Are women at long last closing the long-standing pay gap with men? Median pay for American women was 22 percent lower than for men in 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That gap hasn’t changed much over time, and it’s a key factor in the economic security challenges that women face in retirement. But [...] [...more]
It’s no secret that women have more trouble than men building for a secure retirement-mainly due to lower lifetime earnings and resulting contributions to Social Security and retirement accounts. New research has added a new challenge to the list: far fewer women than men retire with a traditional defined benefit pension or annuity. Traditional pensions-along [...] [...more]
Janice Johnson left her job as a managing director at a major New York financial services company at age 49 to start her own executive training business. Almost immediately, that plan was sidetracked when her mother became seriously ill with the West Nile virus. Traveling to Mississippi–where her mother lived–to provide care became Johnson’s main [...] [...more]
Women tend to outlive men–but far too many face poverty in old age. That’s due mainly to the continuing income gap with men, which affects contributions to Social Security and retirement accounts. But researchers also have documented that many women have a financial literacy gap that leads to poor decisions about saving, investing and debt–all [...] [...more]
Let’s say you won’t have a defined benefit pension in retirement, or that you have a pension that won’t pay much. One option is a do-it-yourself pension–better known as an income annuity. An income annuity is something like the mirror opposite of life insurance. A life insurance policy protects you and your family from the [...] [...more]
