Warning: Do not proceed beyond this point if you are planning to get married.
Houston Chronicle Monday Jan. 15 2007 predicts less for baby boomer American women when they hit retirement age, excerpts below.
Millions of upwardly mobile women of the baby boomer generation face the danger that retirement will bring a sharp downhill slide in lifestyle. Many of these women could suffer a greater decline in living standards in later life than their mothers did.
The retirement security of women is jeopardised by the same trends affecting men, but the threat to women is amplified by:
1. Higher rates of divorce and singlehood: Record numbers of women are heading toward later life without the backup of a partner’s savings and income. Unmarried older women have higher poverty rates than their male counterparts and much higher poverty rates than married women, according to government data.
2. Interrupted working years: Although baby boomer women generally have more education and work skills than their mothers, many quit jobs or worked part time to care for children or ailing relatives. Such efforts may be cherished by family members but they slash retirement benefits.
3. Long lives: At age 65, women are expected to live an average of three years long than men. This greater longevity magnifies risks to retirement security, including the danger than a woman will outlast her savings or incur medical costs without help froma house.
In addition to these factors, women overall still earn less than men and have less in the way of retirement benefits for old age.
What Houston Chronicle recommends for baby boomer women: Do more themselves to prepare for the long haul, ie saving more and working longer.
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Ladies, let’s face it:
1. It’s not possible to count on others now – women in the postmodern world are expected to stand on our own feet, as far as men are required to do so.
2. We have to be prepared to work past 65 even for the duration of our lifetime. More often than not taking on the role as the primary caretaker in a family unit, the postmodern women carry the double burden of retirement planning for both their parents and themselves.
3. The insecurity of marriage as an institution in postmodern living speak volume of a need to plan for oneself aside from contributing to a family unit. Hmm, marriage doesn’t sound like an attractive proposition anymore, does it?
