Women and personal finances
By many measures,
women's lives have changed
substantially in recent
decades. According to a
comprehensive government
report called "Women in
America" (www.whitehouse.gov/dataon-women), although certain
social and economic situations
for women have improved,
when it comes to personal
finances, many women still
face challenging hurdles.
Key report findings include:
• Women live longer
than men but are much more
likely to experience critical
health problems that hamper
their ability to work – and to
pass up needed care due to
cost.
• Although the earnings
gap between women and men
continues to narrow, it's still
significant: Among full-time
workers, women's weekly
earnings as a percentage of
men's have increased from 62
percent in 1979 to 80 percent
in 2009.
• More women than
men now graduate high school
and college, but far fewer earn
degrees in engineering,
computer sciences and other
higher-paying fields.
• Women increasingly
marry later, have fewer
children or remain childless,
yet still are more likely to live
in poverty, particularly single mother
families.
• Women are less likely
than men to work outside the
home (61 percent vs. 75
percent in 2009) and are much
more likely to work part-time
and to take time off to raise
children or care for aging
relatives.
In a nutshell: Women
generally earn less and live
longer than men, so at
retirement they often have less
in savings, receive smaller
retirement and Social Security
benefits and must spread out
their money longer. Clearly,
women need to take charge of
their financial wellbeing. Here
are a few places to start:
Develop a budget to track
income and expenses. Either
download a budget
spreadsheet template or
investigate software packages
and online account
management services like
Quicken (www.quicken.com),
Mint.com (www.mint.com),
Yodlee (www.yodlee.com) and
Mvlopes (www.mvlopes.com).
Plan for retirement. Time
is your biggest ally when it
comes to retirement savings,
so get cracking. Start
estimating your retirement
needs:
• Social Security's
Retirement Estimator
(www.ssa.gov/estimator),
which automatically enters
your earnings information
from its records to estimate
your projected Social Security
benefits under different
scenarios, such as age at
retirement, future earnings
projections, etc.
• Check whether your
401(k) plan administrator's
website has a calculator to
estimate how much you will
accumulate under various
contribution and investment
scenarios. If not, try the
retirement calculators at
Bankrate.com and AARP to
determine your current
financial status and what
you'll need to save to meet
your retirement needs.
Do your research. Many
helpful personal financial
education and management
tools are available online,
including:
• The National
Foundation of Credit
Counseling's
MyMoneyCheckUp™
program offers a step-by-step
assessment of your overall
financial health and behavior
in four personal finance areas:
budgeting and credit
management, saving and
investing, planning for
retirement and managing
home equity
(www.mymoneycheckup.org).
• Social Security's
Website for Women provides
information on retirement,
disability and other issues.
You can also order or
download their informative,
free publication, "What Every
Woman Should Know"
(www.ssa.gov/women).
• The Women's Savings
Initiative, a program jointly
developed by Heinz Family
Philanthropies, the Women's
Institute for a Secure
Retirement (WISER) and Visa
Inc.
(www.practicalmoneyskills.com/womensave). This free
program features an audio and
e-book called "What
Women Need to Know About
Retirement," which you can
order on CD or download as a
PDF or audio file from
Practical Money Skills for
Life, a free personal financial
management program run by
Visa
(www.practicalmoneyskills.com/resources).
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