Everybody works towards a smooth and comfortable retirement through saving money, paying taxes and monitoring personal investments. The everyday American expects to retire around the 65th year of life, however, the playing field may not be as even as once speculated among male and female retirees. Although both men and women face similar retirement-savings challenges and obstacles, the challenges we face are more frequent for our female counter-parts. To have a half decent level of income in retirement years, females, on average, who already are earning about a 1/4 less on the dollar than males need to save almost $30 more on every $100 saved just to keep up.
That’s the hard-to-swallow truth for retirees, brought to you by a report analyzing both genders by Financial Finesse. The gap that has grown over the years is by about 26%. A man’s retirement shortfall is over 212k while a woman’s is more than 268k. This is accounting for about 3/4 of pre-retirement income. This does not take into effect what retirement will actually cost. This is where the bleeding turns to bloodletting for women. Now taking this into consideration, Financial Finesse figures that to meet projected retirement expenses at age 65, the median 45-year old man needs an additional $270,000, while the woman is short over $522,000. A slashed Social Security program, a longer life expectancy, and lower account balances among retirees all pitch in to the gap that has become an incredibly large shortfall for the American retiree. Despite of all this, there is a silver lining for women. This report takes a closer look at the differences in genders. Based on Financial data compared from 2012 to 2014, women are narrowing the gender gap in most areas, while men are standing still.