Double Income Families: Money Management for Working Couples

Kathleen H. Brown, a financial consultant, was an associate professor of
Family Studies at the University of Guelph.

MacFarlane, a respected personal financial expert and writer, addresses
a significant current issue: how to handle finances in double-income
families. Many personal finance books have not given this issue much
attention. This book’s topics are the standard ones—financial
planning, insurance, investing, retirement planning, wills and estates,
credit, banking, and income tax—but their treatment considers the
effect of having two earners in the family.

Over the past few decades, family roles have been changing, creating
some uncertainty about who does what. Two incomes means more money to
handle, a different division of economic power, and less time to devote
to family finances. This book begins with chapters on feelings about
money and about how families make choices, before getting down to net
worth statements, financial records, and budgets.

Topics of special interest to families are prenuptial contracts, family
law legislation, and the impact of a child on family financial affairs.
Blended families, for instance, face complications that may be clarified
by setting out individual responsibilities in a contract, either
informally or formally. The arrival of a baby not only means new costs
but has implications for insurance needs and estate plans, and
eventually raises the issue of how to teach the child to handle money. A
useful summary chart compares key points in family law legislation by
province.

Concluding chapters deal with issues related to changing demographics
in Canada. Increased longevity means a longer retirement to fund and
aging parents to care for, perhaps while retired oneself. Higher rates
of remarriage result in blended families, and common-law relationships
are increasingly frequent. The author’s final advice is to learn to do
four things: keep track of financial affairs, save, invest the savings,
and ask questions and demand answers.

This is a useful and easy-to-read book that many families will find
helpful.