Women still lag when it comes to retirement planning: report
It's no secret that women, particularly those married with children, have more concerns than men when it comes to retirement, largely due to smaller salaries, less time in the workforce, and lower lifetime earnings.
The woman in the family is typically younger than her husband, lives longer, is more likely to remain in the work force after her male partner has left and typically faces several more years in retirement than he does.
She's also worried that she doesn't get the right kind of advice often enough. All good reasons to get on top of things.
However, it appears that women's approach to financial planning may have some catching up to do with the rest of their lives.
According to results from a study sponsored by Northwestern Mutual, women are more likely than men to feel their financial planning needs improvement (63 per cent vs. 54 per cent) and more likely to consider themselves "informal" planners (41 per cent vs. 35 per cent).
Not surprisingly, despite having longer lifespans than men, women feel less financially prepared to reach age 75 (48 per cent vs. 65 per cent), 85 (37 per cent vs. 55 per cent), and 95 (30 per cent vs. 43 per cent).
In addition, women are more likely to opt for lower returns with very low risk, over high returns with high risk, when comparted to men, according to the study.
As a woman, do you feel that you're less in control than your partner when it comes to finances? Are you more cautious?
By Gordon Powers, MSN Money
Posted by: Jay | Oct 15, 2021 11:21:34 AM
Not sure it's about gender as temperament. But I do agree that women have a harder time of things later in life. Although my own other mother, now widowed, has more money to work with than when my father was still living. And that seems to be true of most her friends, many of whom have now outlived their spouses and seem to be better off.