Ideas to help save

I don’t know if you had this program growing up, but I did. In elementary school, we had a program where we could open up a bank account and deposit a weekly amount. I think it started when I was in grade 5 and lasted through grade 6. I did not continue it when I went off to grade 7 but some did. It was a program designed to get us to think about saving for the future and it worked for many. If I had the opportunity again, I would save more at a younger rate. 

If you have young men and women in your life, and want to give them some advice. My suggestion is start saving as young as you can, and use some sort of automatic deduction plan. You can set up a savings plan or a retirement savings plan and have an amount automatically withdrawn every month, so you don’t have to think about savings. Men have an advantage for saving for retirement because we earn more and work longer. If we lived in a world where women had pay equity, and they didn’t have to take time out of work for family, the challenges for women wouldn’t be quite so daunting. Since this is not yet a reality, here are some more ideas on how women can save more, given the unfairness of the system.

Women need to develop and build their own financial independence. Today’s life stages are far more complicated now than it was when I was young. The odds are that you will not be in the same relationship you started in your 20’s or 30’s when you reach your 60’s. If you get to retirement in the same relationship, you started years ago that’s a rare occurrence. Irrespective of your relationships in the future, it’s so important to have your own personal long-term financial objectives. Start to think about having a personal financial strategy that weathers the odd relationship break up as you plan for your retirement.

Get advice to help you invest. Women don’t have as much money to invest but there is good advice out there. The access of affordable professional advice, specifically tailored to meet women’s needs and circumstances is not widely available but there are resources. Digital advice and tools can help, but they are not the answer for everyone. The value of advice is very hard to measure and, in most cases, only time will tell how good it was. Those who have received advice are most likely better off than those who don’t. Each person who reaches retirement in good shape means they won’t need extra government support and there would be more money to help those who can’t. How cool would that be?