Financial management planning styles were investigated with original data collected from 180 unmarried, elderly women with a home economics college background and living alone. Deacon and Firebaugh's (1975, 1988) household management systems theory, continuity theory from gerontology, and the construct of anticipatory socialization from sociology framed the study. Three planning styles named by Buehler and Hogan (1986) as Resource-centered (morphogenic), Goal-centered (morphostatic), and Constrained (random) were identified in the pre- and post-age 60 households. Measures of planning styles were adapted from an original instrument developed by Beard and Firebaugh (1978). Resource-centered planning was characterized as creating, increasing, or substituting resources while maintaining goals; Goal-centered as deleting, modifying, or prioritizing goals while accepting current resources; and Constrained planning as getting by day-by-day. Goal-centered measures were the most descriptive and Constrained measures the least descriptive. Planning style adopted in middle age was significantly related to style in retirement. Resource-centered planning was subject to collapse into Constrained planning. Resource-centered planning was correlated with age (inversely) and pension income; Goal-centered planning with handling finances pre-age 60 and satisfaction with financial management in retirement. Constrained planning was related to lower pre- and post-age 60 income, low level or no participation in planning retirement income and greater likelihood of dissatisfaction with financial practices in retirement. A rehearsal was related to financial management tasks rather than simulation of living alone. Among Constrained planners, the formerly-married were negatively affected by financial experience before age 60 and positively by preparedness and participation in planning retirement income compared to never-married. Many (43 percent) lived alone less than a year before retirement. More had money left over after expenses in retirement (61 percent) than pre-retirement (30 percent). Retirement income had been planned alone or with advice (43 percent), with husband (41 percent), by husband alone (4.5 percent) or not at all (8.5 percent). Eighty percent had anticipated living alone in their later years. Financial planning styles in retirement appear to reflect a pre-retirement rehearsal of family paradigms, financial practices, and planning style. / Graduation date: 1995