Some women in crises

New figures show that men have almost three times the amount of retirement savings, with women trailing far behind.

According to various reports the average man has a pension pot worth £73,600, compared to the average for women of just £24,900. More recent reforms including auto enrolment have encouraged more people to save in a pension by putting them in control of their money, with the average pot increasing from £29,000 to £50,000.

Many women are failing to really engage with their pensions, with a third having little idea how much they have actually saved.

The gender pay difference, which currently stands at around 14%, means that men are putting more away anyway by default.

There are many other reasons for this pension lag – traditional and ongoing practical reasons such as, women less able to save because of being mum, maternity leave, part-time working, as they manage their career and children.

…and I’m not even going to begin talking about love and the flow….!! – you know what I mean….

Increases in the stock markets over the last year have pushed up the value of both men and women pension pots, but many will fall short of a pension pot sufficient for retirement because of low interest and annuity rates. Although no one knows what these rates will be in the future at time of an individual’s retirement. We have seen a big increase in recent transfer values for final salary schemes, but this can change again. So nothing is certain in a way, except the bigger the pot the better.

People need to start saving as much as they can as early as they can and not opt out of any workplace pension scheme.

Pensions should be reviewed regularly and this is not just about how much one puts away monthly (or as a single premium) but how the funds are performing against expectations and inflation.

Another area affecting men and women alike are those who are self-employed. Self-employed often rely on their business to generate retirement income or a final sale of the business to retire on. But this can be a risky approach since nothing is guaranteed.

Interestingly a growing percentage of females are looking towards property acquisition as a means of ultimate asset pots rather than savings.

Government figures show that one million single pensioners and another 330,000 pension couples are getting by on just the state pension and this amount is not a lot.

One thing is for sure, we get older every day and the indestructible thoughts (assuming we had any :)) of our twenties can be very off looking back 20 or 30 years later…..

So, if you do by chance want or need any pension advice click here