When Heidi Evans's ninety-one-year-old aunt died, her sons were dumbstruck to discover a bankbook with a balance of $50,000 hidden in her top drawer. She had been a devoted housewife and mother all of her adult life -- so where had the money come from? But the women in the family just smiled. They knew. Like generations of women, Aunt Lee had been building a nest egg, stashing away a few dollars a week from her household allowance (and maybe sometimes from Uncle Irving's pockets) so that she could have a little money of her very own -- for a rainy day, for her kids, or just to pay for her dreams.Now Evans revives this age-old practice of stowing away money and shows women of all ages how a nest egg can make marriage more secure and more fun, and divorce or widowhood less devastating. This award-winning journalist shows us just how the nest egg works by introducing us to a fascinating variety of women whose marriages have been marked by the war over money. These intimate and revealing stories give us a clear view of the financial landscape within marriage today, from relationships in which men control the money -- and their wives -- to families in which women can openly save their own money for the years ahead.And so we meet Veronica, a hair colorist in her twenties who stashes $20 a day from her tips so she can pay for the little luxuries she and her new husband would like. And Meryl, whose husband left her for a younger woman after twenty-five years of marriage and who now finds that divorce has generated a desperate need for private savings. Later, we meet Irene, a seventy-seven-year-old for whom early widowhood might have meant poverty for her and her sons if she hadn't beenso smart about creating a nest egg.The age-old tradition of the nest egg has become more important for women than ever. Indeed, financial security is the number-one problem facing women today, in and out of marriage. Women are still earning only 76 cents to every dollar earned by men