Women and Financial Health

As I left dance class this morning one of my friends introduced me to a woman whom she thought I could help. This woman lost her partner of 10 years suddenly to a heart attack last month. She was being supported by him and living in his nice home. Now she is on our own and must financially make things work on her small salary (and large student loan debt) because he had not included her in his will. He had a strong fear of death and never wanted to talk about it and prepare for the future. So his assets automatically went to his grown children and there was nothing for her.

This is not a surprising event. I hear about this happening all the time. Another woman in my town lost he husband suddenly to cancer and she was left with little life insurance and not enough money to support her young daughter. She had to move out of her beautiful home of 10 years and rent a room from a friend to be able to make ends meet. You can imagine that she was devastated.

Another woman I know unexpectedly lost her job and was unable to make her mortgage payments or meet her student loan obligations. She had a young son to support on her own and had difficulty figuring out a way to survive.

What is common amongst these 3 women (all near 50), is their incredible amount of fear around the process of managing money. They have no experience with it and have often relied on the men in their life to handle that task. I tried to explain to each of them that it is much easier than they think. I told one woman that putting a plan together isn't much harder than cleaning a toilet. It is a dirty and messy job and you might dread doing it, but it can be done by rolling up your sleaves and doing a little scrubbing. Ok - maybe I was exaggerating with that analogy - but I did get her to chuckle and see the lighter side of the necessary task she will have to tackle.

Women especially have a lot of fears and deep rooted physiological issues around money that stem from their relationships with it since they were children and how they parents addressed the issue. My mother was the CFO of the household and was a wise money manager so she passed those skills on to me. Now I can share them with you.

If you lose a loved one, are going through a divorce, or are having other types of financial difficulties, have the confidence that you can still financially thrive with some good planning. Stop by our Women's Cornerfor information on how to get started. Take a deep breath and say to yourself - I KNOW I CAN DO IT!