If you’ve watched TV lately, you’ve probably seen the Cascade Platinum TV Commercial with the little girl that asks the question, “What does the dishwasher do?”

My wife’s answer is “cuts the grass, paints the house, cleans the bathrooms, does the laundry, feeds the dogs, takes out the trash, picks up after her husband, and, of course, washes the dishes before she loads the dishwasher.”   My reply is, ‘oh, honey, I do some…’ LOL.

In all seriousness, my wife does an awful lot to keep our home and business afloat. In fact, she handles most of the finances, including balancing the checkbook, paying the bills, filing taxes, and making most of the ‘big decisions,’ as it pertains to our finances.

As a road warrior spending upwards of 150 plus nights away from home, my ego was never that big, so I’m good with how she’s managed the finances over the years. I often joke I could never divorce her since she has all the passwords to our online activity and financial accounts. Here’s the irony. I was a Regional Vice President for well-known insurance and financial services companies.

Women Taking the Lead with Financial Planning

How the finances are handled in our home is no longer the outlier but rather the norm. A little-known fact is that today, not only do 38% of women out-earn their husbands, and according to LIMRA, but are also financially more decisive. [1]

Although women are taking the lead with financial planning, the Alliance for Lifetime Income reports, women are more concerned than men about outliving their money. When you consider only 38% of women have any employer-sponsored retirement plan, there are certainly reasons for concern. [2]

One of the many positive aspects to women taking the lead in financial planning is their wealth is expected to nearly triple from $8 trillion today to over $22 trillion by 2050, and they are also expected to inherit an additional $29 trillion over the next 40 years as the “Boomer” dies off. [3]

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