their family, they often find themselves financially unprepared. Interestingly, Godfrey notes that although they are not routinely involved in day-to-day financial planning, nearly 85 percent of mothers assume the responsibility of financial planning during a crisis.
So how can you get involved? Achieving the goal of becoming financially educated and confident does not have to feel daunting. Godfrey says "taking one step at a time and understanding you don't have to do everything – you just have to know about it – gives you the tools to financial empowerment."
When her husband was injured on the job, Marie Derby of Crystal Lake, Ill., realized that attitudes of "my husband usually takes care of that" and "I don't have a clue what's in the checkbook" will not keep your household running in case of an emergency.