A Survival Kit for Wives: How to Avoid Financial Chaos Before Tragedy Strikes by Don and Renee Martin (Villard Books: $12.95).

Statistics tell us that more American women work than stay at home. Yet this “kit for wives” implies a nation of little Noras, happily ensconced in their doll houses, ignorant of joint checking accounts, mortgage payments and the terms of medical and life insurance policies, much less the stock market.

Still, the Martins have devised 65 workbook exercises that cover all aspects of home finances, including information from which even the sophisticated might profit.

For openers, they suggest that wives become signatories on the family safety-deposit box, at the same time taking care not to keep life-insurance policies in it, because many states seal these boxes at time of death. Other suggestions: Wives should hold stocks and bonds as joint tenants and, most crucially, establish credit in their own names.

When a woman finds she must raise cash in a hurry, the authors recommend using the overdraft feature of many major credit cards, such as “Redi Reserve” or “Instant Cash.” They also advise selling stocks and bonds or borrowing up to 70% of their current value; other suggestions are selling a car or taking a second (even a third) mortgage on a home.

Some of this advice seems too risky for the uninitiated. Some--such as setting up a filing system for documents and important papers--unnecessary. But the sections on figuring net worth, protecting children’s financial interests, as well as solid information on how to enter the job market, just may serve women as necessary ballast on the high seas of death and taxes.