10 Financial Self-Care Moves Every Wife Should Make

Source: kate_sept2004 / Getty

When you hear the term self-care, ledgers, spreadsheets, and investment accounts typically don’t come to mind. However, maintaining financial order in your personal life is a way to take care of yourself. Historically, women have left money management in the hands of their spouses, but this is a terrible practice for more reasons than one.

According to a UBS Global Wealth Management survey of more than 1,800 men and women, nearly half of women today still leave financial and investment decisions up to their husbands. Even if your spouse happens to be more financially savvy than you, you should never be left in the dark or check out of money management altogether because ignorance most certainly is not bliss when there’s money involved. For one, you’ll want to have a firm grasp of your marital finances, but it’s even deeper than that. You also don’t want to play the role of a spectator when it comes to your financial future.

If you have allowed your spouse to be the primary decision-maker regarding your finances, it’s never too late to step up and get involved. Here are 10 ways to start.

Life insurance

The first thing that you’ll want to do is secure a life insurance policy for yourself aside from the ones that may be offered by your employer as most of those are only valid while you are employed with that particular company. No mom wants to pass away suddenly and leave her partner and children in a financial bind.

Source: shapecharge / Getty

Make sure that your spouse has coverage too

Secondly, you’ll want to ensure that your spouse has sufficient coverage as well and that you are listed as the beneficiary on at least one of those policies. While no one wants to think about death, it’s a lot harder to grieve properly when you don’t have money available to bury your spouse or pay your bills.

Source: Marco VDM / Getty

Establish your own retirement plan

Your spouse may have a solid plan for retirement, but what about you? Though no one marries with plans to divorce, the reality is that 40 to 50 percent of married people experience divorce. Should your marriage end in divorce, there is a possibility that you will not have access to your spouse’s retirement savings.

Source: skynesher / Getty

Establish a college savings plan for the kids

Even if your spouse doesn’t appear to have a sense of urgency in regard to college savings plans for your children, there is nothing that says you can’t step up and handle it. The cost of education continues to climb and your future self will thank you if you start to plan for those expenses now.

Source: Grace Cary / Getty

Get a solo savings account

Having at least one joint account is a great money move for couples, but it’s also beneficial for each party to have at least one account of their own. This way, couples are able to maintain a sense of freedom and do not have to answer to their partner for every single dollar spent.

Source: Catherine McQueen / Getty

Understand your type of property ownership

If you and your spouse own property together, you should make sure that you understand the type of ownership that you share because not all co-tenancy arrangements are created equally. You can usually assess your co-tenancy arrangement by reviewing the title to your property. Ideally, you’ll want a tenancy by the entirety arrangement, which according to Investopedia is “a form of shared property ownership that is reserved only for married couples. A tenancy by the entirety essentially permits spouses to jointly own property as a single legal entity. This means that each spouse has an equal and undivided interest in the property. This form of legal ownership creates a right of survivorship so if one spouse dies, the surviving spouse automatically receives the full title of the property.”

If you happen to live in a state in which tenancy by the entirety is not offered, you’ll want to establish joint tenancy with the right of survivorship. This means that should something happen to your spouse, you will own the property entirely without having to go to probate.

While you might assume that no one would try to claim rights to your home in the unfortunate event of your spouse’s passing, you’d be surprised how people conduct themselves when money is involved.

Source: RoBeDeRo / Getty

Invest

You may not know anything about investing, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t learn. Familiarize yourself with the investments that your spouse may have already established and find out how they’re performing. It’s also a good idea to try to add some new ones to the portfolio.

Source: Iconic / Getty

Build your credit

You never want all of your cards to be in your spouse’s name. Even if they make you an authorized user on their accounts, you should still have your own. If you happen to have bad credit, it doesn’t mean that you are doomed to have poor credit for the rest of your life. There are many things that you can do to improve your credit without even seeking the help of a credit agency.

Source: pixelfit / Getty

Write a will and trust

Every parent should establish a will in which they nominate a guardian of their children in the event of their death.

“The costs of not having a will can be high, and they’re not just monetary,” says Todd L. Janower, an estate-planning attorney told Parents.

Further, a will helps to establish how you want your assets to be distributed when you are no longer here. It is also a good idea to have your spouse establish a will as well.

Source: FreshSplash / Getty

Set personal financial goals

Many couples will set goals together, but we all have our own individual aspirations. What are yours? It could be to live debt-free, obtain a perfect credit score, own a business, or purchase a home. Whatever the goal, put it in writing and begin working towards it.