Well here are the facts:
1. Women generally outlive men by an average of seven years. This means not only are you more likely to retire widowed but also you will have more years in retirement. Longer retirement means you need to have more money or your money need to last longer.
2. Women earn considerably less money throughout their lifetimes due to childbearing and other family responsibilities. Because of these interruptions you have less working time in which to earn more money.
3. A womenﾴs salary on the average is 30 percent less than men. This means that you may have less money to save and invest for retirement.
4. Women are more likely to have health problems as they advance in age. This means that more of your money will go toward purchasing medical services.
5. Women are more likely to have their finances complicated by divorce and separations. Therefore you need to plan wisely
While most women admit they are concerned about their financial future, particularly about not having enough money to maintain their current lifestyles, women are still lagging behind men when it comes to retirement planning and most do not know how much money they will need to support them during their golden years.
Surprisingly too, women are also passively relying on sources beyond their control to provide for their retirement, such as husband, children or some good fortune.
Even as more women build careers in the business world, young women remain as uninformed about retirement finances as older women.
All of this makes it quite clear that now is the time to ensure that women realize how important retirement planning is to their future. Women need to realize that gender-specific financial issues mean that, in general, they need to save more money than men for retirement. Given this need for more money and less salary earning means, women have a greater need to understand investments and its impact on their retirement.
Last weekend British American introduced their ﾓDREAMSﾔ investment club, an annuity saving program geared toward women (by the way Iﾴm joining!). I feel this is a great opportunity for women who are mostly conservative in their investments to get started but I caution it is only a starting point.
With this in mind here are my suggestions for helping a sistaﾴ out:
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1. Get information about our retirement coaching program. It provides professional financial advice to help you assess your situation and goals, and work with you to develop a long-term plan to achieve them.
2. Find out about your companyﾴs pension plan and enrol as soon as possible.
3. Start saving early to get time and compound interest working for you.
4. Know how much money you will need for your retirement and contribute the maximum amount each year to saving and investments.
5. Always transfer or hold on to retirement funds when changing jobs;
6. Obtain medical insurance coverage to safeguard against medical emergencies so you’ll never have to use your retirement savings;
7. Review all of your insurance coverage, including insurance to protect your income if you become disabled.
ﾠSo sistas, make sure your retirement years are really golden by taking the time today to review your current financial situation and get started on doing the things necessary to ensure that you will be able to stand on your own two feet!
“Where many people go wrong in trying to reach their goals is in constantly looking for the big hit, the home run, the magic answer that suddenly transforms their dreams into reality. The problem is that the big hit never comes without a great deal of little hits first. Success in most things comes not from some gigantic stroke of fate, but from simple, incremental progress.” – Andrew Wood
By Glen Ferguson
Glenn Ferguson is a financial planner who specializes in retirement coaching
