Least I sound too naive or "goody-two-shoes" (a phrase I use and have no idea what it means) in yesterday's post, I wanted to write today about why my fiftieth year was such a break-through year for me. I had a wonderful birthday yesterday with good friends, good memories, feeling upbeat about the future. This morning I woke up thinking about my parents. Both have past on, dying way too early from worry and illnesses that shouldn't have taken them. My father went first. Truly, he drank himself to death after the company that he worked for many years as a salesman fired him right before he was eligible for retirement. He was one of their best salesman and became a regional manager of an area that included north Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Their children were born in Denver, Co. because a job he had took my parents to Denver, then to Kansas City for another job, then to Dallas-Fort Worth as a regional manager. I can remember wondering if I would ride a horse to school when we moved to Texas. Right before we moved, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas and I begged my parents not to move to a place that would kill the president. The price he ultimately paid for the regional manager job, which demanded a lot of traveling, was a family that viewed him as a stranger. I later hardly knew him except as that guy who live with us every other weekend. After his dismissal from the regional manager's position, he couldn't find comparable work because of his age he said. His final job was one as a night security guard.
My mother was my hero. She was very funny and insightful; for years after her death, I would sometimes catch myself reaching for the phone to share some funny political story or thought she would appreciate. She was one of the smartest women I have ever known; and as an adult, I was privileged to know her as a friend also. She worked in public accounting for most of her life. She had five corporate IRA audits that resulted in no change. That was a big deal. She never completed high school although she would hate that I told that. She taught herself everything. She taught me the world was mine inside of books. Both my mother and father taught us, my bother, myself, and my sister, that a good education (I think they both worried about their educations and wanted better for their children) and hard work would pay off. In the end, hard work didn't save either of them; and believe me they were the hardest working people I ever knew. Because my father had a previous marriage, they had child support and never had enough money to save. They counted on my father's retirement. My mother got a rare liver condition that I can't even type the name and needed a transplant. Ultimately, that was out of the question for financial reasons, and she died because she couldn't afford health care in this country. She worked everyday of her life since she was 14. I've held a job everyday of my life since I was 15. My mother got me my first job at her office. It was part-time because I had to buy my own car and get insurance.
I tell this story so that you understand why I have a fear of ending up the same way. After my divorce at age 32, I literally started over with just about nothing. After my mother died, I invested what little I inherited in my education, after all, that was the was to security. It was to some extent. My education got me a much higher paying job than I previously held, but security-that elusive thing come with having money in the bank, really has never materialized as I imagined. For most of my twenties and thirties, I never made enough money to save anything significant for retirement. That's why last night as a read the article I posting below, that old creeping dread came upon me and caused me to wake up thinking about my parent's final days.
The article was about the financial situation of many baby boomer women; and you guessed it, the story is not pretty. The article in the Los Angeles Times by Johnathan Peterson is entitled, "Old Story Rings True for Baby Boomer Women: Retirement is Tougher." The story is not much different than my parents.
The article states that the retirement security of women is jeopardized by some of the same workforce trends affecting men, such as cutbacks in corporate pensions (pensions pay for life while 401k's pay for as long as money is in the account, in other words- finite funds). The article states the financial insecurity of baby-boomer women is amplified by a confluence of factors, including: (from the article)
• Higher overall rates of divorce and singlehood are causing record numbers of us to enter later life without the backup of a partner's savings and income (sometimes known as the Anna Nicole Smith plan. OK, that was just catty). Unmarried, older women (hello, that's me) have higher poverty rates than their male counterparts and much higher poverty rates than married women, government data show. Thanks, I'll sleep well tonight.
• Interrupted working years. Although baby boom women generally have more education and work skills than their mothers, many quit jobs or worked part time to care for children or ailing relatives. Being in and out of the workforce during working years slashes retirement benefits.
• Long lives. At age 65, women are expected to live an average of three years longer than men. This greater longevity magnifies several risks to retirement security, including raising the danger that a woman will outlast her savings or incur costly medical bills without help from a spouse. (Well, I'm back off that diet.) And the final nail in the coffin is that old, "oh by the way, you earn less than men and have less in the way of retirement benefits." Thanks, I forgot.
Evidently, we break down to the following:
About a third of us are doing so well that the future is "so bright they have to wear shades."
- Divorcees and older, never-married mothers to populate an impoverished bottom fifth in the coming years.
- The rest of us are what the article calls the "sprawling middle whose prospects are uncertain and who could be facing a future of diminished expectations" (OK, I'm back on the diet.)
"That's the amazing thing about it," said Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women's Policy Research, a think tank that studies issues about women and families. "The women of the baby boom generation worked longer; they earned more; they had more education. They did everything right." (Hey, tell me about it, lady.)
So here's how I see it. For the top third of you: You Go Girl! Every advertiser has awakened to your power and countless articles, magazines (MORE, for example), and blogs are aimed at you, uh, and your money. You don't need our help. The world is waiting to kiss your ***, well you get it.
For the rest of us, a Second Life will include working for more years. What we are advocating is that you don't have to hate it; it can be a time of reaching potentials you didn't imagine. That's why we place an emphasis here on self and career development. Michele and I are among your number. We see ourselves in you, and we are passionate about sharing our journey and ideas (as well as other people's ideas) with you. I choose to see the future as mine to shape. I choose to not wait to be run over by the future, but to run toward it actively gaining the skills I need to stay competitive, as well as follow my passions. Join us, it's really better here than hiding in the dark afraid of your parent's fate. Believe me, I know.
Jann