Page 27 - Final Inspirational Women Issue

PROPER FINANCIAL PLANNING

A Critical Step for Women

By Deana Carter

HERE ARE MANY Also, time off from benefits available to them, Your financial advisor
Treasons why when it work may affect Social including participating in can help you calculate how
comes to saving for retire- Security benefits because an employer-sponsored much you are likely to need
ment women may need to those who are not working retirement plan or funding for your later years. Be sure
save more than men. Does do not earn credits that are an IRA, to build the assets to consider how you will
gender really play a part in used to determine retire- needed for their later years. pay for health care expenses
your retirement planning? ment benefits. Also, parents, It's important not to un- not covered by Medicare or
A key goal of investing children, and other loved derestimate how much you other medical insurance.
for retirement is making ones often have financial may need or the importance When considering sources
sure you save enough to needs, and both women and of ongoing contributions to of retirement income, log
make your money last men may provide help for retirement accounts to build on to www.ssa.gov or review
throughout your lifetime. family members, which may assets over time. Although your annual statement to
On this score, women may divert funds from retire- there are no guarantees, the estimate your retirement
need to save more than ment savings. longer you stay invested, the benefit from Social Security.
men. The current life expec- more likely that your con- If you find that your retire-
tancy of a female at birth is Estimating How Much tributions may benefit from ment assets are coming up
roughly 81 years, compared You'll Need compounding when invest- short, delaying retirement
with 76 years for a male. 1 Of course, every wom- ment gains are reinvested or saving more while you
Although five years may not an's life is unique, and many and potentially earn even continue to work, may be
appear significant, many women capitalize on the more over time. helpful strategies.
people in this age group
incur expenses for health
care and other items while
living off of Social Security
and personal assets.
Keep in mind that life
expectancy statistics are
averages and many people
live much longer. It is not
unusual for an individual's
retirement to last 20 or 30
years or more. There is also
the issue of the length of
a person's career and how
much time an individual
has to build retirement as-
sets. Many women take time
off for caregiving respon-
sibilities, and during these
years they may not add to
their retirement portfolio.

1
Source/Disclaimer: Source: Center
for Disease Control, National Cen-
ter for Health Statistics, 2014.
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