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How Can Women’s Income Last as Long as They Do?

How Can Women’s Income Last as Long as They Do?. M. Cindy Hounsell Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER) Guaranteeing savings to last a lifetime: The Next Retirement challenge September 11, 2009. Why focus on women?. There are many more older women than men!

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How Can Women’s Income Last as Long as They Do?

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  1. How Can Women’s Income Last as Long as They Do? M. Cindy Hounsell Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER) Guaranteeing savings to last a lifetime: The Next Retirement challenge September 11, 2009

  2. Why focus on women? • There are many more older women than men! • At age 65+, there are 6.2 million more women than men • At 75+, there are 4 million more women than men • Women make up 71% of the 85+population • Many women who have never been poor before end up in poverty

  3. Why women need more retirement income • Live longer • More likely to have chronic illness and need long-term institutional care • More likely to be single and not remarry 1 out of 5 women living alone who are 65+ live below the poverty level

  4. Why women have less retirement income • Make up majority of minimum wage earners • 2x as likely to work part-time, with fewer or no benefits • Primary family caregivers for children and aging parents, working 12 years less than men on average • Low earnings: 78 cents for every $1 earned by a man

  5. What can happen • Cordelia Robertson, at age 99 • Threatened with eviction from her assisted living home of 10 years • Virginia Costello, at age 75 • Earned $38 a month in pension benefits • Lee Sevilla, at age 71 • Lived in her car due to a divorce and minor financial setbacks • Hazel Shoyrer, at age 67 • Health issue financially devastated this 30-year factory worker

  6. Lifetime income is the answer • But in what form? • How do we “get there” given public perception, and common misconceptions about retirement?

  7. Thought leader roundtable • Pre-roundtable interviews with thought leaders • Live roundtable session on how women’s income can last as long as they do • Full report available at www.wiserwomen.org

  8. The good… “…To the extent that an annuity is available, it provides a guaranteed source of income… . The annuity provides the stability that even if you exceed your life expectancy you still have a set amount of income.”

  9. The bad… “...Some annuity products out there are really expensive. …They look like bad guys. …” “There are very few people in the marketplace that people feel that they can trust because everybody’s selling a product ... .”

  10. …and the ugly “I just want to remind everybody that I work in a world where life expectancy is based on when your mother died, and if that was 43, then that’s how they look at their life.”

  11. Critical issues need to be addressed • Fiscal state of Social Security • The saving grace for millions of older women • Health care crisis • For a 50/50 chance of having enough money to cover health care costs in retirement, a 65-year-old woman retiring today needs $98,000 - $242,000 in savings (EBRI)

  12. To be continued • Roundtable will reconvene in 2010 to continue the discussion For more information, visit www.wiserwomen.org

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