Wednesday November 11, 2009 - Women & Money: Retirement Income Gap
We talked about the income gap yesterday. The income gap is a scary realty and I hope by the time our granddaughters are working their pay will be equal to their male co-workers. I once had those hopes for their mothers, our daughters, but it did not happen.
But more frightening to me is the retirement income gap that retirees face. Currently it is 44 cents for women for every $1 that men will collect. It’s been well reported that more women than men encounter financial hardship during retirement.
Women outlive men usually by six years on average, they are in and out of the job market raising children or caring for elders. Over 5 million women are sandwiched between those very jobs right now caring for children or grandchildren and elderly relatives. Women over the age of 25 change jobs every 4.8 years as compared with 6.6 years for men. To be vested in a pension plan you usually need to have worked for a company for 5 years. Currently 33% of female workers have pensions compared to 55% of men.
And when women are working they often put off participating in their employer’s retirement plan because of the immediate needs of their family. Divorce and early widowhood also play into this lack of retirement savings. Average age of widowhood is 56 and the divorce rate is still 50%.
Certainly Social Security will be there for many women if they or their spouses have paid into the system, but Social Security was never meant to be your sole source of income in retirement. And with the average benefit for women currently about $900 a month that is barely enough to exist on.
Women need to plan for more years in retirement and they need to be saving more for their retirement. A comfortable retirement should be their number one goal and they should have on blinders when it comes to reaching that goal. The earlier they start saving the longer their dollars will be working for them.
No excuses here and I have heard them all. “I will wait till I get married, after we buy a house, after the children are grown.” With your first job, start saving. And it is never too late to start saving for retirement. That also is an excuse. “It’s too late so why bother” is something I also hear. Anything you put away now will grow in the future and allow you choices as you near retirement.
For more help I invite you to attend a free Money Conference, Rebounding from a Recession, which will take place this Saturday November 14, 2009. The conference is a project of Treasurer Tim Cahill and the YWCA. It is a free conference and will be held at the Sheraton Boston. Click on http://www.themoneyconference.com/ or call the office at the treasury 617-367-6900 to register. You will get me, a copy of my book, Money, classroom sessions, a free lunch and the ability to spend some time one on one with a financial planner! The lunchtime keynote speaker will be Kurt Czarnowski of Social Security who will be there all day to your questions.
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