This post is a guest post by my lovely blogger friend over at Trouble Doubled
An article in The Daily Express recently has really got my goat. In it the author (female in case you were wondering) talks about how women are so stupid that they can’t sort out their own pensions and other financial matters, and that we should stop spending less on things like shoes. Apparently we are erroneously relying too much on our husbands to provide for our long term financial stability. I don’t think things are so black and white as the author is blatantly stating suggesting. Some of it is just plain incorrect.
Firstly, I take offense with her statement that 48% of all people declared bankrupt are women. Wow, that’s a high figure! Or is it? Thinking about it in actual proper numbers, 51% of the general population are female. This means that for 49% of all males in society, a disproportionate amount of bankrupts are male (52%). So bankrupts are almost 50% male and 50% female, just like in the general
population anyway. I might have a ‘pretty little head’ but this pretty little head has an understanding of statistics, and can count.
Her statements on lack of pension provision are probably correct. It’s true that women are less likely to have a decent pension pot than
their husbands, or other men of similar status. There are numerous reasons for this other than that we are too busy spending our money on shoes. Women have lower pension pots because they take time out to raise children so are likely to have worked for less time, and are more likely to have switched jobs. Women are likely to be paid less because of having to do more menial jobs which fit in around the family, or because of blatant discrimination by firms who use womens’ family responsibilities as an excuse to pay them less than their male counterparts. They are also less likely to be in ‘jobs for life’ with a nice pension attached.
Yes, I know that my generalisations don’t apply to every woman. I know plenty of women who are the main breadwinner in their family and are in very good jobs and, I hope, with a decent pension. But these women are outnumbered by many more who are completely economically reliant on their other halves.
But being economically dependent right now does not mean we women don’t know how to provide for the future. I for one, do not spend all my money on shoes. But nor do I have a personal pension. Right now, my priority is to provide for my young family, not to look at something that I won’t benefit from for another 30 years. All our spare money (hahahahaaha) is going on things we need for the children, like clothes. Rising prices of food and energy is pretty much putting the dampeners on putting any money aside for the future. I don’t expect this situation to last forever, but right now, a pension is a luxury.
I have however, made sure that my husband’s company pension has a proviso for me. If he dies before me, I will get either a lump sum
which I can invest how I want, or a pension that at least won’t see me or the kids destitute. But these company pensions are closing at a
rate of several a day and it is a lucky worker that has a good company pension these days. Do you know what type of pension your working other-half has? Is there provision made in it for the non-working half?
I see my husband’s pension as mine too. I check all his paperwork to make sure that it will provide for both of us, and look at the
statements to see how it is doing. I look over all our financial affairs, as does he. We do it together in fact because we both have a
stake in the money that he earns in his name. We keep no secrets from each other – financially anyway (he still doesn’t know about this
blog). I don’t see why you would marry someone and not share everything, but that’s just me.
I think the main problem for us women is not that we are spending it all on shoes, or that we are too thick to understand the issues, but
that we are too skint, and too busy to do anything about it. Do you agree?
Why do you think it is that women are less likely to have enough money for a comfortable retirement? Are you worried about your future, financially speaking? Are you spending too much on shoes instead of saving your money?