The Most Financially Vulnerable People are….

Hello World and Welcome to Mind Over Money Mondays!

Do you know who are the most financially vulnerable people on planet ? It’s not the elderly, the young. It’s not men, women.  It’s the un-marrieds! It’s the SINGLES! And we’re paid less too.

Singles, tell me if you’ve experienced some of the following things. Have you been at work and asked your boss why does “so and so” make more though you’re doing the same work?

I know of instances where I have been expected to do the work of my married counterpart because he or she; (mostly he) had a family waiting at home. Well, they have a family and children to support is the most common answer to this question! Huh? Our employers treat us singles like we don’t have any financial obligations. Well, we too have a household to support. What about equal pay for equal work!

But moving on from the work place to the world. We singles also pay more on everything ranging from housing to healthcare. We even pay more taxes. And when it comes to travel discounts and other specials being offered, they favor the coupled, the married. Are these ‘coupling offers’ fair to us?

I remember back in the day, a friend of mine named “P” asked me to pretend like we were a couple so that we could take advantage of the ‘special prices’ being offered. Research says this is true for landlords as well, but I can tell you that I do not discriminate. Singles and marrieds have equal opportunity to rent from me.

It’s one thing when this ‘marital preference’ happens in the world, but what about in the WORD? It happens everywhere, including Church. I was a deacon at my church and somehow the only single one in my group. And somehow I missed the neighborhood meeting right before the holiday weekend. Listen, I hear you thinking so let me tell you, I didn’t miss often.

But any who, this particular weekend, all the married saints had holiday plans, family gatherings, family travel. And it was decided, unanimously decided, that the single person would be attending the 6:00 pm service to man or womb man the table, even though she was an 11:00 am church goer and guess who delivered the message? The attorney, The female attorney. The married attorney.

But on a more serious note, what if you are single and don’t have children? What if you’re like Oprah, you’ve got a lot of assets, but no heirs? Well, 99% of us don’t have Oprah assets, but may have bought a home or two or a few along the way. What do we do? 

I have given a lot of thought to this question and realized just how financially vulnerable I am. It was further proven when I visited an attorney, to help me sort things out and put my financial affairs and wishes in writing. Failure to have written documentation about how you want your assets to be disbursed in your absence is one of the biggest mistakes we as single people can make….

So Singles, let’s make sure we give some thought to this and reach out to the proper professional who can walk you through this process. I know its challenging to think about what will happen after death, but it is likely that we will one day leave this earth. lets make sure our financial affairs are in order and in writing.

Let us be financially safe while single, until we find somebody to marry!

Remember, Financial Success is not a gift; it is a Habit!