Hey, ladies, I suggest you take a moment and read this because it can be a game changer.  Did you know on average a woman have 30% lower retirement balances than men?  Did that get your attention?  If not what about the 44% of women who have no life insurance.  Even among the ones that do own life insurance, most are underinsured.

Have you given much thought to how you want to spend retirement?  I don’t know about you, but my husband and I want to travel and not worry about coming home at any particular time, just go and do.  We are road tripping fools, we love to just go without nowhere to be but of course we always have to be home at a particular time because we have children.  So we dream of one day after everyone is grown just enjoying what we love to do!

We have been lucky to do all the things we have, but our adventures always leave us wanting to go further into untraveled lands!  However, with children, we can’t be gone too long, so we will just have to wait!  However, while we are waiting, we had better kick it into overdrive, so we have enough money to actually retire when we want.

Scary when you consider that marriage patterns have changed over the years and women are now living 5 to 6 years longer than men.  Not to mention the fact that divorce is more prevalent and many women are choosing to remain single.

Prudential has done some interesting research on the financial challenges women face for several years, and the Financial Experience Study tracks women’s outlook toward financial planning.

4 Key Challenges That Impact Women’s Finances

Below are 4 of the key challenges that impact a women’s finances:

Investment Gap that Exists for Women

Sadly, women do not seem to invest to the same degree as their male counterparts which comes at a high cost.  Women are more apt to wait on investing, invest more but at a lower risk, lower return investments and they are more likely to run out of money in retirement.  CRAZY RIGHT!

Time Gap

In the United States, women spend about 28 hours a week tending to household chores which are 65% more than the average man.  I’m sure many of you can relate to the uncompensated work that doesn’t go into our financial planning.  Prudential has a cool tool that is called the “Value of all you do” to help quickly quantify the value of all the household chores you do daily and what you would need to pay someone to do those chores for you.

Living Longer and Living Alone

Not only are women living longer they are living alone.  Did you know that women outlive men by an average of about 5 to 6 years?  Yes, and it’s important they are financially prepared for these years.

Wage and Income Gap That Exists for Women

Did you know that the average full-time working women earns 79% of the income earned by mailed counterpart?  Crazy right, are you wondering why?  I know I sure did and it’s because of several issues – time out of the workforce, defense in pay, likelihood to negotiate salaries.  This gap doesn’t just impact women’s 401K balances over their life it also affects their social security.  YES, we often fail to think about social security payments.  Did you know that a women’s social security benefits are 27% lower than male counterparts?

I started saving for my retirement when I began working at the bank years ago.  I’m honestly lucky because I learned first hand the importance of saving for retirement, but there have been life events that have made me rethink my plan – children, moving, and everything else that comes with life.  I withdraw my 401K several years back and have since started saving again, but I’m not where near where I should be.  After learning this, I seriously think it’s time to rethink my plan again, especially if I want to travel with my husband when we retire.

So, ladies do you know what this means?  It’s time to take control of our finances!  You can start by contacting a Prudential Financial advisor to get help with your journey or visit them online at Purdential.com.

 “This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks/Prudential Financial.”