Ladylinx feature from Emax Health

On average, women earn 76 cents for every dollar men earn in the workplace. Because women typically spend approximately seven years out of the work force to have and raise children, their earnings are even further curtailed. With lower pay and less time spent in the work force, women are generally left with smaller retirement portfolios, lower company pension benefits and lower Social Security benefits than men.

Despite the fact that women earn less money than men, they generally need a larger retirement nest egg. On average, women live seven years longer than men and must finance more years in retirement. And although a woman may share her husbands savings, those assets may be depleted quickly if he becomes ill and dies first, which considering life expectancy, is often the case.

In addition, 50% of marriages end in divorce, and the average age of widowhood is currently at 56 years. Therefore, most women are solely responsible for their finances at some point in their lives. What can women do to overcome these financial challenges? Here are 10 tips:

1. Take control. Despite the stereotypes, studies show that most married women actively participate or take the leading role in managing family finances. Moreover, women outnumber men in participation in investment clubs across America. However, some married women still leave the financial decision making to their spouse and may wind up ill equipped to handle their finances if they divorce or outlive their husbands.

2. Invest more. To make up for discrepancies in retirement benefits, women should consider investing more than their male counterparts. For example, a woman who takes seven years off from a 40-year career can expect to receive only half the pension benefits of someone with 40 years of uninterrupted services. The good news is that the U.S. Department of Labor reports that in an economy where the earnings of almost all other groups have remained the same or decreased, earnings of women have increased. Higher earnings for women should mean the potential for more investments.

3. Know your risk tolerance. Consider how much risk you are willing to take in exchange for the potential to earn higher returns. Historically, equity investments have provided higher returns over the long term than less-risky investments, such as money markets and short-term bonds, although past performance is no guarantee of future results.

4. Participate in employer plans. Collect information about the retirement benefits that are available through your employer and actively participate in any plans offered, taking advantage of all possible company matches and tax-deferred contributions.

5. Do not depend on pensions or Social Security. Fewer years in the work force, fewer years with a single employer and lower pay all may contribute to a lower average pension for female retirees. Women also tend to receive lower Social Security benefits than men. Benefits are calculated based on a persons highest 35 years of earnings. If the benefits recipient doesnt have 35 years in the work force, the Social Security Administration will add zero-earnings years to the record to equal 35 years. This will lower the average monthly earnings figure and may significantly lower your benefits.

6. Get out of debt. Debt is a serious issue for men and women. However, credit counselors report, that women are more likely than men to take the first step toward becoming more disciplined and reducing their debt. First, understand your spending and reduce spending so you dont continue to add to your debt. Then attack your existing debt by paying off high-rate debt first and if possible transferring high-rate debt to lower rate credit cards.

7. Do tax planning. With more female business owners and more single women buying homes and qualifying for mortgage interest and property tax deductions, tax planning is becoming an integral part of womens financial lives. If possible, always contribute the maximum amount to your IRA and/or 401(k) and maximize your tax deductions.

8. Keep retirement top of mind. Although women have made many impressive strides toward financial independence, they report having only half as much for retirement as men ($40,000 in annual retirement income for women vs. $80,000 for men). Generally, because women live longer than men, they should save 12% of their gross income for retirement, rather than just 10%.

9. Use resources. There is a wealth of helpful information easily accessible on the Web.

10. Seek help. Meet with a qualified financial advisor to create a financial plan specifically designed to help manage your personal economy.

Ladylinx feature from Totally Her

When you are on your own or only dating casually, your personal finances are simple — there’s just you. You have full knowledge of every detail of your income, and you have complete control of all your expenditures. When you first become serious about a relationship, however, the game changes. There’s now a second person to think about and consider, both practically and emotionally, and what was once easy to handle can now be a little bit tricky when “I” becomes “we”.

Each person has their own way of handling their money, and when two people start to share a home or some other kinds of financial responsibilities, it can be a big mess if their systems don’t mesh, or if they have different opinions about the best way to proceed. If all the bills are getting paid without incident and neither of you are worried about what is happening with the leftover money, then you’re very lucky, and that’s great. But if one or both of you has issues about how the money gets spent and how the bills are split up, it may be time to sit down and form a concrete plan.

There are infinite ways to split up house finances between two people, and you can make it as simple or as complex as you want. You can pool all your money together, pay the bills from that, put a set amount into savings or investments, and share what’s left over. If you need something more structured and defined than that, you can separate the bills out so that each person knows what their responsibilities are. Perhaps you will pay for utilities and food, and your partner will pay the rent. Maybe you’ll split every single bill down the middle. You could also weigh the bills proportionately based on what each of you earns in a month, so that you’re each paying the same percentage out of your income. The key is not to assume that it will all get worked out eventually — everyone has different ideas about money, so it is important to talk it out in specific terms, and find some middle ground that you can both agree on.

Eventually you’re bound to have a conversation about whether or not you should combine your money into a single joint bank account. This can be a tricky subject, so proceed carefully. If one person brings it up as a good idea and the other one doesn’t want to do it, sometimes issues of perceived distrust can pop up. But if, for instance, you want to combine bank accounts but your partner doesn’t, it doesn’t mean that they don’t trust you with having access to their money. It’s simply a matter of personal preference — some people are raised to believe that financial information is strictly a private thing, not be shared even with their closest confidants, while others have been brought up to have a more relaxed attitude toward it. There’s no right or wrong attitude about it, so don’t take it personally if you’re ready to share all your financial information and your partner isn’t. Some couples do a compromise, having both a joint bank account and additional separate accounts. This can be a excellent solution if you’d like to have a joint bank account for a trial period, just to see if that system works for you as a couple.

The most important aspect of any relationship, romantic or otherwise, is communication. People often neglect discussing finances with their partners, especially if they have just recently become serious, because it’s a touchy subject for many, and there are of course more exciting things to talk about than checkbooks and utility bills. But if you get your framework and ground rules set up firmly from the start, you can prevent a lot of misunderstandings and arguments later, leaving less for the two of you to worry about, and more time and money for you to enjoy.

Ladylinx feature from Real Simple

Barry Paperno, customer-service manager for MyFICO.com, a site that lets consumers obtain credit reports and FICO scores from all three big credit bureaus:
Maintain low debt balances on credit cards for a higher credit score. “Keeping low balances means you’re a good manager of credit,” says Paperno. Lenders frown on a person’s having too many cards, but don’t cancel all unused credit accounts. “If you close them but maintain the same amount of outstanding debt, your debt-to–credit-limit ratio goes up, and that’s not good for your score,” he says.
Pay bills on time. Nothing is too small to screw up your credit—not a library fine, not a parking ticket. Pay everything on time, even if it’s a bill for $5.

Dayana Yochim, personal-finance expert for the Motley Fool, an investor-education website:
Beginner investors should start with simple index mutual funds, such as one pegged to the Standard & Poor’s (S & P) 500 Index. “Index funds are a no-brainer diversification,” says Yochim. Because the fund is automated (it mechanically follows the performance of the index), “investors aren’t saddled with big fees to cover a high-level fund manager’s salary.” Check out the Vanguard 500 Index mutual fund (www.vanguard.com).
Use online-only checking or savings accounts that pay interest rates of 4 percent or higher. Companies can offer higher rates for online accounts because they save on rent and other overhead. Among the sites to search: www.ingdirect.com, www.emigrantdirect.com, www.everbank.com, and www.citibank.com.

Kimberly Lankford, finance columnist and author of The Insurance Maze: How You Can Save Money on Insurance — and Still Get the Coverage You Need (Kaplan Business, $19, www.amazon.com):
Reshop your life insurance. “Prices have gone down over the past 10 years and continue to go down, so if you bought a policy several years ago, you might be able to get a better deal now even though you’re older,” says Lankford. Try www.insure.com or www.accuquote.com, which is especially good for finding insurers who won’t balk at preexisting medical conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and even some cancers

Being organized can help you stay on track and one of the easiest things you can do to keep your financial house in order is to get organized.  Having your financial information stored and processed in a systematic manner will go a long way in helping maintain your finances.

Start a Basic Filing System

There is a lot of financial information that needs to be organized and processed, and a simple filing system can make this less of a chore. You can essentially break down all of your financial papers into the following categories:

• Bills due
• Important documents to keep
• Items to throw away or shred

It really is that simple. Either you have a bill that needs to be paid, a receipt or document that should be saved, or something that can be discarded. It is up to you how you want to organize these items, but it can be as simple as using three individual folders labeled with the above information.

Then, whenever you get the mail or receive another financial document, take a moment to put it into the correct folder. That way your bills and important documents are in one easy to find place. You can then regularly process the folders and permanently store the important documents and toss or recycle what you don’t need.

Keep Important Documents Organized

While the basic filing system will do a good job in keeping your daily finances in order, you will still want to organize the important items you need to keep. Generally, you can use a small file cabinet with individual folders to keep everything in order. Some examples of financial documents you should keep:

• Tax returns
• Insurance policies
• Mortgage documents
• Investment and retirement account statements
• Warranties or service contracts

Though it may require some patience to get these financial organization skills going, it’s easy to maintain everything.  Eventually in the long run, you’re going to thank yourself for making time to get things straight.