What Every Woman Should Know about Her Husband's Money - Hardcover

Shelby White

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394587219 ISBN 13: 9780394587219

Publisher: Random House, Inc., 1992

Synopsis

A financial survival manual for women teaches them how to protect their financial interests and those of their children with information on everything from prenuptial agreements to divorce settlements and wills. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

Reviews

Charging that despite changes in marriage, divorce and inheritance laws, the U.S. legal system still favors men, and that many divorcees and widows are largely unprepared to manage legal and money matters, freelance financial journalist White offers an eminently practical manual to help women avoid financial disaster--whether they are wage earners or full-time homemakers, with or without children. A woman, she stresses, regardless of earnings, should constitute an equal economic partner and decision maker in a marriage. The author provides guidelines on managing assets and assessing expenses, especially taxes, which, she notes, reveal much about a husband's financial means. White favors prenuptial contracts and "divorce battle plans" covering alimony or maintenance, child support, custody and remarriage. Couples, she advises, should have wills--and trusts if indicated--as well as disability insurance and provisions for retirement. First serial to Redbook, Smart Money and Self; BOMC alternate; author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"As much as possible" is financial journalist White's short answer to the title question. Her book-length explanation ranges over divorce (which dominates over half of the book), prenuptial agreements, retirement, wills, trusts, and taxes. Special notice is taken of how differences between community property and common law states affect women. Cautionaries and problem examples from middle- and upper-income family life are plentiful, but examples and solutions are often shallow or confusing. Similar material is better covered elsewhere, for example, in Frances Leonard's Women and Money at 40: The Independent Woman's Guide to Financial Security for Life (Addison-Wesley, 1991). Despite the publisher's hype, the book's repetitious and poorly organized text make it a questionable acquisition.
- Justine Roberts, Mill Valley, Cal.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Five Things Women Don't Usually Know About Their Husbands' Money
1. How much he has and how much he owes
2. How the assets are held (savings accounts, property, stocks, etc.)
3. How much insurance he has and what kind
4. How much he spends
5. How he's leaving it (the will)

There are two ways to discover the facts about your husband's finances. The good way is by sharing throughout the marriage. The other, and less pleasant way, is when financial disaster strikes and you discover that you are in debt, have worthless investments, or even face bankruptcy.

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House, Inc.
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0394587219
• ISBN 13: 9780394587219
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 262