Negotiating for higher salaries and managing your credit card debt is really important for women playing catch-up with retirement money. “When a woman reaches retirement age, she’ll have earned a cumulative $1,055,000 less than a man who has stayed continuously in the work force, because of the accumulated lifelong pay gap and work force interruptions to care for children, aging parents or a spouse” – https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/04/business/retirement/young-women-retirement-savings.html
According to the article, “most younger women don’t discuss financial matters. According to a recent Merrill Lynch/Age Wave study, ‘Women and Financial Wellness: Beyond the Bottom Line,’ among women of all ages there’s a social taboo against talking about money.”
““Sixty-one percent of women would rather talk about their own death than money,” said Maddy Dychtwald, co-founder of Age Wave. “And only 46 percent of millennial women say they are confident in investing.””
“That’s a problem when you consider the future for many women. Women typically live longer than men — 81 years versus 76 years — according to statistics from the United States Department of Health and Human Services. By age 85, women outnumber men by 2 to 1 and a majority of centenarians are women, according to the Merrill Lynch/Age Wave study. This means that women are more likely to be on their own financially as they age.”
“In fact, women 75 to 79 were three times more likely to fall below the poverty level than men the same age, according to a report by the National Institute on Retirement Security.”
“Women now earn 57 percent of bachelor’s degrees from American colleges and universities, but the American Association of University Women’s analysis of federal government data found that women are more likely to take on debt than their male counterparts — 41 percent of female undergraduates took on debt in 2015-16 compared with 35 percent of male undergraduates. And it takes women longer to pay back those loans than it does men, in part because of the gender pay gap. Women working full time with college degrees make about 26 percent less than their male counterparts, according to the analysis. Lower pay means less income to allocate to debt repayment and to saving for retirement.”
Counseling with Elaine Korngold
In my private practice we can focus on issues that integrate Career Counseling and Financial Therapy. Please reach out to schedule your free 20-minute phone consultation.