Stay single and get rich

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32635, 17 June 1971, Page 7

Stay single and get rich

(By

STELLA BRUCE)

A woman marries, so the old-time experts used to delight in telling us, for love and security.

Or, putting it bluntly: “A handsome husband and three thousand a year.” Now times have changed. In fact, according to latest research, today’s single girls are far better off financially when they are unattached. Indeed, the modem miss has never had it so good. What is more her life is becoming even rosier. As one motivational researcher remarks: “Directly a woman walks back down the aisle ann-in-ann with her husband after the ceremony she can kiss her financial independence goodbye.” For the chances are that in the early years of marriage, any funds she does have stashed away will quickly go towards making a life together. In other words, she will have precious little to spare for the little luxuries—even though she might continue working. MORE TIME Nor does it end there. As the celebrated American writer on the lives of single giris, Helen Gurley Brown, points out: the single girl not only has more money, but more time to spend on herself. “She has the extra 20 minutes to exercise every day, an hour to make up her face for her date,” she says. “She has all day Saturday to whip up a silly, wonderful cotton brocade tea-coat to entertain him in next day, or hours to find it at a bargain sale.” And for good measure, Miss Brown goes on: “A single woman never has to drudge. She can get her housework over within one good hour on Saturday morning, plus one other hour to iron blouses and white collars. “She never need break her fingernails or her spirit waxing a floor or cleaning out the garage. She has more money for clothes and for trips than any but a wealthy married few.” And just how much money the single girl has is enough to make us poor marrieds wonder why we ever allowed ourselves to be led to the altar like lambs to the slaughter in the first place. STUDY For according to the “1970 Young Spending Survey” described as the most comprehensive study ever conducted among single girls in the 15-24 age bracket today’s young miss still has half her wages left after paying for her food, travel, board and lodging, and after putting about a tenth of her weekly income (that is anything from $3 to $4) into a bank account. So it is perhaps small wonder that those single dolly birds can don a completely different dress every day of the week and forever keep abreast of fashion. After all, according to the survey, conducted by a leading magazine group, young single girls spend roughly the same amount on clothing as they put in their bank accounts.

Suits and trouser suits were bought by 36 per cent of the girls in the previous 12 months, at an average cost of just over $22 each. Some 43 per cent bought coats and jackets, costing just over $26 each.

A further 75 per cent spent an average of just over $2B on dresses and 61 per cent just under $l4 on knitwear. The statistics also tell us that nearly half the money the single girl puts aside for

underwear apparently goes on bras, and just over a thirtieth of her yearly income goes on stockings and tights. HAIRDRESSING And she can put aside 4 per cent of her annual salary for all the cosmetics she needs in a year. She also spends more on visiting the hairdresser’s than on going to the pictures. But then single girls scarcely have to pay out anything for their entertainment That comes out of their boyfriends’ wallets. Nor are they saddled with car insurance and running costs for the same reason. Though 52 per cent of the older girls interviewed said they either held a driving licence or were teaming to drive, only 39 per cent either owned or had the use of a car. Mainly, it seems, it was a case of driving the family saloon or hopping into the driving seat of the boyfriend’s motor. Going on buses and trains on dates, apparently, is right “out” these days. With far more boys than girls now of marriageable age, the girls have never had such an opportunity to pick and choose. Indeed, owning a car is no longer a guarantee that a boy will attract a certain girl. WAGES RISING Thus, just about everything seems to be stacked in favour of the single girl, and her wages are rising all the time. According to an international staff-finding agency, women’s clerical salaries have climbed 26 per cent over the last two years. And secretaries and shorthand typists, who cost employers the most, have managed to keep' up an average 11 per cent a year increase over the last two years. And unlike most youngmarrieds, you do not catch single girls paying out huge amounts in interest rates. Only a third are committed to mail order or finance companies, and then usually for small sums. They afford the best holidays, too. And with many of the older girls going away with their boyfriends, the chances are some at least are getting a heavily subsidised vacation into the bargain. And to think I have given up all this for all those “worldly goods” my husband has to me endowed in his wedding vows. But somehow, I get the feeling there are just as many single girls out there who, deep down, envy me, too. Money, as we marrieds know, is not everything.— Features International.