This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks/Prudential.
For the last 9 years I’ve been a “stay at home mom”. I’ve been in charge of taking care of my kids, day to day house needs and most important my family. However, one thing I really haven’t been worrying about is the finances because my husband does an amazing job at doing it for me. However, a few months back we decided to begin looking for a home to purchase. When we sat down with the Lender and I began hearing my husband talk about our finances I realized I didn’t know anything. Especially, when it came to investments we have, retirement plans, etc.. I felt so lost! Although he’s here always behind the scenes I realized I know nothing and what if God forbid I were to lose him?This was a wake up call for me, because I realized that the loss of a spouse can happen to anyone. I count solely on my husband when it comes to finance.
What’s scary is I don’t know the first thing about our savings, retirement or investments. That’s why I was so happy to begin working on this campaign in conjunction with Prudential because I realize how important it is for women to be in the know when it comes to our finances.
Prudential has shown me some mind blowing information. Did you know there are four key challenges that women face when dealing with their finances? Check out this great video below where the Amazing Audrey & Vera talk about finances and some of these challenges affecting women today.
So to recap the 4 Challenges are
1) Wage and Income Gap:
- The average woman working full-time earns 79% of the income earned by her male counterpart.1 This is because of many issues – lower likelihood to negotiate salaries, time out of the workforce, differences in pay.
- The wage gap not only impacts women’s 401K balances over their lifetime but it also impacts their social security payments. Predictably women’s social security benefits are 27% lower than that of their male counterparts.2
2) Investment Gap: Women don’t invest to the same degree as men. 3 Women’s discomfort with investing comes at a high cost for them: They are apt to delay investing, invest more in lower risk, lower return investments and are more likely to run out of money in retirement.
3) Women Are Living Longer and Living Alone: Women outlive men by an average of 5-6 years. 4 Are they prepared financially for these years?
4) Time Gap: On average, women in the U.S. spend 28 hours per week on household chores – 65 percent more than the average for men.5 That is uncompensated work and it does not figure into women’s financial planning. Prudential has created a tool called the “Value of all you do” that lets you very quickly quantify the value of all the household chores you do on a daily basis. What you would need to pay someone to do those for you.
- These challenges, combined with behavioral inhibitors, mean that many women are unprepared for their financial future. The key behaviors that are holding women back are lower engagement, procrastination, impulse control and an optimism bias.
- Prudential wants to help women educate themselves about these issues, so that they prepare and protect themselves. Prudential aims to empower women with financial solutions so they can be confident they are making the right decisions for themselves and their families.
One of the challenges that hit home the most was the fact that women are living longer and alone. We have 5 children with one on the way.
What would I do if God forbid something happened to my husband? I know he has life insurance but I’ve never taken the time to sit down and ask him where the paperwork is. How about all our investments? With 6 kids to take care of where would this all leave me? Not only that, what about my kid’s college? How much have we been putting aside for that? These are all things that women need to discuss with their husbands.
I realize that we turn to professionals to help us with all our needs why not sit down with your spouse and say let’s discuss money and turn to a professional to help us organize a game plan in case the unforeseen happens.
It’s important women begin having this talk. It’s important to be informed and not only be ready for the unexpected but truly be a partner with your husband when it comes to finances. We need to be aware of our finances because in the end finances are one of the most important things that can make or break us.
Ready to learn more? Get informed and see how you can begin having this talk? Head over to Prudential and learn more.
Most important, Get social with Prudential to stay up to date with the latest news,info and more.
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Facebook: @Prudential
Sources:
- Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Income Tables Table P-40: Women’s Earnings as a Percentage of Men’s Earnings by Race and Hispanic Origin, 2016
- Source: Social Security Administration, Fast Facts and Figures About Social Security, 2016
- Source: http://fortune.com/2016/05/11/sallie-krawcheck-ellevest-launch;
- Source: Prudential Retirement analysis reflecting defined contribution plan balances of Prudential record-kept plans as of December 31, 2015
- Source: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, October 2016, http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=54757
Comments & Reviews
Being informed is so important for both spouses. We try to sit down once a month just to discuss our finances so that we both know what is going on.
This was a very informative post to read . Women also need to know about the family finances.
I found this post very informative and it brought up things I haven’t really begun thinking about
I handle most of the finances since I’m the bread winner of the family, but I need to include my husband more and also look at investing so we have plans for later. :-/
Have to try and save more
Being on disability makes it hard to save money. I should have started much younger
I work outside the home, but because I’ve switched jobs, I’m not vested in any pension, and the state of my retirement plan concerns me.
Great info and advice! Recently because a SAHM, and still trying to put $ into retirement accounts with o lay my husband working!
My husband works 2 jobs now. He used to pay all the bills and I was in the dark. Now that he is so busy, I pay all the bills etc. it is less stressful since I have taken over but we are definitely not financially prepared. I would like to see both of us find time to sit down and discuss finanaces together. And hopefully come up with some ideas on ways we can save.
I am a WAHM, so I don’t have a employer-sponsored 401k to invest in anymore, but I luckily contributed to one for nearly a decade in my early 20s. It’s still growing!
My husband currently makes most of the money, but as an accountant by trade, I handle most of the finances.
I’m not a SAHM but will tell you another perspective. I built a very generous nest egg between college and and finally saying yes to his question. My parents split when I was young so I saw this second hand. Because of that I saved and invested like crazy and was baffled my hubs came into the marriage without having done the same. He joked about my nest egg being his “dowry” and such- and wound up without his name on that account. He still talks about it as funds we can dip into where I look at it as something in emergency, one of us gets laid off, or what have you and I manage finances in he house. He is happy to have me do so but stays abreast on what is happening (I keep him well in the loop and am fully aware that his comments were purely joking) including the funds that our ours (not just mine) that his name isn’t on directly.
I used to leave my husband do all the finances but after realizing we can be saving money in certain areas, I took over.
We both pay bills. But i am the one that keeps up with them
Thanks for sharing, as a sahm I allowed my husband to take care of all finances,now I’m in the dark ages when it comes to what needs to be done.
This is all awesome!! Honestly something I have never though about!! Scary but true!!!
Great advice. My husband and I both try to stay as informed as possible.
It is so important for both husband and wife to know what is going on with the finances. This is a great article. Thank you so much for sharing
This is all great to read and gives me something to think about!
I agree with you on knowing the finances of everything in case of our spouses are not in our life. I need to discuss this with my husband. He is about 10 years older than me. Which that say it all.
women don’t get the respect that we deserve. This was an amazing article
Wow, this was sobering to read! I needed to hear it though. I keep putting off getting into the nitty gritty with our finances and investments. This was the wake up call for me!
This is great advice.
This great advice.
Love the Free to Go Tula
I actually do the finances for our family. I always tell my husband that if I die first, he’s screwed. He’ll probably would end up living in a cardboard box.