Financial Hardship and Older Women

Financial hardship impacts many women who are trying to age abundantly! I am one of them. Researching this topic, I ran across an article in the New York Times entitled Why Older Women Face Greater Financial Hardship Than Older Men. What I read in the article did not surprise me, but the statistics are mind-boggling. And sad. Very sad.

According to this article, an AARP Survey showed that  25% of women over 65 consider an unexpected $1,000 expense “a major setback”. That’s how close to the edge so many of us live. Further, “Economists attribute much of the retirement gender gap to “the motherhood penalty”. Women who raise children have fewer and lower-paid years in the work force than men or childless women.” In addition, this loss is never recovered.

OUR CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE

Like the women described in this article, I chose to stay at home with my children and did not pursue the career I was trained for. When I did go back to work, it was part time, flexible work that would enable me to be available to my children. In their teen years my husband and I started a home-based business, again so that we could be flexible with our time. My son had learning disabilities that made public school a challenge. I opted to homeschool him through middle school and then half days in a private school and half in public school through high school meant a whole lot of shuffling.

We made it work. I had one additional setback to my social security income that led to my current financial hardship and that is that during the a significant portion of the early years of our business I did not receive social security credit. It all went to my husband. An astute accountant brought the situation to my attention and it was rectified.  In the process, however, I lost a decade of social security credit.

UNEXPECTED EVENTS

My husband took early retirement due to health issues. He had planned to work until he was 70. I am his care provider now, and as a now part time writer, I can’t begin to make up the difference. So, like many we face our financial future with great uncertainty.

Women face financial hardship during retirement years, because they very often choose to provide care to those in need. We care for our children, our parents as they age, our spouses when they become ill. We put the health and well-being of those we love and more as a priority in our lives.  This priority is not valued our culture and it is not rewarded in the marketplace.

I remember when I told my father I was going to enter a three year master’s program. He was elated. A product of the depression, he believed that the more education the bigger the paycheck. I tried to tell him that this was not true of the career path I was choosing. Endeavors that are for the betterment of humanity are not typically high paying jobs, regardless of the amount of education.  Careers in education, nursing, social work, ministry, the arts, publishing and working for non-profits provide only a modest income.

HOW DO WE COPE with financial hardship?

All this being said, the more pressing question remains. How do we cope with the hand that was dealt us? We made choices with our heart and soul. The world many not care about our choices, but we have to find our way through the results and the unintended consequences.

So far, what I’ve discovered, is that like in other areas of life, women are very resourceful! Women are finding pathways forward. Some, who are able and have time, continue to do part-time work to supplement their social security. Others have small businesses, such as selling crafts on Etsy. Many are downsizing although the economy isn’t kind to us there either.

LET’S TALK TUESDAY!

I’m throwing this topic out today on #Let’sTalkTuesday because I know that I am not alone, and we need to talk about this. I believe women who struggle financially at this point in their lives often feel “less than”, feel like somehow they’ve failed. That’s the worst burden of all. The fact is we have done quite the opposite. We have filled a void that needs to be filled. It is our culture and society that has failed. We should be proud of the heartfelt choices we made and the value driven lives we’ve lived. Then figure out how to continue to support those values and ourselves into the future.

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LET’S TALK TUESDAY: Expectations