Retirement Tool

Because women are more likely than men to interrupt their careers to start a family and to take care of aging family members, they are often more likely to work in part-time jobs. As a result, these part-time jobs don’t qualify for a retirement plan. Thus many women work fewer years and contribute less towards their employer sponsored retirement plans such as 401K.

Regardless the working status, women need to plan ahead. Even if you’re a stay-at-home mom, you can contribute to an IRA. The limit now is $5,000 a year. If you work full time and qualify, join a retirement plan now. The earlier you start, the less you will have to contribute. Waiting until children are off college or your 50s is not a good plan in retirement planning.

For most people, retirement seems so far ahead. Every few women start thinking about their retirement planning until children are out of the house. Mostly in their late 40s and 50s. But keep one thing in mind, the earlier you start, the easier it is. It’s a simple number game. The longer you save and invest, the less you have save every month. Because you have all the years for growth and compounding.

Retirement planning should start early and continue throughout your lifetime. Here are four reasons why saving matters to women – and especially to you!

• Women are more likely to work in part-time jobs that don’t qualify for a retirement plan. And working women are more likely than men to interrupt their careers to take care of family members. Therefore, they work fewer years and contribute less toward their retirement, resulting in lower lifetime savings.
• Of the 62 million wage and salaried women (age 21 to 64) working in the United States, just 45 percent participated in a retirement plan. Remember, even small amounts can earn interest and add up over time.
• On average, a female retiring at age 65 can expect to live another 19 years, 3 years longer than a man retiring at the same age. Savings can increase a woman’s chances of having enough money to last during her retirement.
• By and large, women invest more conservatively than men. Choose carefully where you put your money and learn how to make your investments grow.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor

If you are caring for an elderly or disabled relative who needs help managing their monthly Social Security or SSI benefits, you can apply to be representative payee. Social Security will conduct a careful investigation to determine if you meet the requirements.

You can use the person’s benefits on his or her behalf. Therefore, you must know what your relative’s needs are so you can decide how benefits can best be used for his or her personal care and well-being. First, you must make sure that food and shelter are provided. Then, you can use the money to pay medical and dental bills not covered by health insurance and for personal needs and recreation.

Source: SSA Publication No. 05-10127

Every women should always have an IRA or Roth IRA, even if they are a stay-at-home mom. If a divorce was to happen to a women, her separate retirement fund would still be intact and will come in handy when she reaches the age of 65.

She should invest in mostly stocks when she is younger and slowly put it in more conservative things as she grows older such as bonds. If a women has children she should put more money in a retirement fund such as an IRA than a college savings account until the IRA is fully funded. College can be funded with things like scholarships and student loans, but retirement must come from a woman’s own pocket.

If the workplace has a retirement fund that can be matched, this is not to be passed up. The match is essentially free money that the company is giving her. Fund the retirement fund up until the match, then place the rest of money that is going towards retirement into an after-tax fund.

By Rocco Beatrice

By Ricky Devel

This type of plan, also known as the traditional pension plan, promises the participant a specified monthly benefit at retirement. Often, the benefit is based on factors such as your salary, your age, and the number of years you worked for the employer.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor

A type of defined benefit plan that includes some elements that are similar to a defined contribution plan because the benefit amount is computed based on a formula using contribution and earning credits, and each participant has a hypothetical account. Cash balance plans are more likely than traditional defined benefit plans to make lump sum distributions.

In this type of defined contribution plan, the employee can make contributions from his or her paycheck before taxes are taken out. The contributions go into a 401(k) account, with the employee often choosing the investments based on options provided under the plan. In some plans, the employer also makes contributions, matching the employee’s contributions up to a certain percentage. SIMPLE and Safe Harbor 401(k) plans have additional employer contribution and vesting requirements.

Source: Department of Labor

The first step to understanding your retirement benefits is to find out what kind of retirement plan your employer has. There are two major types of plans, defined benefit and defined contribution. Keep in mind that your employer may have more than one type of plan, and may have different participation requirements for each.

A defined benefit plan, funded by the employer, promises you a specific monthly benefit at retirement. The plan may state this promised benefit as an exact dollar amount, such as $100 per month at retirement. Or, more often, it may calculate your benefit through a formula that includes factors such as your salary, your age, and the number of years you worked at the company. For example, your pension benefit might be equal to 1 percent of your average salary for the last 5 years of employment times your total years of service.

A defined contribution plan, on the other hand, does not promise you a specific benefit amount at retirement. Instead, you and/or your employer contribute money to your individual account in the plan. In many cases, you are responsible for choosing how these contributions are invested, and deciding how much to contribute from your paycheck through pretax deductions. Your employer may add to your account, in some cases by matching a certain percentage of your contributions. The value of your account depends on how much is contributed and how well the investments perform. At retirement, you receive the balance in your account, reflecting the contributions, investment gains or losses, and any fees charged against your account. The 401(k) plan is a popular type of defined contribution plan, and there are three types of 401(k) plans: traditional, SIMPLE 401(k), and Safe Harbor 401(k) plans. The SIMPLE-IRA plan, SEP, employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), and profit-sharing plan are other examples of defined contribution plans.

Note

1. Employers can choose whether to offer a retirement plan to employees; Federal law does not require employers to offer or to continue to offer a plan.
2. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) guarantees payment of certain retirement benefits for participants in most private defined benefit plans if the plan is terminated without enough money to pay all of the promised benefits. The government does not guarantee benefit payments for defined contribution plans.
3. Some hybrid plans – such as cash balance plans – contain features of both types of plans described above. See the Glossary for information on this type of plan.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor