Women, preparing for the future.

I have a tendency to leave the financial side of the house hold to my husband, I suspect that this might be more because these days he has his finger on the plus more than I but more and more of us women are becoming the main household income earners. We are starting to have a good twenty years of life left after we retire and this is steadily increasing. Despite earning more we also live longer, on average a good 7 years longer, and yet we have less to live on. Even if you aren’t the main incomer earner in the family you still need to prepare. And yet we don’t have life insurance for this possibility! It’s worth reading Legal and General’s article and insuring you have life insurance for women in place in case of a worst case scenario.

So what else can you do about it?

Save

Even if it’s only a small amount at first get in to the habit of putting aside a little for your retirement. And make sure you don’t dip in to it either. Maybe open an account or savings up with a different bank account so you don’t see it when you log on to your day to day banking. Plan alongside it as well. You have more chance of succeeding if you plan that in a year you’ll have saved £100 rather than a general thought of I must put aside a little each month.

Knowledge!

Financially that is. The more you know about savings and investments the better suited you are to find one that works for you and will carry on working for you as you get older.  You can talk to an adviser for free if you are a newbie in this area.

Its not too late!

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that because you don’t work or you think you’re too old! Yes starting early does help but you can still get ahead of others. Plan to go back to work or work longer, cutting spending where its not needed and even look into sharing living arrangements as you get older.

Freebies!

Financial ones. Does your company offer a pension plan? Sign up to it, you might not have the money spare to invest in it yourself at the moment but why should that stop the company investing for you? Tax laws – check out exactly you could save if you joined in a pension scheme. If you’re on the edge salary wise this might just bring you below the higher tax income.

Achieving financial independence or success is something we all dream of and many think we cant achieve. But wise up on your finances and remember a little can go a long way!