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Financial ignorance has the tendency to hurt women (and their children, if they have any) in a variety of life situations. While it would be impossible to prepare for every possible situation, having some basic knowledge regarding your finances can be a life saver in some of the more common events. Here are a few tips for what women must know to better handle different life situations:

Getting Married: The day most women dream about all through their childhood marks an important milestone – and creates a variety of new tasks you should to to become better prepared. If there are large assets involved, a financial planner or prenuptial agreement may be a good idea.

If the assets are minimal, there are concerns to address now in the event on partner passes away unexpectedly – things like having powers of attorney and health-care proxies so that in the event one partner is incapacitated, the other can make decisions.

Having Children: In addition to the most common concerns of parenting and raising children, there are several other considerations when you begin a family. Who will take care of the baby while the parents work, or will one partner remain at home? How will you handle the loss of income and the increase of living expenses?

When you have dependents, it becomes imperative that you have life insurance in order – if one or both parents die, life insurance can help ensure the family has money to maintain their lifestyle. Wills, while important before, are an absolute requirement when you have dependents as you can designate who will become guardians of the children if both of you should die in an accident or for any reason.

Planning for the future of your children becomes just as important as planning for your own retirement. The earlier you start putting money aside for your child’s college education, the more they will have when they’re old enough to go to college. Try a 529 plan.

Divorce: No one wants to consider their marriage may end in divorce, but with the statistics showing that 1 in every 2 marriages ends in divorce, it’s necessary that you are prepared just in case. If your husband handles all of the finances and investments, they are likely to be in his name. Make sure you know where money is being saved or invested and where the paperwork is kept.

Put some accounts in your own name, even if you are the stay-at-home parent, or a housewife. There should be some assets and liquidity in your name as you may need access to money when going through mediation or divorce.

Death: If your spouse becomes terminally ill, get your financial affairs in order immediately. It’s not what you want to be thinking about during such a difficult time, but it can save you unbelievable stress later on.

If your spouse should die unexpectedly, not knowing anything about your family finances creates a nightmare that you must work through and your mind and heart will not be in any condition to be forced into worrying about such things. Hopefully, you will never find yourself in this situation, but it’s better to prepare for it and not have to use that preparation than to find yourself up the creek without a paddle, later! Create a balance sheet of assets and liabilities, and keep it up to date.



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