Women tend to pay less attention to their retirement planning once children come along. Many mothers choose to stay at home while the children are young. Some reenter the workforce once the kids are in school and others don’t go back to work. Some women had started 401K at work prior to staying at home, but stopped completely contributing or saving for their own retirement.
The cost of stay at home runs very high and can dramatically lower the retirement savings. However, you don’t have to choose to ignore it even if you’re staying at home. You can open an IRA and keep contributing on your own. The continuation of saving for your retirement is far more important than putting away large sum to catch up once the children are in college or after you finish paying for colleges. The earlier you start the better. Even if you put away $3,000 a year, after 20 to 25 years, the nest egg will grow.
Many women think that they should fund the children’s education before funding their own retirement, you can do both. Just split the savings into equal amount each month.