This is truly stunning. I know several married, professional women who are my age — in their early 50s — and don’t have a bank account, credit card or utility account in their own name. Big mistake.
I’m also keenly aware of a rising number of single women over 50 who pay a steep mortgage rather than rent and don’t put a penny into their tax-deferred, employer-sponsored retirement accounts. Another big mistake.
How women deal with their money is a subject near and dear to my heart. I began exploring this area of personal finance back in 1996, when I wrote the book 10 Minute Guide to Retirement for Women. Two years later, I followed it up with Suddenly Single: Money Skills for Divorcées and Widows. Since then I’ve interviewed, counseled and given speeches to many women about their finances.
What I tell them is this: Women don’t need to invest differently from men or think about their finances in a dramatically divergent way. But they do need to work harder at it.
The Obstacles Women Face
Forgive me if you’ve heard this before, but the way the deck is stacked against women is worth repeating. Sadly, things have barely changed since I entered the workforce in the early ’80s:
Women typically earn less than men. Their median wage is 81 percent of men’s, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics study based on 2010 incomes. Even top-tier professional women generally earn less than their male peers. As Bloomberg just reported, female chief financial officers earn 16 percent less, on average, than male CFOs.
Women live five years longer, on average, than men. This means they need to set aside more money than men to avoid outliving their income.
Many women take time off to raise a family or care for an aging relative. That’s wonderful in many ways, but it has loads of problematic financial repercussions — causing them to miss out on raises, reducing the amount they eventually receive from Social Security during retirement, and giving them fewer years to finance a retirement plan at work and to have their contributions matched by their employers.
Women are more likely to work part-time or for smaller firms. In many cases, this means they don’t have access to an employer-sponsored, tax-deferred retirement plan even when they are working.
Many women are less confident than men about managing their money. A new study from the BMO Retirement Institute, a think tank run by BMO Financial Group, found that nearly three-quarters of men felt at least somewhat knowledgeable about financial products and services, while only 54 percent of women did.
Knowledge Is Power
Women can control some of these underlying factors; others, we can’t.
But knowledge is power, and having the power to take key financial steps, even simple ones, can make a huge difference in your future wealth and happiness. As Next Avenue’s Money & Security editor wrote in another blog post, women need to embrace retirement planning.
In my Next Avenue weekly blog, I’ll cover a broad sweep of issues related to women and money. I’ll offer practical tips that you can use or pass along. And it won’t be all scrimp, save and no play, I promise.
This Week’s Money Tip
My money tip this week is especially timely, since tax time is approaching: Maximize your 2011 retirement plan contributions while you can. (While you’re at it, start financing your retirement plan for 2012, too.)
If you were 50 or older last year, make it a priority to take advantage of what the IRS calls “catch up” contributions. People of this age have until April 17 to invest an extra $1,000 in a traditional IRA or Roth IRA for 2011, boosting the standard $5,000 limit to $6,000.
There are also catch-up rules for 401(k) plans: For 2012, the standard contribution limit for those plans is $17,000, but people 50 and older can invest an extra $5,550.
If you can take advantage of the catch-up gift, you should. You’ll thank yourself when you retire.
by Kerry Hannon
More by this author on NextAvenue.org
