Save Yourself With Savings, W&M Book Club

by Tracee Sioux on August 17th, 2007

In Suze Orman’s Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destinyshe gives women a reality check on their financial security.

41% of marriages end in divorce. (I commonly hear 50%, but she states 41%)
Women live 6 years longer than men.
Many women stay in violent relationships because she’s financially trapped.
Many women stay in relationships with a cheating spouse for financial reasons.
2/3 of women have not talked to spouses about life insurance or preparing a will.
90% of women reported feeling financially insecure.
Women are 2 times as likely to retire in poverty.
50% admit becoming a bag lady had crossed their minds.
1% of women gave themselves an “A” in financial knowledge and well-being.
80% of women said they would depend on social security at retirement.

When it comes to making decisions with money, you refuse to own your own power, to act in your best interest. . . You simply won’t bring yourself to take care of yourself financially, especially if those actions compete with taking care of those you love.

Save yourself with a seperate personal savings account.Why is it so controversial? It’s obviously an idea based on sound judgement. Suze certainly isn’t the first person to suggest that smart women protect themselves financially even when they are happily married.

Every woman should have her own savings account that is completely separate from any other savings account. . . There is no need to hide this account from anyone. There is nothing shameful or suspicious in establishing your own savings. Taking care of yourself is not secondary to everything else and everyone else. You deserve to have financial security that is all yourself, that you know you can always rely on in a personal emergency.

Suze actually never married and has never had this conversation with a husband.

I know all kinds of women who report that they or their own happily married mothers regularly stashed money away - just in case. It’s certainly not a new concept.

Certainly we all know a woman who got divorced because her husband of 25-30 years became unhappy and bored and didn’t want to be married anymore. We look at that woman with pity and wish it were different for her, but do we learn her lesson? It’s not an urban legend or a myth - it really happens every day. To real people. Women close enough to us that we can taste the bitterness of that reality.

I feel like waving a massive victory banner when we save as a family. We are making it as a combined effort. Someday there will be enough for my self. It’s certainly a wise thing to do.

Suze Orman has a Save Yourself Plan with TD Ameritrade. If you open an account there between now and March 31, 2008 and save $50 per month for 12 consecutive months they will GIVE you $100. This translates to saving $600 and having $700 in your own personal savings account.

Save Yourself With Savings

Orman and Ramsey Duke It Out (in my head)