Why Women Need To Save More For Retirement

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In a conversation with my wife about our future financial plans the subject of longevity came up. We discussed our possible longevity and how it would effect our retirement. Our estimation of a possible life into our 90's came up. Determining we could live so long and the statistics of women living longer had to be factored into our plans.

The fact is women live longer than men. Lucky them. Because of this it makes sense that they should prepare by saving more money. If a women is single and never marries she has the whole burden alone.

Women have a second problem to deal with and that is they don't have complete earnings parity with men. Some of this has to do with the type of job and some with history. But whatever the reason is they are not there yet. If the salary difference is 15% it puts women at at a disadvantage in saving for retirement. So this can only be made up by saving and investing more.

Another problem only women face is whenever they have a child, they leave the workforce for a period of time or maybe permanently. Men don't have this problem. Staying home with junior ceases the salary and savings.  Men are lucky they aren't put into this position. Here is when mom has to depend on dad for current support and future retirement support. So men let's be grateful you are trusted to carry out your role.

Men don't have to depend on their looks as women do. Sadly our society sees women's looks as a diminishing asset. Over time age takes the focus from older women to younger women. You see in the media how the once beautiful starlets are tossed aside for the newer, younger models.

Time and our culture work against women in the workplace. Maybe in the future, someday we will see economic equality in the workplace. But for the time being women have to compensate by saving and investing more.  

Your Weekend Roundup

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Welcome to the Weekend Roundup. I am listing some of this weeks great posts. Enjoy.

• Over at Personal Finance By The Book, Joe had a great post "How Do You Define Wealth? Hope For The Little Guy". It was very thought provoking and personally challenged me.
• The Biz of Life has been running a great series of videos, one of my favorites was "Does Government Intervention Help or Hurt In the Long Run?" Its an interesting look at government intervention in our financial markets.
• Consumerism Commentary wrote a post "The Worst Investment California Has Seen" it tells of Meg Whitman's spending of $160 million of her own money running for governor of California. It received a boat load of comments.
• Get Rich Slowly had me thinking with their post "More Women Participating in Retirement Plans". It was a good look at what the lady's are doing and should be doing with their finances.
• Canadian Finance Blog post for potential home buyers "Owning a Home - Be Prepared For the Expenses". It's an eye opener for you first time home buyers.
• Oblivious Investor has good advice for investing, "Simple Investing Is Better Investing". Good advice for beginners or pros.

Good news for me, I was mentioned at Mint.com. How Do You Handle Your Finances? Mint's Personal Finance Roundup".

The 5 Best Financial Quotes

Quotes convey a lesson given by a learned and respected person. We try to remember the good ones so people will think we are smart. I am including some of my favorites that have a financial application.


1. "You can finance for your child's education, but you cannot finance for your retirement."


 I don't believe this a notable quote but maybe just a motto used by financial planners. It's true because the first goal makes the second goal harder to do. Every penny you put into that college fund is one that you can't put into the retirement fund. Those of you without children skip this quote. If you are smart the idea of financing is wrong. Replace the word finance with saving and you'll be better off.


2. "The most powerful force in the world is compound interest."


This quote is attributed to Albert Einstein, one of the smartest men ever to have lived. It's strange to have a scientist make such a quote. You would think he would have his mind on more scientific things. But, it makes sense that someone who spent much of his time putting the universe into mathematical equations would notice, compound interest. He seemed to be a frugal and down to earth man so saving must have been important to him. His professor salary must have been meager and saving was a necessity. He was involved with the most powerful energies of the universe and equating it with compound interest is incredible. He was a student of math and must have been impressed with the beauty of such a simple formula and it's encompassing benefits.


3. "A man is not a retirement plan."


I don't know who said this statement, but I can agree with it. This quote is so important. I would say it to my sister or my daughters.  It's a truth and also a warning. It means you must prepare for your own financial future and not depend on anyone. It's something you don't usually say to a male because you take it for granted a man will support himself. But in our culture we want to take care of our lady's. It was the culture coming out of the 50's and a chivalry mindset. If you have daughters like I do you probably have already drilled in the notion to stand on your own two feet. That's through a good education and a good paying job.


4. "Money doesn't buy happiness."


This is one of my favorite quotes. I don't really know who said it but I take it as an axiom. I think we can all agree it's true. It's only when we don't have a lot of money  can we truly agree with it. But the idea is true happiness is a state of mind which can not be attained by  material things. It can only be had by positive interactions with other people. While money buys material things, that decay with time, and experiences that can give momentary happiness. Real happiness can only be attained a giving and receiving heart.


5. "A penny saved is a penny earned."


Of course we all know Ben Franklin gave us this quote. It's a colloquialism  for saving money. But I has a deeper meaning. It could mean that the function of saving money is actually akin to work. You are performing a unit of work by saving money. Or maybe it means that the money you save is more valuable than the money you spend. The money that is spent has a value received that immediately dissipates after the purchase. While money saved maintains it's full value and gains more value with time.

How To Sue Your Lanlord

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Being in the apartment rental business for almost 30 years I have seen it all. All types of people with all types of problems. Lately I have been seeing many tenants having trouble paying their rent. With the economy in a downturn people have lost their jobs or have reduced hours at work. On top of that utilities, fuel and expenses have gone through the roof. So the amount of evictions have risen. Normally we can work something out with the tenant and we both part freinds. But sometimes we must go to court, it's sad for both parties.

The eviction procedure is second nature after you do it as many times  as we have had to do over the years. But what if you have a disagreement with your landlord. You could have a pipe break or roof leak and your possessions may be damaged, the landlord is responsible, but won't make good. You try to settle with the landlord but to no avail. What  choice do you have, but to sue.

As a tenant you have rights just as much as the landlord. You may have to seek out a lawyer if the dollar amount or the severity of the problem is substantial.  But if it's not, you can take your own case to small claims court and persue it yourself.

Here are 7 steps to successfully settle your issue with your landlord:

1. Be polite and business like. Start your communication with a phone call or better yet go down to the rental office and meet face to face with the manager. State your problem and what the landlord should do about it. Also bring your lease and note where it says that the landlord is responsible for the problem. The face to face meeting usually helps in the settling of the problem because it's hard to say no to a human face and much easier to say no to letter or phone call.

2. Follow up with a letter. If your initial approach isn't successful follow up with a letter. State in the letter what the problem is and where in the lease it says it's the landlords responsibility. Note in the letter a contact point for you and give a number of days till you expect an answer. Of course send the letter certified mail. This letter will instill in your landlord that you are serious and you probably will pursue the matter further if not satisfied. Note: it's in the best interest of your landlord to keep you happy and paying rent.

3. Continue to pay your rent. You signed a lease to pay your rent. It's an obligation your responsible for. Don't try to hold your landlord to his responsibility when your not keeping yours. It also looks very negative to the judge, if you go to court, because your legal standing will diminish if you are also violating a contract.

4. Get some advice. If your not getting a response from your landlord contact a tenant association or housing mediator who can step in before things escalate to a court case. These are usually free services.

5. Try small claims court first. If you have to go to court and and the dollar amount is under $5000 small claims court is your first legal option. Usually lawyers are not allowed their so you will be able to do this yourself and not have to pay a lawyer. The lawyers fee may be higher than the amount of the disputed claim.

6. Make sure your organized. Get your paper work organized and be prepared bring your lease, photos and proper documents to show the judge your side of the problem. Tell the judge the exact laws the landlord violated. With only a few minutes to speak it's better to state the laws violated and then the deceit second. Make sure you have all your evidence to prove your case.

Going to court can be a major endeavor if you have never done it before. But if your fighting for a return of security deposit or some damage to your property the effort can pay off.

Savings Plan Pays Off

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When I was at the supermarket today I was watching the other people busily pushing their carts filling them up with all kinds of boxes and bags. My cart was not so full. Only the usually items we use to cook. I thought how things have changed for me since deciding to make a commitment to lead a more financially organized life.

One of the things we don't buy anymore is bottled water. I used to have the fridge filled with the stuff. It was so convenient to just grab a bottle and go. But when deciding to save money, we didn't buy it anymore. Now we just have personal bottles and fill them from the cold tap on the fridge. I know we have saved hundreds of dollars and not really lost anything. We don't have a recycle bin full of plastic anymore and our glad we don't contribute waste to the landfill.

A great idea for saving money on food is to buy the store brands. Switching to the store brand has saved us a lot of money. There is as much as a dollar difference in the store brand, the quality is the same and so is the taste. At my supermarket, during a weekly sale, if you buy the national brand the supermarket will give you the store brand no charge. A good way to jump into store brands.

The biggest money waster for me was coffee. For all my adult life, coffee started my day. Like many of us coffee is not only an enjoyable habit to start our day, but a nice pickmeup in the morning. I don't know what I would do without it. I used to make big pots of coffee in my "Mr. Coffee" machine drinking only a cup or two and throwing the rest out. What a waste. Then to feed my habit every morning, rather than make a pot of coffee, I would frequent my local Dunkin Donuts. I'd have my cup of Joe and a nice couple of donuts. Spending at least $3.00 six times a week.

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The light went on one day and realized all the money I was spending and bought a single serve coffee machine that feeds my coffee habit for only $.50 a cup. The donuts had to stop cold turkey. Another way I'm proud to say, I am saving money.

Our cars can be so expense to to repair and replace. So keeping it maintained is so important. One of the things we do for our cars is changing the oil on a regular schedule. With keeping our cars even longer than ever, its so important. I was taught by my father to change the oil every 3,000 miles. By checking the owners manual, you will see that factory recommendations state to change it every 8,000-9,000 miles. With this in mind, I now maintain an interval of 5,000 miles between oil changes.  On two cars that adds up to quite a savings over the years.

While we are on the subject of cars, what's the idea with putting super grade gas in your car. I always thought it was better for your car. But again if you follow your owners manual you will find no need for it. I have switch to regular and never will use super again. I am saving money an my car doesn't know the difference.

Till this day I still cringe when I see a kids birthday party with a bounce house. I remember the one kid birthday party when I had a kids bounce house costing me $200 and a pony I rented for $100. What was I thinking? Do kids really need these things or will they be forever traumatized with out them. I kid you not a close friend of mine rented a baby elephant for their sons party. He paid $500 dollars for the pleasure. After wising up, we are back to pizza and cake in the back yard. Saving even more money.

These changes in our lives are only minor, but the amount of money saving potential is great. I am happy with the results and I am continually looking for other ways to save money. It doesn't have to be hard work to save money. It's really just an adjustment to your behavior.

5 Topics To Discuss Before Marriage

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The older I get the more I notice the many differences between people. The list is long concerning the points of contention between married couples. Where do I start? When picking a mate it's important to have pre-marriage counselling to get the dirty laundry out and discuss financial wants, needs and goals. With different goals come different choices concerning money.

These topics are in the air now because my oldest is getting serious about her boyfriend and things are progressing to marriage. I have brought up many of the things we are discussing today, to her.

1. Children. The first thing I told her to consider discussing was children. The conversation should be about whether to have kids and if so how many. Whether you prefer public or private school and how to pay for it. It's the most important thing to discuss because each junior you have will probably cost in the first 18 years at least $200,000. So discussing how many is of vital importance. With summer camps, day care and eventually college the costs could be enormous.

2. Family. The second thing that can wreck havoc on your relationship is family. There are many things to think about with family. Are there step children, are you ready to take on the emotional and financial responsibility's. The in-laws may be your responsibility when they are retired because they may not have prepared for their retirement. The in-laws can work their way into your marriage, can your spouse be capable of keeping boundaries up.

3. Retirement. Is your spouse a saver or a spender? Do they have what it takes to prepare for future events like college and retirement. If they are a spender how will this effect the family when you want to make a budget and be financially responsible.

4.The Car. This is a big sign of the financial responsibility. Does your future spouse like to show off with an expensive car. If your frugal and your mate is a free-spending person, you may find it exciting at first. It may be exciting at first but after the honeymoon is over you realize your stuck with an irresponsible person and it may crash the marriage.

5. The House. Are you looking to have a modest home or are you looking for a McMansion. You and your spouse should decide on what your goals are for the future. Will you put most of your income into housing or more into savings. Will you reveal to your future mate that you are a spender or a saver. Are you organized or a mess.

The point of this discussion is not to point fingers to who is right or wrong but reveal the dirty laundry for the other party to see. The idea is to not have any surprises after the wedding. I remember when I went through premarital counselling long ago. We had no discussion of money what so ever. We didn't know if we were financially compatible or not.

The goal here is to not breakup a relationship because we find any incompatibility. It's to have the couple be aware of it and work toward solutions of agreement before, rather than later.