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Your Unique Life Journey
Some Companies Are Actually Cool With It
Personal Life Insurance For Business Owners
A POD Account Can Leave More Money For Your Family Upon Your Death.
Even if you don’t live in the same home, you should have life insurance coverage to protect the future of the children.
Begin saving in your twenties, to reach financial independence by sixty.
I recently shared an article on “What Smart Women Do After A Divorce.” I feel compelled to reiterate a couple of points that it talked about. As I indicated in a previous email, I have been through a divorce, and I remember every detail and emotion I felt during and after, and I know some of my readers do too. It made me walk away from a wonderfully comfortable lifestyle, living in an incredibly beautiful community, to living in an apartment with my two children and dreading every moment I had to live there. But I had to come to terms with the decisions that I made and my reduced lifestyle. I looked at my priorities and decided to move forward, with out having to depend on a man to get me through. Even though I had a successful marketing business, I decided that I would take a “full-time” job with the school system. Though it did not pay well, I could have the health benefits I needed. I had started homeschooling my children when they reached middle school and this job would afford me the convenience to continue to spend the time I needed with my girls. Although I was working, I kept my marketing business open, mainly because I was still making residual income. In time, as I got more clarity, I pursued getting my insurance license. I soon realized that I REALLY needed a plan. Now that I was a licensed insurance agent who decided to work with seniors on their retirement strategies, I learned enough to really start making some important decisions. After a divorce, looking at your economic reality is a wake-up call for most women. It is natural to go through the mourning phase after a divorce because quite frankly, your whole life has been ripped apart. The take-away here is this; surround yourself with a great support system so you can move forward. There are a lot of things that need to be done after a divorce. So, do whatever it takes to start the healing process. If you have children, the sooner the healing begins for you, the sooner it will begin for them. When it comes to practical matters, there are certain thing that you need to take care of. Here is a Post-Divorce Financial checklist that includes some things you want to consider doing as soon as possible. We are here to help. Book an appointment with us if you have any questions.
Women’s finances often differ from their counterparts in the following areas: Education, career, children, and family care. Women typically graduate from universities with more student loan debt. While the wage gap has decreased, they are still making less than men make. Women still stay home to raise their children and upon return to the workforce, they often must take a step back in their careers. They are usually the family caregiver for elderly family members. This means taking even more time from work. The impact of loss of income is greater because women tend to live longer and need a larger nest egg to retire. The time that women take away from the workforce may also impact their Social Security benefits. The amount you will receive from Social Security is a calculation based on your 35 highest earning years. If the years that women spend caring for family members result in reduced earnings or even zeros, because they worked less than 35 years, then their Social Security benefits will be smaller. African American women are facing a greater retirement crisis. Wage gaps due to racial and gender disparities have lowered income earning potential, and a lack of financial and investment related education has resulted in uncertainty about how to prepare for retirement. In an article on Kiplinger.com, it states that “Women live longer than men, and their health care costs typically are higher. Women are estimated to live up to five years longer than their male counterparts, which means life will be more expensive. Women also represent 70% of the people in nursing homes. Despite evidence that women live longer, according to a research paper by Nicole Maestas, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School. Her research also showed women tend to marry older men and, as a result, women typically enter retirement two to three years younger than their spouses.” The article also stated, “Women tend to save less for retirement than men do. There are many reasons why women don’t save as much as their male counterparts, but it’s possible they don’t prioritize saving due to budget constraints.” Although women acknowledge that it is importance to save for retirement, they do not place as high a priority on setting the dollars aside. This is what it boils down to, as women, we must remember that the current retirement system was created when life expectancy was not as long. Because of this unique life journey, it is time to be proactive in our planning. Start considering ways to adjust or improve your budget so you can contribute to a retirement strategy. One of the goals is to help you defer taking Social Security until age 70, which can make a huge difference in your monthly retirement income. We want to help you grow your wealth so you can have an optimal retirement lifestyle in the future. Schedule a call with us to help get you started.