For the Recently Widowed, Some Big Financial Pitfalls to Avoid
Ted’s thoughts:
When many people think of the word “widow” they think of a woman who is 85 or 95 years old, nearing the end of her life. That’s just not always the case. The average age a woman becomes a widow is actually 59 years young. This NY Times article points out many excellent examples of false assumptions people can have about being a widow and what that can be like for the widows being stereotyped. No person’s experience is identical to someone else’s.hat’s why as a Financial Consultant I love how my job allows me to be “on their team” with my clients and to be able to work with each one, offering guidance on the steps in their life’s journey.
Many changes happen during our lives, and the death of a spouse is one of the most challenging. Being widowed is often one of the most difficult to deal with and hardest to handle.
Count on me to be available, to be honest, and trustworthy, and encourage you to take your time in making a decision. On this team, you always set the pace. I hope this article can offer a bit of enlightenment for all and highly encourage you to give it a read.
There are few more wrenching events in life than losing your spouse.
But to make matters worse, the death of a life partner also unleashes a torrent of financial tasks. And more often than not, it is a woman — a widow — who is taking them on.
Women live longer than men, and they’re likely to outlive their male spouses, given that decades ago, many women married men a few years older. Plus, gender roles being what they were, men often took on most of the household finances.
As a result, many widows aren’t as familiar with investing, insurance and taxes as their dead husbands were.
Even if widows were the household money whizzes, however, they’re likely to find themselves navigating an overwhelming mix of emotions. There is grief and despair, fears both rational and irrational and often a desperate urge to take action — any action — that will allow them to move on. But with important financial decisions, speed can make a mess of things.
Last week, in the first of a series of columns about financial mistakes that particular groups of people repeatedly make, I wrote about physicians and what we can learn from their blunders.
The pitfalls for widows are well-enough known that there are books for them, including “New Widow Financial Lifeline” and “Moving Forward on Your Own.” I also recommend a 20-page offering on the Web site of Timberchase Financial, a financial planning firm that works with many widows, called “What Do I Do Now?”
But even a brief pamphlet may be too much for the grief-stricken to digest right away. In the meantime, widows can avoid many of the big financial pitfalls by keeping just four things in mind.
THE RUSH Some financial tasks you must do within a month or two of a spouse’s death. Keep paying the bills, including any quarterly tax charges. Make sure you understand how your health insurance works, if it comes from your dead spouse’s employer. Collect on any life insurance policies, especially if cash is running low.