{"id":6558,"date":"2017-10-01T08:33:49","date_gmt":"2017-10-01T12:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=6558"},"modified":"2017-10-01T08:45:09","modified_gmt":"2017-10-01T12:45:09","slug":"women-and-retirement-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=6558","title":{"rendered":"Women and Retirement Solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>And the beat goes on\u2026is a refrain that kept rolling through my head after attending the symposium Tuesday hosted by the\u00a0Women\u2019s Institute for a Secure Retirement<\/a>(WISER) in Washington, D.C. The topic: retirement solutions for women.<\/p>\n

I was honored to be invited by WISER President Cindy Hounsell, to kick off the discussion and was joined by\u00a0Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies<\/a>\u00a0President Catherine Collinson and Jennifer Putney, director at\u00a0Portfolio Evaluations,<\/a>\u00a0an institutional investment and retirement plan consulting firm. The room was filled with executives from financial services firms, leaders of nonprofits who advocate for women\u2019s issues, and experts from the\u00a0 likes of the\u00a0Medicare Rights Center<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0EverSafe,<\/a>\u00a0a company dedicated to fighting financial fraud. Findings from a few new surveys were also presented, which I will get to shortly, along with some advice to help women over 50 prepare for retirement.<\/p>\n

50+ Women: Still in a Jam<\/h3>\n

The upshot is downbeat: Women are still in a jam for retirement, especially women 50+ who frequently face long lifespans and a dearth of savings to grease those years.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard this story ever since I began writing about women and money at Money magazine in the 1990s and wrote a book about retirement planning for women.<\/p>\n

Read column on PBS Next Avenue<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truthfully, and sadly, very little has changed. The deck is still stacked against many women \u2014\u00a0 they often earn lower wages than their male counterparts and take time out of the workforce for elder care and raising kids. Those workplace interruptions cause them to lose opportunities for raises, lower the amount they\u2019ll receive from Social Security in retirement due to fewer years of paid employment and give them less time to sock away funds in a retirement plan at work (and get their contributions matched by their employers.) In addition, if they lose a partner due to death or divorce, as often happens, their standard of living generally drops.<\/p>\n

Many Women Abhor Retirement Planning<\/h3>\n

Nonetheless, time and time again, when I give speeches to women around the country, they frequently say financial planning and investing bores them. They shrug and say they \u201caren\u2019t good with math.\u201d They usually add that they\u00a0wish\u00a0<\/em>they were more confident about their financial decisions and\u00a0wish\u00a0<\/em>they knew more about investing. But they insist they simply don\u2019t have time to focus on this. They\u2019re content to kick the can down the road or defer retirement planning to their spouse or partner. (A new\u00a0Wells Fargo survey of Millennials<\/a>\u00a0found that many Gen Y women do this, too; 59 percent of the women said they were primary decision makers and 82 percent of men said that they were.)<\/p>\n

Many women never seriously think about their financial situation until they\u2019re no longer riding shotgun. And the consequences for such a do-nothing attitude can be catastrophic for retirement security.<\/p>\n

Where\u2019s the Contingency Plan?<\/h3>\n

New\u00a0data<\/a>\u00a0from Key Private Bank, the wealth management arm of KeyCorp, found that 82 percent of financial advisers say some or hardly any of their married female clients have a contingency plan to navigate the emotional and financial impacts of finding themselves on their own. As I wrote in the Next Avenue column,\u00a0Why 50+ Women Should Take Control of Their Money<\/a>, and Next Avenue\u2019s new financial wellness blogger Diane Harris\u00a0just wrote<\/a>, taking a Scarlett O\u2019Hara (\u201cTomorrow is another day\u201d) approach toward your financial future is unwise.<\/p>\n

The Alibi That Doesn\u2019t Hold Up<\/h3>\n

My goal at the WISER symposium was to launch the conversation beyond the usual \u201cwomen earn less\u201d handwringing and focus on the theme of my forthcoming\u00a0book<\/a>\u2014Money Confidence<\/em>. As I see things, it\u2019s not that women aren\u2019t good at math. It\u2019s that they are not comfortable talking about money, and claiming to not being a math whiz is their alibi.<\/p>\n

From my research, I\u2019ve found that the root of the money quandary many women face is their own attitude. And that\u2019s manageable. You can control how you approach your finances. You can stop the negative mental chatter. You can put an end to procrastinating. You can choose to make understanding your own financial decisions a priority. And you need to.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cindy Hounsell, president of WISER<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to money, women tend to think of themselves last,\u201d Hounsell says. \u201cThey spend on a child\u2019s education or work for free for a family business before saving for their own retirement.\u201d<\/span>Women Thinking of Themselves Last<\/p>\n

Women also often steer away from financial conversations because they\u2019ve been programmed to consider talking about investing and money matters to be impolite or no one\u2019s business. It makes them feel uneasy.<\/p>\n

Yet, over the years, I\u2019ve discovered that women are typically solid investors when they make an effort. They tend to take time to research investments; they seek advice from others to make informed decisions. They\u2019re also less likely to leap out of stocks when the market falls. And, research shows, they do all of this better than men, generally speaking.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies President Catherine Collinson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Simple things you can do will start moving the needle. Collinson told the audience that she\u2019s constantly surprised how few women have even taken the time to run an online retirement calculator to review their savings needs. Just taking that action can get you moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Jennifer Putney, director of Portfolio Evaluations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWomen have to get comfortable talking about money,\u201d says Putney. \u201cTalk about money with your friends. You don\u2019t have to compare personal balance sheets, but you can talk conceptually.\u201d Make a habit of it and planning for retirement will get easier.<\/p>\n

Putney told of her own annoyance when she was asked to stand behind her husband\u2019s chair while he showed her an investment chart on his large computer screen. \u201cJust\u00a0tell<\/em>\u00a0me what you want me to know, and we can discuss it,\u201d she told him, frustrated by the notion of patiently peering over at his shoulder to stare at the imposing chart that was virtually meaningless to her.<\/p>\n

Retirement Solutions for Women<\/h3>\n

I suggested to the WISER audience that women should start their own money book clubs. Why not pick a few personal finance or investing books to discuss?<\/p>\n

Another idea: Find out if your employer has a financial wellness program, such as brown-bag lunch talks about debt-management or investing. These kinds of gatherings can ramp up your money mojo in a low-stress time-sensitive fashion. You can also ask Human Resources if your employer might consider offering them.<\/p>\n

Janice Co, vice president at Prudential Retirement, discussed her firm\u2019s striking new\u00a0report<\/a>\u201cClosing the Retirement Income Gender Gap,\u201d which found that the retirement account balances of female employees are, on average, one-third lower than their male counterparts.<\/p>\n

Co said that even though women comprise 47 percent of the U.S. workforce and 40 percent of working women are in managerial and professional jobs (vs. just 18 percent in 1975), lower earnings during their working years have resulted in women earning Social Security benefits that are 23 percent lower than men\u2019s. That\u2019s a key contributor to the retirement income gender gap, according to the survey. Currently, the median annual income of women age 65 and older is 42 percent lower than men.<\/p>\n

In addition, when they reach their retirement years, women are much less likely than men to be married. Some 70 percent of men 65+ are married, vs. 45 percent of women that age. And there are three times as many widows over age 65 than widowers, according to the report. This stings, because single women are out of luck when it comes to pooling resources and getting the benefits from saving that come with a marriage or partnership.<\/p>\n

Make It Automatic<\/h3>\n

One of Co\u2019s suggestions based on the Prudential report: Take advantage of automatic enrollment and automatic escalation in a retirement plan if your employer offers it. (Automatic escalation means your employer automatically increases the percentage of your pay going into the retirement plan each year.) At retirement plans like 401 (k)s whose records are kept by Prudential, the average participation rate is 85 percent for ones with automatic enrollment and only 57 percent for plans without.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife throws a number of challenges at us that we can\u2019t control, but fortunately, finances are something we can take charge of to manage unforeseen events,\u201d says Cathy O\u2019Malley Kearney, national head of trust and chief fiduciary officer at Key Private Bank.<\/p>\n

To avoid the financial shock of being suddenly single, women need a plan in place to immediately take control of their cash flow in case of an emergency life event, she told me.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s pausing an annual vacation or canceling certain memberships or services, it\u2019s vital that you have a short list of items based on comfort, not necessity, that you would stop immediately before dipping into emergency funds or retirement contributions,\u201d says O\u2019Malley Kearney.<\/p>\n

And let me add \u2014 it\u2019s no longer cool to be nonchalant or na\u00efve about financial matters, if it ever was. To paraphrase the lyrics of Sonny Bono for the Sonny and Cher\u00a0hit<\/a>\u00a0once again: History can turn the page.<\/p>\n

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By\u00a0Kerry Hannon<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Kerry Hannon has covered personal finance for Forbes, Money, U.S. News & World Report and USA Today for nearly three decades. She is the author of\u00a0Love Your Job: The New Rules for Career Happiness<\/a><\/em>;\u00a0What’s Next? Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream Job<\/a>;\u00a0Great Jobs for Everyone 50+<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Suddenly Single: Money Skills for Divorcees and Widows<\/em><\/a>. Her website is\u00a0kerryhannon.com<\/a>. Follow her on Twitter\u00a0@kerryhannon<\/a>.@kerryhannon<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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