Women and Pension Planning.

Women are not saving enough for pensions. This is an issue that I have raised before and talked about the reasons for this. Women receive on average about 79% of what a man makes for doing the same job, which means that women may not have money to put into retirement savings. Company pensions and government pensions are based on income—the more you earn the more you can put away for retirement, which puts women at a disadvantage. Women have a different outlook on financial matters, which means they need a different approach from Financial Advisors—and financial advisors who cater to women are few and far between.

A new survey out of Ireland found that just over one in three women own a pension (36%) compared with 55% of men. It also found that the vast majority of women (71%) don’t know how to start a pension, while the average woman with a pension saves just €140 a month. Depending on her age, she should be saving at least double that.

According to the Journal, the average woman in Ireland wants to retire on about €600 per week but, even when the state pension of €239 is factored in, women are saving at best half of this.

Further questions put to the 1,000 adults over the age of 18 from a variety of socio-economic groups showed that three in four women (76%) who don’t have a pension are worried about not owning one. A vast majority of women (89%) also said they’d like help with their retirement planning.

The issue and a solution that works is being considered by the Irish government. The government hopes to introduce an auto-enrolment pension system by 2021, too late for thousands of women but good news for young women in Ireland.

The problem is that this issue is a world-wide issue and will cause major problems for economics and governments very soon. Senior women will be finishing work and will not have adequate pensions, and this will cause a huge strain on our welfare systems. Women not only are receiving inadequate pay when they work, they will receive inadequate pensions when they retire. Women also live longer than men by an average of about 8 years worldwide, which means that older women will be living in poverty for longer.

The problem can be fixed if there is government will. Providing education about financial issues and pensions that are easily understood; provide automatic enrollment in company and government pension plans, provide information that addresses the issue and keep it simple. Finally, start to pay women equal pay for equal work.