Top Money Mistakes for Women

And that has to be taken into consideration. One suggestion is that stay-at-home moms shouldn’t have to suffer from lack of income. According to Klein, one mistake women make is “not paying themselves a salary as stay at home moms.” “You can be the homemaker and still keep an income stream and/or the potential for an income stream,” said Neely. “Whenever you are not the breadwinner, and you totally give up the ability to earn money...you run the risk of having to support yourself. You need to put yourself in the mind-set that I am going to continue to focus on what I am passionate about and what I love to do. It’s really investing in yourself.”         

4. Know your Property Rights.
“Transferring title to real estate owned prior to marriage into joint names might be a good idea from an estate tax viewpoint if the marriage is successful, it can lead to undesirable consequences in a divorce. If you owned an automobile prior to the marriage, there is no reason to change the title to joint name,” said Kindler. The same holds true for investments, he added.

“Changing your brokerage accounts from an individual account to a joint account isn’t wise either. In some states, money that is received via gift or inheritance is considered non-marital property; however, by commingling these assets with marital funds they may lose their non-marital attributes.”   

“Most people have no idea what their rights are. What is community property, what is separate property, what would they be entitled to if the relationship comes to end. It’s just awareness so you can make good decisions,” said Neely.  


5. Not Saving for Retirement. 
The belief that many women share is that their husband’s retirement is theirs as well. In the matter of divorce, that clearly isn’t true. And even in cases where the marriage is strong, it’s not necessarily true, either. “Don't trust your spouse to save enough for both of you,” cautions Freeman.

“Many women do not make an effort to understand their investments and life insurance policies and are not familiar with investments their husband might have made (such as real estate deals or other businesses). Then when the divorce happens they are shocked that there is not as much money as they thought there was or it is tied up and not accessible,” said Galia Gichon, personal finance consultant in New York, N.Y.    

Planning for retirement has to be one of the top financial priorities for women, especially those who haven’t been working through their entire marriage.  “At the very least, make sure there is enough life insurance in place on him,” said Neely. “20 percent of elderly women today are living in poverty because they are outliving their husbands and plans made for elderly years aren’t enough.”   

“Make sure that the assets are set up in trust, so that estate taxes are minimized so that there is no court involvement if one of you should die. Get a lawyer involved in this process, so that he can help you decide on kind of insurance you want,” she said.   

“Some women believe that saving money and "cutting back" will be enough to let you retire in comfort ,” said Piercy. “You have to be more proactive than that.”  

“At some point in their lives, 90 percent of women will have sole responsibility of their finances whether due to widowhood or divorce. Yet, women outlive men by an average of seven years and make almost 23 percent less money than men creating a greater risk for them to outlive their savings in retirement,” added Epstein. 


6. Neglecting to Have a Will.
This may sound stupid, as if who wouldn’t have a will. But according to our financial experts, many women (and men) do not.  “Do not assume that what's yours is his and what's his is yours,” said Epstein. “There is a case I've personally dealt with where a husband drafted a will without his wife's knowledge, only to have her find out at his death that he had left a significant portion of his estate to a mistress. Since his wife had not taken an active role in drafting the wills or managing the finances, she had no idea that another woman had come into the picture, and had lost a large portion of her inheritance to a woman she never knew existed.”  

“You should talk to a personal lawyer. Every adult needs to have a personal documents in place. A will, a trust, or at the very least you need a health care directive,” said Neely.  


7. Not Understanding what's on the Tax Forms You Are Signing.
It’s a boring and tedious job, but the experts say it pays off. Taxes are another gray area that would be cleared up if each woman were indeed the CFO of her family unit. Reading through and understanding just what the taxes are that you as a couple are filing is very important, since signing it makes you liable.  

“Signing the jointly filed income tax form without understanding the information contained on the tax return is particularly dangerous,” said Kindler. “If your spouse has a Schedule C business and is committing tax fraud by not declaring all of his income or deducting numerous personal expenses, you can be held liable for the unpaid taxes and penalties even if you had no knowledge of the erroneous information.”


Lenore Skomal is author of nine books and columnist of an award-winning weekly column in the Erie, Pa., Times-News, she also teaches college journalism in Pennsylvania.