Women, Widows and Women, Widows and Financial TransitionsFinancial Transitions

Sixty-two percent of women 45 and older do not have a spending plan for when they retire

 

-Looking at Act II of Women’s Lives: Thriving & Striving from 45 On

-AARP Foundation, Women’s Leadership Circle, April 2006

Marital Status, United States, Marital Status, United States, Jan. 2010Jan. 2010

Women who are Widows

-2011 Statistical Abstract, U.S. Census Bureau

Age Percent of all adult women

40-44 1.6 percent

45-49 2.8 percent

50-54 4.2 percent

55-64 8.1 percent

65-74 24 percent

75-84 50.4 percent

85 + 72.9 percent

The average Defined Contribution plan balances of working women 50 years or older are below those of working men of the same age by nearly $63,000.

-Gender Matters: Retirement Savings of Working Men and Women, LIMRA, Feb. 2011

Women are quite likely to be solely responsible for financial decision-making at some point in their lives. Indeed, as women age, the probability of living alone increases…

Women have lower average wages, lower lifetime earnings, are less likely to be covered by a pension plan……

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. women ages 40 to 79 have already dealt with a major financial “life crisis,” such as job loss, divorce, the death of a spouse, or serious illness…..

-Women and Money: Challenging the Myths, a speech by Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth A. Duke, May 1, 2010.

Eighteen percent of non-married women fell below the poverty line in 2001. Another 11 percent of older single women were classified as “near poor.”…Thus, 29 percent of single older women are either poor or near poor – a clearly vulnerable group as the nation grays…..

Why do so many women end up poor? The answer is twofold. First, the retirement income system in the United States is based on earnings, and women have low earnings. Second, women live longer than men, and the retirement income of married women drops significantly when the husband dies.

-Earnings and Women’s Retirement Security, Alicia H. Munnell with Natalia Zhivan, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, 2006