WOOCS 2.1.5.4

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Know! – Woman No Cry!

Enter a woman in her early fifties. Deborah was a financial controller of a multi-million pound manufacturing company. She had just overcome a battle with cancer,  – without taking time off work despite several harrowing medical treatments. She is brave! She is strong!

However, little did she know that the long drawn battle had resulted in symptoms of depression and anxiety. Also unbeknown to her, the battle took a toll on her husband who during this period had developed an early onset of the dreaded Dementia. She watched as  her husband’s health deteriorate but thought it was only the stress of bearing with her battle with cancer and the many visits to the hospital.

Between them they earned about £5000 after tax every month. Unable to cope, she had to  give up her job. A few months later her husband followed suit giving up on work because of his deteriorating health.

Deborah now  receives Employment Support Allowance of £70 per week in benefits while having multiple loan and mortgage payments. Thankfully, her husband is able to draw down  his private pension Fund. She, unfortunately had very little in terms of retirement savings.

Now, Deborah has the responsibility of taking care of her husband, while trying to get well too. Chances here, she is going to outlive her husband and that comes with emotional but also financial challenges. She wept as she told her story. 

The pressure on household finances is often mostly borne by the woman, who many a times are the least interested in financial matters of the family apart from short term household budgets. No disrespect to the ladies, it’s what statistics tell us!

Fact is,

  •  Women generally live longer than men of the same age by 5 to 6 years
  • Women earn about 15% less than men on the same job
  • Women career breaks to raise children, meaning their career and retirement savings may suffer as a result. 

This isn’t fair but it is very true. 

According to a global survey commissioned by HSBC, only about 4 in 10 women stated that they had a financial plan in place for their own or their family’s future. It shows when it comes to saving for retirement; men are more likely to exercise sole responsibility for making decisions. Women need to become more engaged with their retirement by sharing more of the long term planning with their spouse, so they don’t lose out.

In fairness to some men, a number would really want their spouses to be so involved but do not know how exactly to make that happen.

The research shows that women remain more concerned with managing the short term financial decisions, and are generally less engaged in longer term decision making, which could potentially impact their prosperity in retirement.

Tips on how to engage in long term financial planning

Whilst financial complexities and jargons may not be the natural terrain for many a women, a lot will do well to be part of financial planning for their future. The following tips may help get you started.

  1. Fake an interest even if you are not really interested: Ask probing questions that suggest you are interested, for example, how are we doing with our mortgage payments? How is your pension fund performing? Is the Insurer still taking payments on our life insurance?
  1. Use current affairs or news report as starting points for discussion. E.g . Just wondering if that happened to either of us, how would the children fare?
  1. Agree together clearly defined financial goals. How much do we need to achieve this? What savings and investments plans do we need to get us there?
  1. Think beyond today! Do not be overburdened by the daily financial routines at the expense of a secure financial future.
  1. Start that discussion today!

 

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