Considering later life care is an important component for anyone planning their retirement, but it holds particular significance for women. Women generally have longer average lifespans than men, increasing the likelihood of needing some prolonged form of care or assistance later in life. Anyone wanting to maintain their independence and choice throughout their retirement will want to include planning for this eventuality.
It’s also the case that women’s retirement savings may be lower than their male counterparts due to various life and career patterns. Understanding this shortfall, and building a strategy to manage it becomes a vital part of ensuring financial well-being and peace of mind throughout the entirety of retirement.
How the Pension Gap Affects Women
Understanding the financial landscape for retirement planning requires that we recognise the persistent gender pension gap. As of 2024, analysis suggested this gap was around 35%, indicating substantially smaller average pension pots for women compared to men at retirement.
This disparity is even more severe than the gender pay gap, which the Office for National Statistics reported as 13.1% for all employees in April 2024. The fact that the pension gap is more than double the pay gap highlights how crucial specific retirement planning is for women, accounting for lifetime earning patterns and potential interruptions to saving.
This inequality between men and women has many contributing factors, including:
- Women take breaks from the workplace to have children
- Many women work in low pay jobs
- Fewer women than men (historically) are automatically enrolled into a pension scheme
Planning for a Longer Future – Essential Retirement Guidance for Women (Age 40+)
If you’re a woman in your 40s or 50s, statistical realities – longer lifespans potentially requiring more years of funding, often coupled with the impacts of pay and pension gaps – mean that standard retirement planning may not be enough.
Securing the post-work future you want needs you to get proactive in your approach, starting now. It’s the ideal time; planning in your peak earning years can make a huge difference to your retirement.
Harpur Wealth Management partners with you throughout your retirement planning journey.
- We start by helping you clarify your goals – What income will you need to live comfortably, pursue interests, and ensure that you have the resources for later-life care (if needed)? We calculate this based on today’s costs and factor in inflation.
- Secondly, we help you assess your trajectory – By which we mean that we work out whether or not you’re currently on track to meet those goals.
- Thirdly, we offer guidance on effective action – We help you to work through the best options to increase your savings, such as optimising pension contributions, consolidating old pensions for potentially better oversight and growth, reviewing investment risk levels, or structuring savings within tax-efficient wrappers like ISAs.
A Long-Term Professional Relationship
At Harpur Wealth Management we provide tailored advice and planning for each individual client. We are acutely aware that women will have different work histories to those of men and may have different familial responsibilities as they get older. We promise to listen carefully to the information you give us, and provide accurate advice tailored to your situation.
Are you new to wealth management? Book a free consultation with a Harpur Wealth management advisor today. Simply call us on 01234 924620 or contact us online.
Disclaimer
This article is for information only and must not be considered as financial advice. We always recommend that you seek independent financial advice before making any financial decisions.
The value of your investment can go down as well as up and you may get back less than the amount invested.
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