For Women
Women face unique financial challenges, which is why it’s important that we, as financial planners, take those challenges into account: earning less money than their male counterparts, taking time off to care for children and/or aging parents, etc. At the same time, women tend to live longer than men and they often end up paying more in healthcare and assisted living costs. All these factors can throw a wrench into your ability to reach your financial goals, but at Envision, our job is to work with you so you don’t have to sacrifice your financial stability.
Married Women
Even if you’ve been earning your own money while married, marriage means combining every aspect of your lives together – including money. That means your financial future is largely dependent on your husband’s financial future, which requires developing a financial plan that includes both of you.
That’s why, when working with clients who are married, our financial life advisors work with both spouses to determine each of their financial assets and goals. We consider things like whether the primary breadwinner has a life insurance plan, a retirement fund/and or pension plan, and if so, whether their spouse is included in those plans. Because women are more likely to outlive their husbands, it’s best to lay out a financial plan that details how the wife will be provided for in the event of her husband’s death.
Widows often find themselves in a sticky situation, especially if their husband was always the one to handle the finances. If he dies suddenly, she may not even know how much money she has, much less how best to manage it if she’s never had her own finances to manage. A certified financial planner can help her save money by showing her how to avoid making costly mistakes.
Single Women
Whether you’re divorced, widowed, or never married, you need your own approach to financial planning as a single woman. At Envision, we start by considering all your assets: earned income, inheritance, spousal support if you’re divorced and were not the primary breadwinner in the marriage, or life insurance and/or pension plan if you’ve been widowed. These can all be used to estimate how much you can expect to receive in retirement, including Social Security.
Since exiting the workforce for a significant amount of time lowers the amount of Social Security you can expect to claim, women are more likely to be financially vulnerable in retirement. Regardless of your marital or employment status, our job is to help you attain a state of financial independence that allows you to retire securely.
Then we look at your expenses, including child care if you have any children. That allows us to determine how much you’ll need in retirement. Once we know where you are and where you need to be, we can formulate a plan to help you get to a state of financial stability.