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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (May 28, 1963)
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFOHD, OREGON TUESDAY, MAY 28. 1963 A 7 lid Your Money's Worth By SYLVIA PORTER Copyright, Hall Syndicate. Inc. WHAT SHOULD A WORKING WIFE PAY FOR? I "I'm to be one of those June brides you wrote about last week and I intend to keep working after our marriage. Now that you've told me how much my husband will cost me on our wedding day, can you tell me how we should divide out paychecks after our wedding? . . ." "My wife and I have been married 11 years, she has a steady job and we have no children. I pay for everything except the part-time maid. She insists she should save her money in her own account as 'protection.' Your column 'How Much Does A Husband Cost?' prompts me to ask whether this is the right way to manage money when both husband and wife work. We fight a lot about this. . . ." Out of thousands of letters, two - to remind me that it has been a long time since I've dug into such a deep-down family finance subject as this. Yet, in an all-time record 12.5 million households - or three out of ten married couples in our land -this subject is of prime bread-and-butter concern. This ts the total of husband-and-wife working households in the U.S. today. To all married couples too, the question of proper man agement of the family's finances is of crucial importance, for a harmonious financial relationship is essential to a harmoni ous spiritual and physical relationship. In today's column and tomorrow's therefore, I'll report 10 basic rules I've worked out over years of discussions with experts on family finance, of interviews with husbands and wives in every income bracket across the country, of personal experience as a working wife. These are my rules, no one else's, but I'm sure all of you can benefit from some of them, some of you can benefit from all of them and any of the 10 can be revised to fit your individual circumstances. (1) Make your marriage a financial partnership and dis cuss your income and plan your spending as a husband-and-wife team. The wife who insists she should pay for only the part-time maid and the rest of her paycheck belongs in her own savings account is selfish and wrong. If you're a team in other ways, be a team financially as well. If your mutual decision is that the wife's paycheck should be saved, excellent - but make the decision as a couple. Otherwise, deceit and suspicion are virtually inevitable. This is a fundamental rule. (2) Pool pari of your individual paychecks in a family fund which is to be used to cover essential household ex penses. In many households, the pooling will be automatic, for both paychecks are being used to buy things and non-things the family wants. It should be automatic. How much of the wife's paychecks will go into the pool may vary from home to home, depending on the wife's income and the family's circumstances, but the key point is that there should be a pool. (3) Decide which of you will be responsible for paying specific bills out of the pool. As a husband you might lake over payment of the "big bills" - rent, mortgage, insurance, taxes, the like. As a wife, you might lake over management of the "household bills"-food, entertainment at home, ordi nary household overhead. This is both a logical division of responsibility and a high ly significant one from a psychological viewpoint. It seems right to me for a man to write the checks for the rent or mortgage. It seems right to me for a woman to write the checks for the food and entertainment at home bills. It's entirely okay if you have other ideas, but talk them out to your mutual satisfaction. '(4) Set up two bank accounts. In one, your checking ac count, put the money for day-to-day living expenses and the big fixed items. In the other, your savings account, build up your nestegg. This is the way to "control" where your money goes as well as to mana'? your paychecks properly. If you don't carefully separate savings from your regular bank account, your savings easily can dribble away without your knowing just how or why. For most couples, the two-account "control" works best. , Next: More on working husband-and-wife finances. a maj .'' -ir- .y.. -. J -T: SECOND MARRIAGE Dinah Shore is shown at Redlands, Calif., as she was married in a civil ceremony to Maurice F. Smith, a Palm Springs, Calif., contractor. It was the second marriage for each. (UPI) Bridegroom Lost On Navy Flight San Diego, Calif. - (UPD -When Judith K. Wolfe, a blonde 22 -year -old school teacher, boarded a Hawaii bound airliner on Sunday, she was "very excited, very thrilled," according to a friend. The attractive Miss Wolfe was to wed Navy Flier Lt. (J. G.) Richard E. Farrington in Honolulu Wednesday. For the occasion she had obtained a leave of absence from the high school where she teaches. Monday word came from the Navy that Lt. Farrington was one of four crewmen missing and presumed dead in the crash of a plane south of Honolulu. PRESENT FOR JFK New York (UPD A group of more than 100 physicians, who take a scholarly Interest in good food, wine and spirits, have given President Kenne dy a keg of 46-year-old cog nac for his 46th birthday Wednesday. Bombs Dropped To Break Yukon Ice Anchorage, Alaska -H'rn- A Navy patrol bomber dropped a number of bombs into the ice-clogged Yukon river at Alakanuk Monday in an at tempt to speed the flow of rising water into the Bering Sea below the Seward Pen insula. But civil defense officials here said there was little evi dence that the bombing was successful. Huge chunks of ice moving down the river Sunday knocked away part of the Northern Commercial Co.'s fish cannery at Kwiguk, about seven miles upstream. Damage was estimated at $100,000. Residents of Alakanuk, a community of about 400, told civil defense officials they have never seen ice conditions in the Yukon so bad. The vil lage is near the river's mouth. Oregon Fraternity House Damaged Eugene - tUPU - Fire heavily damaged the Tan Kappa Ep silon fraternity house at the University of Oregon here Monday afternoon. Damage was estimated at between $30,000 and $50,000. The fire was confined to the top two floors of the four story frame structure. Cause of the blaze was not known. It began on the roof outside a fourth floor window. J. O. Lindstrom, business manager for the university, said the 35 men students housed in the fraternity would be placed in dormitories for the remainder of the school year. The university owns the fraternity building. Many students lost their books end class notes. Omar Khayyam Would Flip Congressmen Don't Say What They Said Until They Say They Said It 13 By DICK WEST Washington -W- Members of Congress dp not say what they have said until they say that s what they said. This is one of the things that set mem bers of Con gress apart from us ordi nary mortals. When you and 1 waft a re- W,M mark into the thin, translucent air, it is, for good or bad, gone forever, never to be retrieved. As Omar Khayyam put it: "Nor all your piety nor wit shall lure it back to can cel half a line, nor all your tears wash out a word of it." Obviously, Omar Khay yam, the poet, never met Omar Burleson, the congress man. In the transcript of de bates and certain other con gressional pro c d i n gs, Burleson and his colleagues can indeed cancel half a line. Yea, half a line and more. Neither piety nor wit is needed to lure back a tran script, and, so long as they stay within the rules gov erning such practice, they can wash out words as they see fit, without shedding a single tear. The ability of congressmen to confound Khayyam was pointed up this week in a press release put out by Chairman Wayne N. Aspinall (D-Colo.) of the House Inte rior Committee. Aspinall was exasperated by the fact that some unedited transcripts of a hearing on legislation relating to Puerto Rico had been reproduced and were being widely quoted on the island. I am noi familiar with the details, but apparently some one Jumped to the conclusion that what was said at the hearing actually was said. In reality, as Aspinall out, the committee mem bers were only speaking tentatively and perhaps not at all. "I want to make lt clear for the benefit of the people of Puerto Rico that any quo tations taken from these tran scripts are not official and are subject to revision," the chairman declared. Newspapermen who regu larly cover the House and Senate are accustomed to have quotations shot out from under them, lt is regarded as an occupational hazard. Congressmen may, of course, have valid grounds for expunging or otherwise editing their remarks before they are committed to pos terity. I suspect, however, that in most cases they are in the same boat with another poet whose name I have forgotten but who wrote: "How can I know what I think until I hear what I say?" SUGAR PRICE REDUCED Vancouver, B. C. -WPP- The British Columbia Sugar Re fining Co. announced a 25 cent cut in the wholesale prico of sugar Monday. Prices start ed rising to a high of $17.50 for a 100-pound bag last week. GRADUATION CARDS When you care enough to Mind the very but 217 E. Main St. Mcdford Two Reach Shore As Boat Capsizes Halfway, Ore. - IUPD - An outdoor film producer and his brother, both from Ka-! miah, Idaho, safely made their , way to shore monday when their riverboat capsized in the ' Snake river near Steamboat ! creek. The boat's owner, Dick Roby, said Uie craft overturn ed when it hit rough water. However, he said, the boat had ample pontoons on it to keep afloat and "we should be able to salvage most of the stuff." Roby said lie and his broth er, Del, were on a fishing trip when the mishap occurred. The men swam ashore and then made their way to Halfway. ECOH-0-CLEAN Professional Dry Cleaning with REAL ECONOMYI Cleaning and Spotting Onlyl MINIMUM ORDER $1.90 38s GRESSETT'S DRIVE-IN CLEANERS 702 Weit Main CRYSTAL WHITE lAUN?rm A nilMAC DOMESTIC LDY. I DRY CLEANERS ifVIIIMW 30-32 NU-WAY North Rivenidt CLEANERS 601 Eait Main BIRD STOPS TRAINS London-IUPD-One train was canceled and three were de layed near here Monday be cause of a swan with a broken leg. The swan could not move off tracks between Shepper ton and London's Waterloo station. The engineer of the first train decided to wait until the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to An imals removed the bird. F M 3 2 iiermitage is now j 6 years old attract it rjopulat s0qo rjMjjAflS S. o Superbly smooth and mellow Fine Straight Kentucky Bourbon 9 Taste Favorite since 1889 11 1 1 in iiiiiuii intuitu to. toimiiit. it., it riiir 1 I-mtwrocKr !uy a gallon of nal paint...get a color-matched quart of trim a ',1 ' ' I ' . ' Mothing can change a room faster than color! And colorful "Dutch Boy" Nalplex and Satin Eggshell are the smartest, easiest team to do the job. "Dutch Boy" Nalplex is a truly scrubbable latex wall paint that covers in one coat, doesn't show stop 'n' start brush marks, dries to a lovely flat finish in no time at all and with Nalplex, there's no "painty" odor! Brushes, rollers clean up as easily as you wash your hands in plain soap and water. "Dutch Boy" Satin Eggshell is tough, durable enamel 'that dries quickly to a soft rich luster that defies moisture, scrubbing, even small-fry wear and tear. After that, all you need to keep rooms looking fresh is a little soap and water. And the "Dutch Boy" colors you can choose will make you want to start today! Doesn't the whole idea give you spruce-up fever? Come on in and buy your gallon. We're itch ing to give you the color-matched quart that's FREti We're the men who sell it! ASHLAND Ashland General Hardware 90 N. Pioneer MEDFORD Pat & Mike'l Builders Service 2802 Crater Lake Highway MEDFORD Smith Lumber Co. 8th & Fir Street MEDFORD Dutch Boy Paint Store 401 East Fourth St.
