Women and Wealth:
What You Need to Know
Saturday November 4, 2017, The Grand Long Beach
Money matters, and for women, we are at even greater risk if
1) we don’t have stable finances,
2) we are not confident in our financial literacy, and 3) we don’t have our finances in order. Research shows that 90% of women will be solely responsible for their own or their family’s finances at some point in their lives due to the death of a spouse, divorce, ailing parents or other reason; yet women across the board report lower levels of financial knowledge and confidence than men.
To compound the matter even more, women have a longer life expectancy. Since women live longer, we also tend to face higher medical costs in retirement. Today, women are twice as likely as men to live below the poverty line during retirement, with single and women of color
struggling the most.
Since the 2000s, the majority of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, especially women. With a gender pay gap, women are not only short changed in their take‐home pay, but the negative long term effects impact social security benefits, retirement savings, and ability to build credit and reduce debt, especially student loans. A 2015 poll by Fidelity Investments indicated that only 47% of women feel confident talking about money and investments with a financial professional and 80% reported refraining at some point in their lives from talking about their finances to people they are close with.4 With an uncertain future and national landscape becoming more slanted against women, now is the time to end our paralysis and take the next step in building and securing our future.
Our November program features AAUW member and financial advisor Lynn Shrum. Currently Lynn is the Second Vice President, Financial Advisor with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Wealth Management. She has provided financial strategy seminars for women for 34 years. Lynn’s extensive expertise in financial management, along with her passion for empowering women and girls to succeed in the financial arena is guaranteed to provide an insightful program where everyone will walk away with new knowledge, and strategies for the first or next step in our financial planning journey.