Study: Women make more family, finance decisions than men

[Flybye]

He is fantastic with the budget. I am fantastic with the spending. He works. I don't. He works hard so I can spend it. It really is a great arrangement!

[Grog]

"Would you like to speak to the man in charge or the woman who knows what's happening?"


Thanks to Furry Logic's artist Jane Seabrook: http://www.furrylogicbooks.com/

[vinbek]

I have a little different situation. My husband and I were both the same age, 37,when we married. We both had good jobs/careers and owned our own homes. Initially, my husband paid the bills and I handled the invesments. I was an estate and financial planner. I rearranged my husbands investments and 401k options and taught him why, etc. Now, he handles all the bills and investments, but we discuss everything before making changes. I am very independent and totally an equal partner. WE respect and trust one another with everything. We are in the process of having our wills and trusts updated with an attorney and we agreed on how everything would be handled in the event of our untimely deaths. We are both 54 now and have a 10 year old son and 13 year old daughter. We are definitely outside the curve on the kid front. Most of our friends have grandchildren now!!!
Anything is possible!!!!

[shootingstar]

In all fairness to those who are single/unattached..will answer what I am like before I met my partner and since then..

He likes keeping detailed spending on key monthly expenses ..an Excel spreadsheet freak..yea well, those with engineering LOVE..

So I let him pay and know in great detail if wanted to.
From the investment side we are independent ..it's a carry-over of when I managed my own finances and owned a home..I continue to make my own investment decisions but we do swap tips with each other. Have to say that already carries a certain weight of responsiblity and time, given today's financial markets.

It does help when both of us were raised in poor families where each of us grew, highly conscious of costs and ways to budget. How many people can say that they knew the cost of their parents' home when they were 15 yrs. old? I did, but then it was a rundown house, my parents' first home after 1-bedroom apartment with 5 children...in Ontario.

I grew up in a home where my parents discussed their finances and spending plans in considerble detail with one another. They didn't care...it was all in Chinese and we only understood half of what they were saying. Nevertheless my mother seemed to do all sorts of mathematical calculations in her head...a woman with gr. 10 education...while my father watched. He has gr. 12 ed.

[sgtiger]

The first few years of our marriage BIAK and I traded the responsibility of our finances back and forth, but in more recent years I have been the one to handle most of it. We do discuss our goals and plan accordingly but BIAK trusts me to handle the details.

[Trekhawk]

Well, I do make more decisions than my cat.

Snort

[Mr. Bloom]

He showed me why each stock was a good or bad buy,

So, WWJD? What were his rules of stock picking?

[TrekTheKaty]

I try to keep him aware of where all of our accounts are and what I am doing. He yawns. I ask what he will do if something happens to me--he replies, "I'll go to the ATM and check the balance."

[TrekTheKaty]

"Would you like to speak to the man in charge or the woman who knows what's happening?"


Thanks to Furry Logic's artist Jane Seabrook: http://www.furrylogicbooks.com/

YEP He's the king of the castle...................

[Trek420]

So, WWJD? What were his rules of stock picking?

I wish I knew. He stressed picking diverse stocks. We went over my 401k. I thought I'd picked a diverse group of money market funds when we read the details they were almost identical.

How's it a small cap fund when it has the same stocks as the large cap? So I changed selections to get more variety

He was a chicken farmer for a time Don't put all your eggs in one basket Where I work there's a company match in the 401k. So I requested NO company stock because the match is in their stock so I get dividends which generate more stock which ... even without asking for it I get quite a bit.

If our stock drops I'm less vulnerable.

Pick diverse funds, keep an eye on 'em.

He invested his values. Long before the advent of "socially responsible investing" and "green money market funds" he did not buy stock in companies that invested in South Africa (this was before the end of Apartheid), while he thought utilities were solid/steady he avoided those with nuclear plants.

He'd look to companies that treat employees well ... and their customers.

One thing he stressed was the Price/Earnings ratio. Are they actually earning? Making a product and a profit?

He read the annual reports and avoided or sold anything trending to be going into huge debt, that was a sign regardless of how much he liked the company to get out.

So he's look to all these things and more but always stocks with a dividend. Because stocks got up and down but the dividends are steady reliable income.

As my parents grew older their investments became more conservative as in more bonds.

There were a couple times that he walked away from opportunity for tremendous wealth. Once was when he was asked by a friend to invest in an invention called the Shopsmith. But they wanted to be farmers after the war and invested savings in the farm we kids grew up on.

As farmers we were poor, very poor, but rich in a lot ways as a family. For one thing we kids (and that includes Duck on Wheels on this board) knew what our parents did. It's not as if they just drove off and went somewhere.

My parents read ... a lot, they read the handwriting on the wall as corporations gobbled up small farms. They talked to other farmers including some of the folks I remember from this film:

www.jewishchickenranchers.com

to say it's time to sell or get out. Because of their education both had options other than farming. Mom finished her Masters degree, Dad worked for the county. They never stopped gardening. At 86 Mom still gardens and walks to the local farm market.

But they sold the farm when I was about 6. Many of their friends did not and lost all.

He was pleased to see the trend towards eating fresh, organic and local enables small farms, co-ops and groups of farms to succeed, eateries and markets featuring local and/or organic, products from soap to salsa made from real ingredients.

So WWJB as in What Would Jack Buy? Is there Ben and Jerries stock? Who makes organic Vermont Cheddar? Is there Biodiesel stock? Which companies are making solar energy panels? I think there's Cannondale stock Maybe he'd be using the same principal picking solid reliable companies and investing in the Green Economy, or sticking with bonds and telling me to do that.

So think diverse, invest for the long term, think dividends, invest your values, avoid debt ... it's a double century not a townline sprint.

[Tuckervill]

I try to keep him aware of where all of our accounts are and what I am doing. He yawns. I ask what he will do if something happens to me--he replies, "I'll go to the ATM and check the balance."

That's pretty much us.

Total trust. Just like I trust him to go to work every day.

Karen