Finances for women need special consideration

ATLANTA - All of us can tweak, tighten or renew our financial awareness. But a financial planner regularly featured on FOX 5 finds that women, in particular, could use a more pointed message because of these reasons. 

According to the US Department of Education, 90 percent of women will be responsible for the finances because of death or divorce. Yet, 73 percent of women generally don't take control organically. And worse yet, nearly four million women have math skills below a third grade level.

So for some folks, it makes it very hard to manage. So now what? Well, Lisa Brown, of Brightworth, wrote a book called, "Girl Talk, Money Talk, The Smart Girl's Guide to Money After College" for all of these reasons.

"If you think about your 20s and 30s, there are a lot of major life events. Again, first job, getting married, having a child, the first mortgage, having to pay off student loans. And there are major financial implications of all of those decisions. So this sets women up on an easy-to-follow financial footing so they can get the basics of what they need to know early in life," she told us. 

It's an easy-to-read, 100-page book that ties things up in the end with a 12-step template - a plan of action, if you will. She touches on how to manage that first paycheck, how to pay off that student loan and how to buy that first house. Then it goes deeper: Do you need a prenuptial agreement before marriage?  What does it mean to leave the work force and to stay at home with your children? These are situations that come up whether you go to college or straight to work out of high school, whether you have a 401k or not.

You can ignore these questions now, but you will have to answer them at some point. You just need to decide whether to I plan for it now or wait until you're knee-deep and scrambling to make choices.

If this interests you, here's the link to "Girl Talk, Money Talk."