There are some realities regarding retirement for women which you just cannot afford to overlook. The challenges women encounter as they prepare for retirement are different than their male peers.
Despite all the battles for equality over the last few decades, women are still trailing behind when it comes to retiring which is such a crucial part of life. Women seem to have a lot left to do compared to men in preparing for retirement.
Retirement Realities For Women
- Most women are not confident that they will be able to retire with a comfortable lifestyle.
- Over half of women today do not plan to retire at all or intend on doing so after the age of 65.
- Over half of women intend to work after they retire. The majority of “retired” women plan to work part-time while the rest wants to work full-time.
- Most women focus on maintaining health. They also typically do not make a plan B for if they are ill, injured or encounter a medical problem.
- Over half also focus on performing well at their current job and nearly half work on keeping their job skills current.
- Most women would not be prepared if an involuntary retirement happened to them for one reason or another.
- Reducing debt or becoming debt free is a priority for most women.
- With so many things on their agenda, still, over half of all women view saving for retirement as a priority.
- Most women save for retirement through some retirement plan whether work-related or a non-work-related IRA, bank account, etc.
- Less than half of women anticipate their primary source of income once retired to come from savings and retirement investments.
- An even lower number of women expect to rely on social security benefits. Most of them have concerns about social security being available when it is retirement age. Almost half of female baby boomers feel they understand social security benefits.
- Women who work part-time are much less likely to have work-related retirement benefits. Most women who are offered an employee-funded plan will participate in the program. It’s usually the women who are working full-time.
Retiring isn’t an easy decision, and there are lots of challenges and complications.
While there are realities regarding retirement for women you can’t afford to overlook, remember it is not too late or too early to make a plan.
2 Tips for women considering retiring:
1) Consider using a professional financial adviser
2) If you are a hard-working woman who is saving for retirement, check out the Saver’s Tax Credit. It is for low and moderate-income taxpayers who need more help saving for retirement. If you qualify, you will receive a federal income tax credit on your tax return just because you are investing for retirement through an IRA, 403(b), 457(b) and/or 401 plan.
