the Motley Fool podcast episode last Friday covered women investors, financial literacy in marriage, and differential effects of involving women in family financial planning. It was eye-opening for me. Some of the take-home points:

1. When stressed or grieving, women (and men) make poor financial decisions, so learning about finance before a tragedy is critical
2. Women are more likely to inherit or become sole owners of assets - because they tend to outlive their spouses. The comment was made that women "are more likely to inherit twice - once from parents, then again from spouse". So they are more likely to be forced into making big financial decisions at crossroads.
3. Women are more likely to be faced with the dilemma of "de-cumulation" phase, ie how to make sure assets last longer than they live.

I've always tried to get my wife to participate in the investing/saving process. When we change anything, I explain what I think and ask for her input. I keep her aware of market changes, etc. She smiles and gives me the thumbs up, probably without turning down the volume on her AirPods. If I ski into a crevasse she at least knows how to log on to one site that summarizes our entire financial life. I just wish she wanted to invest the time necessary to know how to shift money around as we age, pay for kids' college, etc.