Women face greater financial challenges than men, and they need to take greater control of their personal finances, say many CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioners. Women&emdash;particularly married women&emdash;face greater financial challenges than men in a number of ways:

They live longer than men, they earn less than men, they tend to be less knowledgeable and more intimidated about financial issues, they're more conservative investors, and they are poorer in retirement than men, to name only a few of the challenges.

Here are some ways women can improve their personal financial situations. Learn about managing money. Women are becoming more knowledgeable about money and better at managing their money. Still, many women, often due to cultural upbringing, tend to defer financial decisions to not only husbands, but fathers or sons. Yet as the National Center for Women and Retirement Research has pointed out, at least eight in ten women will be the sole financial decision makers at some point in their lives, often due to divorce or widowhood. A lack of financial knowledge in these situations can be financially dangerous, say planners. It's not uncommon for the newly widowed to not know how to balance a checkbook, let alone how to handle investments or manage the household finances.

Wives sometimes sign over the rights to a joint annuity so their husband can take out larger single-life annuity payments, not understanding that when he dies&emdash;probably before them&emdash;that the annuity payments will stop and they will lose retirement income. Beyond lack of knowledge, it's common for women to be taught culturally to be financially dependent on men and anxious about math, which interferes with everything from basic budgeting to sound investing. Establish your own credit. Although assets are typically jointly held in a marriage, women should consider obtaining a credit card in their own name, using it, and paying off the balance regularly and on time. This helps them establish their own credit history in the event of divorce or widowhood.

Save more for retirement. Women often worry about becoming a "bag lady" in their old age. According to the Administration on Aging, older women are more than twice as likely as men to be impoverished in their retirement years, and three in four people over age 65 who receive Supplemental Security Income are women. Divorced women also are more likely to live in poverty than divorced men or women who have never married. Women are more likely to financially struggle than men in retirement for several reasons: on average they live five years longer in retirement than men, they earn less over their lifetime than men and thus accumulate smaller retirement savings, they are more likely than men to work in jobs that don't offer retirement plans, and as the predominant caregivers they often see the household resources drained by an ailing husband, leaving them less to survive on. Consequently, women must focus their attention and financial resources more on saving for retirement, recommend financial planners, such as taking into account their longer life expectancy when estimating how much money they will need to set aside.

Women also should be careful about sacrificing retirement savings to other family financial goals such as their children's college. Become a more knowledgeable investor. Studies have shown that experienced women investors actually earn better returns overall than men because they are more patient investors and don't jump in and out of the market as often. But studies also have found that women tend to invest more conservatively than men, often sticking with "safe" but low-returning vehicles such as savings accounts. This has an obvious impact on all aspects of one's financial life, but particularly retirement. As with money management in general, many experts feel that part of this conservative investment bent is due to lack of education about investing. Buy long-term care insurance. Private long-term care insurance is especially important for women because they are more likely to outlive men and end up in a nursing home. Seventy-five percent of nursing home residents are women.

 This article was produced by the Consumer Affairs Dept. of The Financial Planning Association and provided to you courtesy of Nigel B. Taylor, CFP, Santa Monica, California. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, or any other financial topic and are a resident of Southern California, please call me at 1-800-444-2237 (California residents only please), or click on the "MORE INFO" button to arrange for a free initial consultation in the comfort of your home or office.