Could
it be more vital for women to have a Financial Plan than a man?
Even
though statistics show that women are less likely to actually have one.
Often
women fall into the trap of using the men in their lives as their Financial
Plan.
But
women need to have their own financial plan.
When
we take in to consideration that women live longer, typically earn 25 percent
less than men and spend more time out of the workforce than men.
This
can only lead to us needing our own financial plan and no longer rely on anyone
else for our plan.
Women and long term financial
planning.
Typically
women tend to keep putting this of and are waiting too long to start their long
term financial planning. But it is
something that needs to be planned sooner rather than later. It is important to set goals like when you
want to retire, how much you will need as an income when you retire, how much
you will need for your travel plans and how much you want for your
families. The sooner you have these
goals to aim for the more likely you are going to achieve them on the timeline
that you want.
Being Rich does not mean you don’t
need a plan.
Often
the misconception is that when people earn lots of money they do not need to
have a financial plan. This could not be
further from the truth because making lots of money does not automatically make
someone rich, it does not ultimately determine your wealth; it is how much of
that money that you are investing that determines your wealth. Often what happens is that people who do earn
a lot of money never see themselves as having financial concerns so they never
seek advice with creating a financial plan.
But failing to invest for your future may hinder you from having a
comfortable retirement.
The danger of relying on one spouse
to take care of the financial planning.
Being
reliant on one spouse within a marriage to take care of the finances can be
dangerous, as statistics show that unfortunately almost as many as 50 percent
of marriages end in divorce. Even with
the best divorce attorney, helping you get alimony and child support it is a
fact that the standard of living for women can significantly drop.
Widowhood
is another danger of having one spouse dealing with the finances, the average
age of widowhood is 56 years old, which usually leads to women being left
unprepared. Due to that unpreparedness
as many as 80 percent of widows will then live in poverty even though their
husband was far from poor when he died.
The important steps to a good
Financial Plan.
Often asking the right questions and getting
educated is all it takes to secure a financial future for yourself. Questions like do I have enough life
insurance to pay off my debt if something were to happen to me does my life
insurance have any type of long term care or disability insurance within it if
I were to need it in the future? Will I
have enough income to last me the rest of my life if I could no longer rely on
my spouse’s pension.
Asking yourself these questions and sitting down
with a professional is the start to knowing how secure your future really is,
giving you the peace of mind that you deserve.
