Lynette, the willowy blonde advertising executive in the Desperate Housewives television series, rescued her marriage to Tom by deciding one of them should give up work. And, according to a new study, that was the best thing they could have done.

Jacob Hacker, a professor at Yale, said last week that two-income families were most likely to divorce, because if one is forced to stop working the resulting financial pressures were often too great.

When the dual-income trend became widespread, about 50 years ago, it was typically the wife taking a part-time job to earn what was then called pin money — the phrase dates back to Tudor times, when pins were a luxury.

But, human nature being what it is, that second income was gradually cemented into the family budget. It determines the size and location of the home, and therefore the size of the mortgage. So losing one of those incomes can be a severe strain, particularly if it accompanies the arrival of children.

Hacker said: “Because it takes more work and more income to maintain a middle-class standard of living, financial shocks are more threatening for families. The family used to be a refuge from risk. Today, it is the epicentre of risk.”

The decline of saving is part of the same phenomenon, as more people live to the hilt with no margin for sickness, death or any other emergency.

So try to put away at least some of that second income — or risk becoming another divorce statistic.

Slippery bond

Abbey, the Spanish-owned bank, has brushed aside criticism of guaranteed bonds by issuing a whole range of them, but it may have over-reached itself with the latest one.

It has launched the first capital-guaranteed commercial-property-linked bond in two varieties, running for five or seven-and- a half years from this January and designed to go into most tax-free wrappers, from individual savings accounts to pensions. The minimum investment is £3,000.

The first point is that, as with other Abbey guaranteed bonds, you are promised no more than your original money back, with no allowance for inflation. As Abbey acknowledged, that would make your money worth less in real terms than at the outset. But advisers selling the bond on Abbey’s behalf prefer to keep things simple so investors miss out on a more generous guarantee.

Second, the bond reflects only the capital growth of property, and not rental income which, as Justin Modray of the adviser Bestinvest points out, is a significant chunk of the total return. But Abbey said it might include rent next time round, if that’s what people want. Another tranche is due to be issued in the new year.

But the real problem is that the timing is lousy. In April, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors predicted that overall commercial-property returns would fall from 17 per cent this year to 9 per cent next. As consumer spending flattens, shops are closing and there is a massive oversupply of space in the City of London. Even Abbey admits that, after several good years for property, we must be nearing the peak. A good reason for looking elsewhere, I’d have thought.

Some advisers may suggest you should ride out such hiccups by going for the longer-term Abbey property bond. But they will collect higher commission from Abbey for selling that version. So if you do decide to invest in it, make sure that the extra is rebated to you.

Cashless senseless

Do you find yourself using a debit card more often these days in supermarkets and convenience stores? I know I do, because I dislike either counting change or receiving a fistful of the stuff to load down my pockets.

But that does not mean I go along with the European Commission’s campaign to “push back the use of cash”. Its Payment Services Directive is aimed at promoting electronic payment systems such as debit and credit cards because they are deemed more efficient. And neater and tidier, too, no doubt.

But a survey from the European Security Transport Association, whose members’ business is to cart cash around, shows that we are as wedded to notes and coins as ever. Nearly three in four people in Britain do not want cash abolished, and two-thirds of all Europeans believe commercial life could not survive without it.

Many shun plastic because they like the anonymity of paying by cash. Let’s face it, some purchases are better left unrecorded.

Cheques are one of the few forms of money transmission likely to go, although they will probably linger for most of this century — much to the eurocrats’ disgust. Long live diversity.

For more on consumer affairs visit www.timesonline.co.uk/consumeraffairs