WOMEN AND INVESTING
(1996) Oppenheimer company reported that in its study, 66% of women versus 44% of men said that investing was too complicated. Quite a discrepancy unless you recognize that most men would never admit that they don't know anything about investing. (Ask them- how many stocks must you have in a portfolio in order to insulate it to unsystematic risk? If they can answer that, they probably know investing. Otherwise it is the testosterone and ego talking.)
Married or widowed women retiring in the next 20 years will have less than 1/3 the income to retire comfortably and single women will have only 1/4.
On the plus side, however, is the fact that there are a greater number of bachelor degrees awarded to women than to men. About 23% of current women age 25 to 34 have bachelor degrees versus 20% of men. The National Center for Education Statistics expects that women will earn 55% of all bachelor degrees in the next decade.
I have said it before- by the year 3000, women will rule most of the world
(assuming men don't destroy it by then).
WOMEN: (1997) Mentioned every so often is the fact that women can be good investors if they simply try. In fact, a 1995 NAIC (National Association of Investors Corporations) found that women only clubs outproduced men only investment clubs in 9 of the past 15 years.
Women however have traditionally avoided investments because of their fear of loss- though it's somewhat better due to the market's continued gain. A 1992 study by Employee Benefits Research Institute showed that 10.5 million or 60% of the 17.5 million women eligible for a 401(K) plan actually invested and a rate of $2,100 annually. 69% of the men contributed at a rate of $3,100.
In general however, 52% of 2,400 women surveyed by The National Center for Women and Retirement Research owned no stocks or stock funds at all. 86% said they put their money into passbook accounts and CD's. Worse yet, 54% said they were not likely to purchase a stock mutual fund in the next year.
A separate study of mutual fund owners by the Investment Company Institute showed that 24% of women shareholders are unwilling to take any risks with their money compared to just 11% of men. 40% of men said that they would take considerable risks to earn above average returns verus only 25% of the women. (Of course, most of the men wouldn't know an appropriate risk investment if it bit them.)
(1998) Women, investing and other stuff: (Oppenheimer funds) In a survey of 1,000 men and 1,000 women, 62 % of the women balanced checkbook; 58 % paid the bills. But when asked to make the investment decisions, only 15 % of the women said they alone had the sole responsibility. (What is missing here, however, was that they apparently did not asked men how many of those had the sole responsibility. I submit it was much more than 15 %, but by the same token, I believe that there may have been far more men and women together who made the decisions.) Anyway, 44 % of the women indicated that they balanced a budget themselves; only 23 % of the men did it. That said, a Merrill Lynch study indicated that only 57 % of the women felt they were knowledgeable about investing compared to 78 % of the men. However, as I have stated many times, saying your knowledgeable and being knowledgeable are two entirely different things. The same survey indicated that 46 % of the men agreed to some degree that they were not really sure our mutual fund worked. 61 % of the women made that statement, "but they weren't the ones claiming to be so smart."
Apparently Merrill Lynch, Vanguard, Smith Barney, Scudder and a host of other investment entities are setting out special sites and material specifically designed to get women to invest.
Unfortunately, the firms are so sorely lacking in basic investment criteria that if the information provided to men is so fundamentally flawed, and they effectively do the same thing to women, though in some "special" setting, it will be no greater a benefit. The bottom line is knowledge and knowing who you should you use. I absolutely recommend my article Who Can You Trust. Following that advice should help you avoid at least 75 % of all scams, high-risk, and poor investment philosophy- perhaps 95 %-and you won't go through a lot of unnecessary sales hoopla.
WOMEN: (United Nations 1998) To be born female is to be
born high risk in a world of genital mutilation, dowry killings and domestic violence, according to a United Nations report.
There should be 60 million more women in the world today but they have been killed or have died through violence directed at their gender
Along with the 60 million ``missing,'' UNICEF said millions more, in every country and from every class, live under the daily threat of physical abuse.
Violence against females was highlighted because it affects children around the world and delivers a broad picture on how countries develop.
The report suggests the scope of violence far exceeds earlier estimates, saying 25 to 50 percent of all women have suffered physical abuse at the hands of a partner.
WOMEN'S HEALTH: 1998 The National Council on Aging asked 1,000 women which disease they feared most. 61% said cancer- of that number, 24% was for breast cancer, 19% said Alzheimers, 7% said lung cancer but only 9% said heart attack- the major killer of women. One in two women will be killed by a heart attack, one in four by Alzheimers. Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer of women. Only one in twenty five women die of breast cancer.
WOMEN: (1999) A B of A survey indicated that 75% of women said retirement planning is a most important issue but 91% said they had little to moderate investment experience. But they absolutely need more education since they "control" a lot more of the financial marketplace than previously realized. Recent comments indicate that they buy 83% of all consumer goods and are involved in 95% of the financial decisions that experts previously thought were made by the husband alone.
Women have been led to believe they didn't have the skills or fortitude to do proper investing by a male dominated brokerage community. Two items are notable- one good, one bad. The bad is that the brokerage firms started offering "women only financial seminars" to generate the additional business. It worked, but a lot of the clients are still nothing more than paychecks since the women brokers are just as much of a twit and unknowlegeable as the men brokers. After all, no broker, through licensing training, has ever been required to know the fundamentals of investing. The good news is that women are actually very good at investing when they put their minds to it. In fact they beat men (women only versus men only investing clubs). They do better research and are not as impulsive as men in submitting buy orders.
DO WOMEN HAVE TIME TO INVEST?:
Work and "play" (Daily Register 1999)
| Men | Women | |
| Work hours per week | 50.5 | 40.6 |
| Time with children on workdays (per week) | 11.5 | 16 |
| Time with children on non workdays | 12.8 | 16.6 |
| Chores per week | 20.3 | 26.1 |
WOMEN: (1999) Women make 80%+ of the consumer spending decisions in the U.S.
Women have climbed from 3% of management and administrative positions in 1977 to between 35% and 45% today
By 2000, women will own 50% of all small businesses in the U.S.
40% of all medical students are women
WOMEN and MONEY: (2000) They still need to do more homework in regards to investing. (National Foundation for Women Business Owners): There were nearly 8 million women-owned enterprises as of 1996 (36% of all U.S. firms); these firms employ 18.5 million people (one out of every four company workers); women-owned firms generate close to $2.3 trillion in sales (up 236% from 1987 to 1996); women-owned businesses represent from 1/4 to 1/3 of businesses internationally.
Yet only 55% of women business owners currently invest in stocks or mutual funds compared to 67% of men business owners. The total value of the investments held by women business owners is lower than the total value of the investments of men business owners. Although 40% of both women and men business owners have less than $50,000 invested in stocks or mutual funds, 36% of men business owners have $100,000 or more invested, compared to only 17% of women business owners.
WOMEN INVESTORS: (Harris Interactive 2000) The survey revealed a 29-percentage point difference between male and female confidence in their investment ability. The study also found that 57% of women would rather delegate financial matters to an adviser than handle it themselves.
Women (Center for Women's Business Research 2001) The number of women-owned businesses continues to grow at twice the rate of all U.S. firms, and those businesses show significantly greater increases in employment and revenues. Between 1997 and 2002, the Center estimates that the number of majority-owned, privately-held women-owned firms will have grown by 14%, compared to 7% for all U.S. firms, and will stand at 6.2 million in 2002. Sales generated by women-owned firms increased by 40% nationwide during the period, nearing $1.15 trillion. These firms will employ nearly 9.2 million workers in 2002, up 30% from 1997, which reflects a growth rate that is one-and one-half times the national average.
Women and pension rights in a divorce (2002) Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement. Good oversight on retirement, widowhood and divorce
The 12 worst mistakes lawyers make in preparing pension orders are:
1. The lawyer doesn’t ask for the important information about the husband’s pension and retirement benefits soon enough.
Long before you sign a property settlement agreement or go to court, your lawyer should obtain the plan document (that is, the full set of rules) or the summary plan booklet for each pension plan. The attorney should also ask for the plan’s procedures for "domestic relations orders." Among other features, the plan may have certain options or restrictions about when the former spouse’s share can be paid to her under a domestic relations order. These sorts of details can make a difference in your negotiations with your husband.
Note: The rules for most government retirement plans (federal, state, and local) are usually found in publicly-available statutes and regulations rather than a "plan document." Your lawyer should be familiar with these laws.
2. The lawyer fails to prepare any pension order.
If you are entitled to a share of your ex-husband’s retirement benefits, it is important that your lawyer makes sure the court signs a pension order at the time of your divorce. Otherwise, years later, you may have to pay another lawyer to finish the job. In the worst case, if your ex-husband has died, retired, or remarried, you may lose some of the benefits you could have received if a pension order had been prepared beforehand.
3. The lawyer fails to obtain information about every retirement benefit of the husband’s that might be marital property.
These days, many employees are covered by more than one pension or retirement plan at the same time. For example, an employee in a large company may be covered by a pension plan, a "401(k)" savings plan, and an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). Benefits under all of these plans may be marital property, and your lawyer needs information about each of them. Also, your husband may still have benefits coming from previous jobs. If necessary, your lawyer should ask the court to issue a subpoena (an order to provide certain documents or information) to each employer or former employer asking for details about all retirement benefit plans.
4. The lawyer fails to obtain information about all the features of a particular pension plan.
Benefits under different pension and retirement plans vary widely, with some plans paying more than one type of benefit. For example, some plans provide cost of living increases to retirees. Others will pay specially-enhanced benefits to employees who agree to retire early, meaning that your husband’s benefit might suddenly increase when he reaches a certain age or number of years of service. If your pension order doesn’t specifically name each type of benefit, the plan administrator may not be obligated to pay you a share of them.
5. The lawyer fails to ask for a survivor benefit or doesn’t advise the wife that none is available.
Be sure to ask whether your former husband’s death will have any effect on your benefit. What if he dies before he starts collecting his own benefit? In many situations, a former spouse will share in her husband’s pension only as long as he is living, unless the court has also specifically awarded her a survivor pension. Also, some state and local government plans won’t pay survivor pensions to divorced spouses under any circumstances.
You need to know how your retirement income will be affected. If you learn that pension benefits won’t continue after your husband’s death, you may want to try to get him to buy a life insurance policy with you as beneficiary to protect your retirement income.
6. The lawyer fails to explain to the wife how retirement benefits are usually divided under state law.
State marital or community property laws usually specify how pension and retirement benefits are to be divided at divorce. How is your marital share figured? When can it be paid? Your lawyer should explain to you how these laws apply to your situation. If state law isn’t very helpful to divorcing women, could you negotiate something better? For example, even if state law says you have to wait to collect your pension share until your husband actually retires, you may be able to work out an agreement with your husband that will let you collect your benefits right away, if that would be more favorable to you.
7. The lawyer fails to explain to the wife what the former husband might do in the future that would reduce or eliminate her share of the benefits.
What if your ex-husband never applies for his own pension? What if he is injured on the job or disabled? What if he waives his rights to his pension? Would these or other acts affect your benefits? If so, what legal recourse would you have? Make sure that your property settlement agreement allows you some options if the worst happens. As an example, you may want to be able to ask the court to require your former husband to pay you alimony or other property if he interferes with your right to the pension benefits.
8. The lawyer fails to explain what effect your remarriage may have on your benefits.
Some federal, state, and local government employee benefits will stop if the former wife remarries. For example, both federal civil service and military survivor pensions terminate if the former spouse remarries prior to age 55. Also, any pension benefits that have been awarded to you as alimony or spousal support, rather than marital property, will likely terminate upon your remarriage since alimony and support payments are usually cut off when the former spouse remarries.
9. The lawyer is unaware of unusual requirements or loopholes in the law that could result in the pension order being rejected by the plan administrator.
Some pension and retirement plans are not required to accept any court order transferring benefits to a former spouse. These include many benefit plans for highly-paid company executives as well as certain "deferred compensation" plans for state and local government employees. Likewise, federal government retirement systems have many unexpected requirements for paying pensions to former spouses.
For example, the government won’t pay you a share of military retirement benefits awarded as marital property unless you were married for at least ten years of your husband’s military service. Also, a federal civil service survivor pension is usually not available if the pension order is signed by the court after the divorce is final and the employee has retired.
10. The lawyer fails to have the proposed pension order pre-approved by the plan in advance of being sent to court.
You can not get your pension money until the plan administrator has officially accepted the pension order signed by the court. But if the order does not follow the rules of the plan, it will likely be rejected and your lawyer will have to go back to court to get an amended order that the plan will accept. You can avoid unnecessary delay and legal fees if your lawyer will ask the plan administrator to tell you in advance whether the proposed order will be acceptable.
Most company pension plan administrators as well as many state and local plan officials will informally review a proposed pension order before it has been signed by the divorcing couple or the judge. Federal government plans, unfortunately, usually will not review pension orders in advance.
11. The lawyer fails to follow up after the divorce to make sure that the final pension order is sent to the plan and officially accepted by the plan administrator.
Your pension order should be signed by the judge at the time of your divorce, or as soon as possible afterward. Then your lawyer should mail a copy of the final order to the pension plan administrator – but that’s not the end of it. Sometimes a pension plan will lose a pension order or just let pension orders pile up for months without looking at them. It is very important to follow up to make sure that the plan receives your pension order and notifies you or your lawyers promptly in writing that the order has been accepted, even if you were not expecting to receive your benefits until years later.
12. The lawyer fails to explain to the wife her right to Social Security benefits.
Social Security benefits are usually not treated as marital property by state divorce courts, but if you were married at least ten years, then you may be automatically eligible under federal law for Social Security benefits as a divorced spouse. For this reason, it might be a good idea for your lawyer to ask your husband to provide you with a benefit estimate that he can get from the Social Security Administration.
Women Pension plans: ("The Gender Gap In Pension Coverage: What Does The Future Hold?," IWPR (May 2002) The Institute for Women's Policy Research documents pension coverage among male and female employees and examines voluntary and involuntary reasons why women and men do not participate in pension plans. The good news is that women are participating in pension plans in greater numbers, and, for women working full-time, near equality with men has been achieved. Part-time workers (who are disproportionately women), however, remain much less likely to participate in employer-sponsored pension plans. Less than a third of part-time workers participate in a pension plan. The largest difference in participation between female and male employees occurs for older workers (aged 45-64), with 35 percent of women saying they work too few hours to participate in their company's plan compared with 20 percent of men. Overall, older female employees are less likely to expect to have a pension in retirement from any source than are older male workers; 36 percent of male employees lack a pension from any employer compared with 44 percent of female employees.
Divorce: (2002) The average woman experiences a 27% decrease in her standard of living following a divorce while a man has a 10% increase.
Women: According to the American Heart Association, one in two women will eventually die of heart disease or stroke, compared with one in 27 who will eventually die of breast cancer. The fact is, cardiovascular disease is the leading killer of women.
Women and stress: (2004)A study of more than 3,000 adults ages 18 to 77 found that over 10 years, women in demanding jobs with high levels of autonomy or authority had an increased risk of developing heart disease – three times as likely as women with high job demands and little autonomy, in fact. The same was not true of men
Women and time: A 2004 study by Starcom MediaVest says that women indicate that their total time spent on individual activities in one day added up to 38 hours of activity inside a 24-hour day. One-quarter of the women surveyed are actually spending more time with their family than they were a year ago, though a third are working more hours now. Working women spend an average of 40 minutes online during the day for non-work activities..A new study by Starcom MediaVest says that women indicate that their total time spent on individual activities in one day added up to 38 hours of activity inside a 24-hour day. One-quarter of the women surveyed are actually spending more time with their family than they were a year ago, though a third are working more hours now. Working women spend an average of 40 minutes online during the day for non-work activities..
Women: (2004) They hold 13.6% of board seats at Fortune 500 companies. The number of seats held by women of color has increased from 2.5% in 1999 to 3% in 2003. Of the Fortune 500, 54 companies have 25% or more women directors in 2003.
Women comprise 46.6% of the U.S. labor force, 50% of managerial and professional specialty positions.
"The Financial Experience and Behaviors Among Women." (Prudential Financial 2004) One finding is that women want financial guidance from professional advisors.