EP50- Female Financial Independence Series: What are the current challenges women face in the financial world?

Women are facing a lot of challenges in the financial world in the present day. One of which is the pension gap. According to statistics, 54% of men are investing compared to 46% of women. Although this is considered an increase in figures over the years, this still shows the gap. 

Another challenge women face resulting in a pension gap is that women are paid less. This obviously represents the wealth gap in the society. This may be because of the paradigm shift in the society that needs to take place but hasn’t yet. This is also about the confidence issue with a lot of women questioning what they deserve.

Employment gap comes into play for most women as they often take part time jobs or lower paid careers choices especially when they have children. Therefore, women only are able to contribute to pension plans as much as they can spare from the money they make  which is spent mostly on the needs of the kids. 

According to studies, 10 people of age 90 and over are women which means women live longer. As a result, women get more chances to inherit wealth from their spouses and families. And the challenge we face is that we tend to spend the money on our children for lifestyle choices and not looking after our futures.

Facing these challenges is the key to addressing these. What we can do is sit with our partner/spouse and come up with financial decisions together. Assess what the income is and look at the outgoings including the lifestyle choices we make and decide how to divide the finances up. What matters is to take those conversations seriously, especially about pensions.

Issues may not be showing up and given attention to in the early stages but this will surely come to the surface at a later time when all you can do is look back and regret you didn’t do something about it as early as possible. Remember to come up with decisions that you can do right now that your future self will thank you for. Start to make some of those clear shifts, even if it’s starting small.

If you want to have more information around wealth creation, grab a copy of my book called 10 ways to accelerate wealth. A chapter in the end tackles client avatars and stages of life and an important chapter about budgeting and money management. This will definitely guide you through accelerating and managing your finances.

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