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Retirement Guide for Women

Everything You Need To Know To Retire

Build Confidence in Your Retirement

While the details behind the “perfect retirement” might differ from woman to woman, they tend to be centered on one core idea – having the time, freedom and resources to live your life as you choose. But achieving that dream often involves a lot of sleepless nights – especially for women, who often have to do more with less when it comes to saving for retirement.

That said, there’s no reason you can’t retire the way you want – you just need to plan ahead.

The key is understanding where you are now, where you want to go and what obstacles you might encounter along the way. This guide can teach you everything you need to know about saving for retirement – from building up your current assets, exploring possibilities to generate retirement income, minimizing liabilities in retirement and understanding the role of expenses in retirement.

Let’s get started on your journey so you can retire – with confidence – on your terms.

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Baird's Retirement Guide for Women:

NEXT: How We Got Here >>

Explore the Rest of the Guide:
Build Confidence in Retirement
How We Got Here >>
Understanding Your Wealth: Assets >>
Understanding Your Wealth: Income >>
Understanding Your Wealth: Liabilities >>
Understanding Your Wealth: Expenses >>
Where We Go from Here >>

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Retirement Guide for Women: Sources Cited

Sources:

¹ National Committee on Pay Equity. The Wage Gap Over Time: In Real Dollars, Women See a Continuing Gap. Available at: https://www.pay-equity.org/info-time.html.

² Dziubinski, S. March 3, 2021. Morningstar Special Report: Women and Investing. Available at: https://www.morningstar.com/articles/967963/special-report-womenand-investing.

³ United States Census Bureau. National Single Parent Day: March 21, 2022. Available at: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/stories/single-parent-day.html.

⁴ Ward, J. Retirement Savings Gender Gap: What You Need to Know. April 8, 2022. Available at: https://www.troweprice.com/personal-investing/resources/insights/closing-the-women-s-savings-gap.html.

⁵ Center for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Vital Statistics Rapid Release: Provisional Life Expectancy Estimates for January through June, 2020. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/VSRR10-508.pdf.

⁶ Pew Research Center. A Profile of Single Americans. Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/08/20/a-profile-of-single-americans/.

⁷ American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance. Long-Term Care – Important Information For Women. Available at: https://www.aaltci.org/long-term-care-insurance/learning-center/for-women.php.

⁸ Alzheimers.net. Why Is Alzheimer’s More Likely in Women? Available at: https://www.alzheimers.net/8-12-15-why-is-alzheimers-more-likely-in-women.

⁹ Gott, M., et al. October 25, 2020. Gender and Palliative Care: A Call to Arms. Palliative Care and Social Practice. 14: 1–15.

¹⁰ AARP Public Policy Institute. Fact Sheet: Women and Long-Term Care. Available at: https://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/il/fs77r_ltc.pdf.

¹¹ Golden, J., et al. Social Support Network Structure in Older People: Underlying Dimensions and Association With Psychological and Physical Health. Psychology, Health & Medicine. May 2009;14(3):280–290. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19444706/.

¹² United States Census Bureau. American Community Survey, Disability Characteristics. Table S1810. Available at: https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=disability&tid=ACSST1Y2019.S1810.

¹³New York Life. Small Business Owner Parents Are More Optimistic About Their Children’s Future Than All Parents. January 24, 2018.

¹⁴ Penn Wharton Budget Model. The Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Social Security’s Finances. May 28, 2020. Available at: https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2020/5/28/social-security-finances-coronavirus.

¹⁵ Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The Real Story on Social Security Deficits. November 8, 2016. Available at: https://www.crfb.org/blogs/real-story-social-security-deficits.

¹⁶ Social Security Administration. Update. January 2022. Publication No. 05-10003. Available at: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10003.pdf.

¹⁷ SoFi. Typical Retirement Expenses to Prepare For. May 6, 2022. Available at: https://www.sofi.com/learn/content/typical-retirement-expenses/.

¹⁸ De Nardi, M., et al. Medical Spending of the U.S. Elderly. June 2015. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 21270. Available at: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w21270/w21270.pdf.

¹⁹ Barendregt, J.K., et al. The Health Care Costs of Smoking. New England Journal of Medicine. 1997; 337: 1052–1057. Available at: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm199710093371506.

²⁰ Bolnick, H.J., et al. Health-Care Spending Attributable to Modifiable Risk Factors in the USA: An Economic Attribution Analysis. Lancet. 2020 (October 1); 5(10), E525– E535. Available at: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(20)30203-6/fulltext.

²¹ TIAA. Income Insights: Gender Retirement Gap, May 2017.

²² Rappaport, A. Shocks and the Unexpected: An Important Factor in Retirement. 2017. Society of Actuaries Committee on Post-Retirement Needs and Risks. Available at: https://www.soa.org/globalassets/assets/Files/resources/research-report/2017/shocks-inexpected-factor-retirement.pdf.

²³ United States Census Bureau. National Population by Characteristics: 2010–2019. Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Selected Age Groups by Sex: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2019. Available at: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2010s-national-detail.html.