Hello everyone:

Women should also keep in mind the need to have a marketable skill, even if their plan is to get married and live happily ever after with their husband supporting them.

My sister-in-law has had a ministry to recent widows and she tells the story of many older women who, after they get over the shock of losing their husband, suddenly realize that he had little or no life insurance and that they do not have any income.

One of the women she ministered to was so unfamiliar with the ways of the business world that she started to work for someone, only to learn later that the person was paying her poverty-level wages. She was unable to maintain even a small house on her income and had to turn to her church for help.

She is in better financial shape these days, yet she has no money for anything except the bare necessities of life. If she had not been involved with a widows group, who knows where she would be today, since no one would have been aware of her extreme situation.

While we are on the topic of marketable skills, one of the smartest women I know is a gal with a boatload of little kids who decided she, as a stay-at-home mom of five, needed to have something to fall back on when her kids were grown or if something should happen to her husband.

She loved to tell stories and enjoyed romantic fiction, so she took some classes in how to write and launched a new career after the kids were in bed for the night. She has written more than 30 books of inspirational fiction and definitely has a career that can support her, should the unthinkable happen. It did.

What ideas do you have for possessing marketable skills that will protect you from financial disaster?

Best,

Dr. Sheri