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How to Own Your Future
This How to Own Your Future #OwnMyFuture post is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks and Prudential.
How to Own Your Future #OwnMyFuture
Did you know that on average, women have 30% lower retirement balances than men?1 This is 100% true in my house.
Did you also know that 44% of women have no life insurance?2 Even among the ones that do own life insurance, most are underinsured. I know that I am.
These statistics are scary, aren't they? At this point in my life, I fear that I may never be able to retire and that is most certainly not what I planned. As a woman, I am always ready to take on new roles in pretty much any area of my life. However, that doesn't really apply to my finances because for some reason it just seems so scary, so I do nothing instead. We had some big financial setbacks after our third child was born with a congenital heart defect. She had open heart surgery at just four months old and the medical bills definitely took their toll on our finances.
Prudential is researching the financial challenges that women face. Since women tend to live 5-6 years longer than men3, I fully expect to be single later in life. I need to face my financial challenges now.
Prudential’s Financial Experience study tracks women’s outlook towards financial planning. Women do care about financial security (their most important goal is having enough money to maintain their lifestyle through retirement). Prudential has learned that many women don’t care for the financial services jargon and they feel time-starved and cash-strapped. So even though they take care of day-to-day budgeting, they leave out some of the important pieces of long-term financial planning such as insurance and saving for retirement. We characterize this behavior as lower engagement.
My Financial Challenges
Wage and Income Gap
On average, women earn only 79% of the income earned by their male counterparts, for many reasons4. This has been my experience and when getting copies of my social security report versus my husband's, I could see that he would be getting a lot more money. This means that I need to invest in my retirement right now.
Investment Gap5
My husband has a few different retirement accounts and his balances are four times higher than mine. By investing in my retirement now, I can close that investment gap and take care of myself later in life.
Women Are Living Longer and Living Alone6
Like I said above, I need to prepare myself for whatever happens which may include being single and living alone later in life.
Time Gap
Did you know that women in the U.S. spend 28 hours per week on household chores?7 This is uncompensated work that doesn't figure into women’s financial planning. Prudential has created a tool called the “Value of all you do” that lets you very quickly quantify the value of all the household chores you do on a daily basis. What you would need to pay someone to do those for you.
Want to own your future? Join the conversation and act on your financial future today! Prudential believes that women should AND can take control of their finances. Find a Prudential advisor to help get you started on this journey.
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This How to Own Your Future #OwnMyFuture post is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks/Prudential.
- Prudential Retirement analysis reflecting defined contribution plan balances of Prudential record-kept plans as of December 31, 2015.
- Source: LIMRA study, Life Insurance Ownership in Focus, U.S. Person-Level Trends: 2016
- Prudential Retirement analysis; National Center for Health Statistics, Health, United States, 2015: With Special Feature on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. Hyattsville, MD. 2016.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Income Tables Table P-40: Women’s Earnings as a Percentage of Men’s Earnings by Race and Hispanic Origin, 2016
- http://fortune.com/2016/05/11/sallie-krawcheck-ellevest-launch
- Prudential Retirement analysis; National Center for Health Statistics, Health, United States, 2015: With Special Feature on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. Hyattsville, MD. 2016.
- Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, October 2016, http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=54757.
This was a very interesting read. I love that Prudential has a tool to show the monetary value of the work we do around the house!
Boom shaka laka! The VERY first thing I’m doing when my kids get home is use that tool to show my rotten kids just how much my time is worth! Thanks for sharing all this great info.
It’s great that Prudential is considering some of the things women do and experience that aren’t normally recognized. Getting in control of your finances as early as possible helps so much.
My husband used to have Prudential when he worked at a factory several years ago. He says he used to love them, but when the factory closed, he couldn’t keep them. That’s a shame. I wish we still had them today.
Getting out of debt is the most empowering thing to do to own your future, It is amazing how freeing that feels
It is so important to be financially prepared for your future. So many people are not!
Thank you so much for placing a focus on the gender pay gap. That is all too often overlooked and needs to change before women can achieve true financial stability.
I was a stockbroker so feel like I have some experience in investments, but things have changed so much, it really is frightening. I know I need to be involved, but I’ve kind of taken a backseat since being a mom. This is just what I needed to kick me in the rear and take a look at things again. I love that Prudential is encouraging women to take control of their finances. I’ve seen too many not realize the importance until it was too late.
I love that Prudential is starting the conversation for women to start talking about money. We are smart and love to share so we need to get on it. The tool is great too!
I just had this conversation with my daughter about how dad makes more money than I do. She foolishly believes that his time must be better spent since all of his “working hours” are paid. I can’t wait to show her this tool so she can see how much my time is actually worth when I am running this house doing the “thankless” chores.
What a great post. All of a sudden my husband and I are over 50 and thankfully we have been planning on retiring with some money in the bank! Saving can be hard, but we have managed. It took many years for me to “grow up” in regards to money management, I am so glad I finally have!
I love this post! Such great tips for planning your future. Saving this and sharing with friends!
It’s unfair how women are paid for the job that we do despite doing the same amount of work as the men. But that also means we really have to start thinking about our future early especially if we’re going to be single. It’s good to have a plan.
This is pretty awesome. A Lot of the time we are sorta forgotten, and we are smart and need to be prepared too! Planning for our future is important!
My husband and I don’t have life insurance together as a choice. It just feels so odd, like we’re putting a bounty on our head, haha.
Those facts are very eye opening and I have to get started planning more for my future even though my husband does most of our finances. I trust Prudential so I will look into this.
My husband and I were talking about our retirement. We are not prepared at all. We need to get a financial plan in place and fast.
You have really given me lot to think about. I haven’t given enough thought to my retirement years.
The wage gap doesn’t help and the fact that women spend the majority of their income on household expenses doesn’t either. It is crucial for women to get smart about money young, before they even enter the workplace so they can get wise on saving for retirement at an earlier age.
Thank you for the timely reminder. I have to review our insurance policy and see if there are still things that I may have overlooked. It is scary to grow old and find out your are penniless.
Everyone dreams of retirement, but before we get there, we must prepare for it now. I’ve been putting away some cash regularly in my retirement savings fund. We are planning of downsizing when all the kids are done with college. I dream of living a life of comfort in my twilight years. Let me go ahead and ask my husband to take a good look at our insurance policy so we can be sure we don’t end up to be a financial burden to our children.
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