Do You Fear Being the “Bag Lady?”

From the Chicago Sun Times:

“Fear of being a “bag lady” is the secret worry of every older woman. I’ve written and talked about this before, and the subject always gets a nod or a grimace of recognition.

No woman wants to be a burden on her children – or grow old alone, worry about money.

But the latest reports show we aren’t doing enough to deal with this fear…”

In a right-to-the-point piece which intends (and does) mean to hit women right between the eyes, article author and fellow Registered Investment

*Chicago Sun Times

Advisor Terry Savage lists the grim statistics for women facing retirement and the fact that with all of the bad stats, young women still focus on paying off debts and raising families.  In her article ” Prospects Bleak for Women Living Only on Social Security,” She lists 3 steps for women in their 30’s and 40’s to take now to avoid this catastrophe:

  1. Work with real numbers – basically get the truth about your situation
  2. Start saving something, even $50/month – the habit is the key and the number can be increased. I agree with the psychology – if people feel that they must save $600/mo or some large figure, they might be scared to start
  3. get disability/critical illness/long term care insurance – she’s right, this all goes kaput if you get sick or disabled!

She makes excellent points for taking action and if you’re one of the few who have taken action, she makes a great case to clip her article and tell another woman. With that said, I will do my part and pass her words along and just to be fair, tell the guys too ok? Even if their ego won’t allow them to listen to you just yet:)

Thanks for reading,

Chris Grande

PS I don’t normally do short, quoting articles on this site (I usually save those types of posts for ChrisGrande.com) but thought this was very prescient and fit well with my ongoing theme of retirement income planning and the behavior analysis of why many don’t take action. for more on this, see my recent article: If People Are Worried About Retirement Why Don’t They Take Action?

Chris Grande is principal of Walnut Hill Advisors, LLC, a financial planning and investment management firm in Medford, MA just outside Boston. For more information on Chris and WHA:

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