Finish Strong. Run through the tape. End with a bang not a whimper.
All these phrases speak to giving maximum effort to finish a task. It is a noble idea but thousands of people, mostly men, are failing to finish strong and tarnishing what would otherwise be a nice legacy.
Several times a year we meet with a newly widowed woman of a retirement-aged man. All are stressed but some are panicked because they have no clue how to manage their finances. They are not dumb or incapable. They were simply not engaged with such matters.
The set up for this is quite common. The husband handles the money or, handles the “investment” end of things while the wife oversees the household expenses like groceries, lawn care and the like.
Most relationships settle into a division of labor in various ways. Both spouses don’t need to do every chore jointly whether that be vacuuming the house, servicing a car or paying bills. By splitting responsibilities, more things can get done more often. It can be quite efficient. Malicious intent is rare.
There is nothing wrong with this arrangement, until there is something wrong with it.
For many couples, it goes wrong when one of them starts to show their age.
Whether it is a decline in cognitive function, debilitating health issues or a sudden death, if the couple doesn’t have a plan, the survivor is left scrambling.
There is an opportunity to help prevent this from happening when working with young couples. They can be more purposeful about the division of labor and communications about what the other is doing if they are aware of the issue.
It turns out there is very little forethought into the matter of who will do what.