That’s a bold statement and I could get myself in serious trouble here, but I will carry on as I have a very serious point to make.
I have heard many reasons why women don’t do financial planning, from “my husband looks after that stuff”, “I don’t understand all that financial stuff”, “I’m not very good at maths”, “I don’t worry my wife about our finances, and she’s just too emotional”. Pretty strong stuff, which if you are a woman, is probably making your blood boil, not to mention insulting and patronising. And if you are a guy, you may be thinking, that it shouldn’t really be that way. Interesting fact – around half of the population of this country are women and close to half of the nation’s wealth is owned by women. So, do women really not need to do any financial planning? Let me tell you this, I think financial planning for women in most circumstances is even more important than it is for men. However they probably need a very different approach and this is why.
The biggest financial problem for women – If you are a woman you need to protect yourself against living longer than a man of the same age as you. In fact on average we are all living a lot longer. Remember when 50 was over the hill? Well things have changed – at 50 we are just getting started!
The fact is that women live an average of seven years longer than men, but it gets worse than that. Women usually marry men that are older than themselves, unless you are aging Hollywood star. Personally speaking, my wife is four years younger than me, so statistically speaking she will outlive me by eleven years. That’s a long time.
Have you visited a care home facility recently? You’ll find that 90 percent of the people there are women, all because they live longer; generally women take a lot better care of themselves. Women are far more inclined to visit their doctor unlike men who will ignore health problems until it’s just too late.
Women are going to be retired a lot longer than men – There is no doubting it, women are going to be retired significantly longer than their husbands, if you are married of course. Even if you are not married, on average women retire younger and live longer! – putting it simply you need to have more money in savings.
But here is the problem for women – women are putting less money into retirement savings which is often caused by taking time off from work to have children. That may be unfair but right now women are usually the primary carers of children and it impacts their careers financially.
Quite simply, if you are women, you have to save more. The reality is that you need to have a better plan in place than your husband. If you are a woman, your financial plan is significantly more important for you than your husbands.
After thirty years of talking to clients I can tell you that the husbands are usually taking care of the investments, making the big investment decisions. The woman of the house maybe running the day to day financials, but not the longer term financial detail. Men also see it as their responsibility to look after the family’s long term future. I often hear comments like “I know about investing and look after that side of things”, and “My wife will be okay.”
However, can you be really sure that your wife will not be okay? – around 80 percent of husbands predecease their wives – when the husband has gone, women are often left in the dark about the money side of things because this information has just not been shared for whatever reason. Unbelievably over the years our office has received phone calls from very newly widowed women, second only to the undertaker. And the question we get asked almost universally is “will I be ok for money? How much did Jim have with you?”
If you love your wife – which I am sure you do this is very important – you need to ask yourself a few questions right now. If you were to die tomorrow, how much does your wife know about your finances? Will the mortgage be repaid? Will she have enough to raise my children? Will she have enough to live on when she retires? If you don’t like the answers to any of these questions, make it a top priority to address these issues. And if you are a woman and you simply do not know the answers to these questions, make it a top priority to get these answered. And if you don’t like the answers, make it your responsibility to make some changes and get yourself on the right track.
Looking at it in more detail just for a moment. Do you both know where your Will’s are? What life insurance do you both have? Where are your retirement savings invested? You need to know this stuff, as it will impact you and your children for the rest of your life. If you keep all your financial stuff in a folder, make sure you both know where it is and what is in it.
Do you have a financial folder? Now ladies if there is no financial folder or file, it’s your job to create one; it may take some time to put it all together, but believe me once you know where you stand, you will feel a whole lot better. If something happens tomorrow everyone who is left behind will be in a much better place, rather than feeling like you are floundering. After all, the last thing you want to be worrying about is money and finances and a time when thinking straight will be almost order ambien online europe impossible. At times like this it is very easy to make poor decisions and your mind will be far from clear. Having a good understanding of your finances will improve your chances of not making decisions that you will regret later on.
Just in case you were still thinking, “I can’t be bothered, Jim looks after that”, remember the most quoted reason for divorce is money problems. Ever noticed how bills come nearly every day of the week and you get paid once a month? Build a financial plan and stick to it. You never know, it may be best investment of your time you ever make.
And finally, a client of mine once said to me “Happy wife: happy life.” Ponder on that for a while.
Contact Martin Dodd on 01902 742221 or email him at [email protected] if you would like talk about money issues.
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