Most US Women lack a plan for their Retirement

Dear GAA Friend,

Have you wondered how you will pay for your retirement?  Do you have a plan?  If so, great!  You are in the minority.

According to a Huff Post 50 item, retiring women (26 percent) are worried that they won't be able to meet the financial needs of their family.  More than one in four women (28 percent) expect to take time or have already taken time out of the workforce to act as caregiver for a child or aging parent. Of these caregivers, 73 percent believe that this time out will impact their ability to save for retirement. Further, many reported that their retirement may involve financial caregiving; one in three women (31 percent) expects that when they are retired, they will need to provide financial support for a family member other than their spouse, according to the study's results.

Here are some of the other findings:
-- Only 14 percent of baby boomer women have a written retirement strategy. Some 45 percent do not have a plan at all while 41 percent have a plan that's not written down.
-- About 36 percent of baby boomer women expect to rely on Social Security as their primary form of income in retirement. Another 36 percent expect to rely on 401K plans while the rest expect to draw on a mixed bag of savings and assets.
-- Of the women who expect to rely on Social Security, only 34 percent say they know "a great deal" or "quite a bit" about their Social Security benefits.
-- About 61 percent of baby boomer women expect to work after 65 or simply do not plan to retire.
-- Only one in five baby boomer women who expect to keep working have a backup plan if retirement comes sooner than expected.

Few women have a backup plan if things don't work.

What can you do now?

Learn more about the details of your Social Security benefits, adopt and pay into a savings goal immediately, understand what a savings shortfall may look like and figure out what you'll do "if" such a shortfall occurs. As the author says, "There's no doubt that every woman needs her own retirement strategy."

Susanne Paul for Global Action on Aging