European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 20, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Most women defer to husbands on finances full time women workers in the United states Are earning More than they once did and some bring Home nearly As much or More than their spouses. Not by Vivian Marino associated press Matt Fisher is the family risk take known to delay paying the electric Bill until the Quot disconnect notice Quot comes. His wife Barbara is a virtuoso at balancing the Check Book Fisher feels reasonably comfortable with things like corporate Bonds or growth stocks mrs. Fisher gets uneasy at the mention of those words. Still the Jacksonville fla., couple who recently opened a hair replacement business mix love and Money successfully. They keep half their $200,000 investment portfolio in stocks and Bonds and the rest in Short term certificates of Deposit or Money Market accounts. Neither makes an investment decision without the other. But for every couple like the Fishers there Are several More that fail to jointly plan or even discuss important personal financial matters. Even though women have emerged from the Money decade of the 80s As the fastest growing part of the work Force in the United states their role in shaping the american family a financial future remains stuck in a bygone world some investment planners say a women Are still in a very transitional role in which a Man make the investment decisions Quot said Marilyn Cohen a principal of capital insight inc. Of Beverly Hills  i Don t find the Young Urban professional woman any More interested in Money and investing than her Mother who had a traditional housewife role Quot she said. Quot i find it very . Michael Stein a financial planner with Brownson Rehmus amp Foxworth in Chicago said he s encountered apathy in Many of the working women among his married clients who mostly Are wealthy Middle aged executives. While the wives might be More Likely to manage Day to Day family finances like balancing the Check Book and paying household Bills the husbands usually have the upper hand in making the major financial decisions he said. Quot often where you have two executive units. The husband still tends to be the dominant one Quot Stein said j a dominating woman is the exception More than the  not surprisingly couples financial concerns vary with age. Investment Counselor say a younger couple Likely will be More concerned with making House payments and accumulating wealth than a Middle aged pair which is starting to think about retirement or paying off a child a College loan Quot in be seen very successful women who go Home and turn their paychecks Over to their husbands Quot said Victoria Felton Collins a financial planner and psychologist who wrote the recently published Book couples amp Money they May manage millions of dollars for their companies but when they get Home its a different Story Quot she said. That is slowly changing however As women continue to enter the work Force and gain financial Confidence Quot maybe it s going to take another generation a the daughters of these Young Urban professional women Quot said Cohen. Quot they see their working mothers bringing Home paychecks Quot about 60 percent of All working age women in the United states Are employed outside the Home and by the year 2000, women Are expected to make up about half the nation s work Force. Full time women workers Are making More than they once did and some bring Home nearly As much As their spouses. Still Only one in six married american women working full time brings Home More Money than her husband a figure that has remained constant for a decade. Census Bureau figures show that on average women still earn Only about 65 percent of their husbands incomes. Often it s not until death or divorce that women take a More Active role in their financial futures said Jan Warner a Columbia s.c., lawyer who runs sol source inc., a service that counsels divorced women on financial options. Warner estimates that three quarters j of his female clients most of whom Are 40 or older come to him without the financial know How needed to make it alone comfortably. Amp men Are catching up women still live longer by Randolph e. Schmid associated press even As women make gains in jobs and pay their Lead is. Slipping in two areas where they traditionally Are ahead of men How Many there Are and How Long they live. Women still outlive and outnumber men in America but improving life expectancy rates for males allowed their total number to increase faster than women during the 1980s for the first time since Early in this Century reports the census Bureau. Quot male life expectancy has continued to improve gradually during the decade. Female life expectancy has improved very Little since 1982,&Quot said Frederick w. Hot Mann of the census Bureau. Life expectancy for men increased from 70.9 years in 1982 to 71.5 years in 1987, an improvement of six tenths of a year he noted. During the same time life expectancy for women went up Only one tenth of a year from 78 2 to 78.3. The reason is that men s death rates for  major killers As cancer and heart disease dropped during the decade while the cancer rate for women increased and deaths from heart disease Only edged Down. Quot the male population outgrew the female population m every age group under age 85,&Quot Hoilman reported. From 1980 to 1989 the number of men in the United states increased by 10,557,000, while the female population grew by 10,448,000, the Bureau reported. Even so women continue to outnumber men in America 127 million to 121 million the report showed. The last decade in which the number of men increased faster than women was 1900-1910, the census Bureau noted. The balance of population is determined not Only by the number of people born but by the number of years they remain alive explained Holiman. More male babies Are born than females he pointed out but Quot generally a sort of equilibrium is reached since males Don t live As Long As  the higher death rate for men Means that although they outnumber women at birth women surpass men in total numbers later on. One consequence of males increasing faster than females in the 1980s was that in 1989 there were More men than women at each age group below 34. In 1980 men had been More numerous Only through age 26, Hoilman reported. Holiman said a major contributor to the males outpacing females in the 1980s was the changing patterns of disease As More and More women took up smoking and moved into traditionally male dominated jobs and lifestyles Quot you could suggest that a lot of women took up sir me co be of up do cd de 1c re a 1 o 3r d Page 14 the stars and stripes monday