While the retirement picture may be dire for men, it is twice as bad for women, according to Financial Finesse, a financial education firm.
Financial Finesse studied the gap between the financial readiness of men and women and found a wide difference, according to the study released Tuesday.
“In general, working women will need to save more—and at a much faster pace—to satisfy the average cost of expenditures in retirement,” says Liz Davidson, Financial Finensse CEO.
The Financial Finesse think tank looked at the median 45-year-old man and woman for the study. It found that men have a median shortfall in savings of $267,233 to meet average retirement expenses at age 65, compared to a shortfall of $522,262 for the median 45-year-old woman
Financial Finesse looked at median incomes, deferral rates, retirement savings, life expectancies, and projected healthcare costs to determine how much each gender would need to save to replace 70 percent of their income in retirement.
“Women need to know that they fundamentally will have to save more, on average, to adequately fund retirement than their male counterparts,” Davidson says.
“The shortfalls both genders face are concerning and something both men and women need to know so they can take actions to address it,” says Greg Ward, director of Financial Finesse’s think tank.
There is a 17-point gap between men and women when it comes to general investment knowledge (67 percent for women and 84 percent for men); a 14-point gap in confidence in asset allocation (34 percent for women and 48 percent for men), and a 17-point gap for those who pay their credit cards off in full each month (50 percent of women and 67 percent of men), according to the study,
“There are additional challenges women face: longer life expectancy, higher health costs, time out of the workforce that put them behind the eight ball,” Ward says. “When it comes to the financial services industry, women hesitate.
“Advisors have to learn to relate to women in terms that matter to them. Tell them they will have more time to be with family or will be better able to lead a stress-free life. That will have an impact on them,” he says.