Why does financial wellbeing seem impossible for women?

Unquestionably, statistics show that women are at a disadvantage when it comes to lifelong financial wellbeing. Although, they have a growing career, and finances, not all translate into financial wellbeing in the longer term. Clearly, women are also driving forces and handle change in the workplace, and community projects. Long-term financial wellbeing still seems impossible to attain for them.

Why does long-term financial wellbeing seem impossible for women?

The possibility of you investing as a woman is low. As women, we tend to neglect this part of our finances. You may not understand your finances well enough, which could lead to an impossible long-term financial well-being. Your biggest regret then will be not investing when you should have. This doesn’t apply to all women, though. You might be one out of the 10 women who plan for her future. However, if you are among the 9, chances are ignorance of investment processes is your obstacle.

Conversely, the lack of confidence to make better financial and investments decisions. This doesn’t take away the fact that as a woman you might always be confident in tackling other financial tasks, no. You just find that you lack the same confidence when it comes to investing your money.

Could the lack of thoughts towards long-term financial wellbeing be a result of a lack of role models for women?

It is worthy of note that media information targeted at women is thin on financial wellbeing. There is also a gap in the women’s magazines because financial services are not advertised in them. The financial service industry caters to men leaving the women out.

Additionally, the focused voice for the media adverts tends to be that of men and not women. This alienates the women as they are not speaking to women the way they want to be spoken to.

How does the gender pay gap affect the long-term financial wellbeing of women?

The numbers that reflect the gender pay gap begs to be repeated, as women earn 82 cents for every dollar a man earns, in the same position. Throughout your life as a woman, the pay gap accumulates and compounds.

Subsequently, you are likely to spend 44% of your adult life outside the workforce. While men take 28% or less, for certain reasons. These reasons for both genders could be to care for children, an ill parent, or spouse.

Read Also: Can you be a self-taught financial expert?

Furthermore, career interruptions hurt the financial well-being of women. It registers a $1,055,000 gap in lifetime earnings between a man and you as a woman. This affects the amount of money you will have to invest in a lifetime as a woman.

What about your 100 years lifespan?

The likelihood to live up to 100 could be below, but, most women age past 90 and 95. (including men). Everyone ought to plan for a longer lifespan, the most prudent number should be age 100. Undoubtedly, a woman’s life expectancy is five years longer than that of a man. This is an obvious reason to plan for long-term financial wellbeing.

Besides, since you retire early, this poses a problem for enough finances to cater to this lifespan. You may not have enough funds saved to last for these number of years. The fact that you live longer also means you will need more medical expenses as you age.

Conclusion

Finally, your life as a woman in this century is different from that of men, your mother, and your grandmother. Attitudes in society are seen to take a longer time to change, even though laws change. The limitations such as men’s signatories needed for women to take mortgage and business loans are subtle practiced today.

You(we) have come a long way both professionally and personally as a woman, but still lacking financially. What you need to do to attain lifelong financial wellbeing is to;

• Learn to turn longevity into an asset.
• Try to acknowledge financial challenges that impact women.
• Consistently plan early and often
• Money talk should be encouraged in your discussion with your fellow women

Additionally, you should take control of your financial wellbeing by talking to financial professionals about money. You have to start early as well so that your money will have enough time to grow. Most importantly, try saving and planning towards any form of career interruption. Plan for healthcare costs which are likely to increase as you age.