My Comments: Many of my clients are widows. They became my clients when their husbands were alive and over the course of time, we are where we are today. Today, I do my best to help them manage their financial lives and provide some measure of assurance about their financial future.

Clearly, women live longer on average than men. Add to that the fact that for many of us men, our wives are typically somewhat younger. At least for people of my generation.

And, women are usually better at investing money than are men. Probably something to do with testosterone. Whatever the case, these five considerations are important. As a financial advisor actively looking for new clients, give me a call if this resonates with you.

By Andy Stonehouse | September 11, 2012

t seems like the biggest issue in trying to get a jump on doing something – anything, really – to start on a retirement plan is the sheer weight of the unknown.

How long are you going to live? Is Social Security going to be around that long, and how much money might it provide? How much should you be saving right now?

They’re all the standard questions, but as has been noted by organizations that specialize in financial planning and education geared towards women, they’re questions that are even more difficult to answer for female pre-retirees.

A webinar on Tuesday, co-sponsored by EBSA and WISER, the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement, delved into some of those important and not-especially-easy-to-broach subjects, laying a solid educational foundation that can, hopefully, get female clients and plan participants thinking a bit more seriously about their retirement prospects.

The biggest issue, as panelists from EBSA, Social Security and WISER explained, is that female retirees face a double whammy: Their life expectancies are substantially longer than their male counterparts and spouses, but their retirement savings potential is much lower given their lower overall pay and their propensity to take part-time jobs, sans benefits, to meet obligations of childcare and other family responsibilities. Add the financial uncertainties of divorce or the economic issues related to outliving a spouse, and it’s an extremely challenging puzzle.

Cindy Hounsell, WISER’s president, was apt in noting it’s all as overwhelming as trying to clean out a cluttered garage: Where do you start? What’s most important? Can you actually accomplish anything at all?

But here’s five straightforward pieces of advice for female workers, especially those who are about a decade or less from retirement age. And some of them aren’t particularly pretty – as Hounsell said, maybe take your spouse out for a nice dinner before getting down to brass tacks on some of the following:

1. Confront the reality of retirement. It is indeed a tough subject, but EBSA has some surprisingly user-friendly planning tools that aren’t necessarily geared for financial experts – instead, they’re a useful part of the Department of Labor’s Taking the Mystery Out of Retirement package, with interactive online worksheets women and their families can use to get a realistic picture of what they have, and what they’ll need. Most women have never spent any time figuring out what their monthly budgets might be when the paychecks stop arriving; these forms are a good and totally neutral tool to use to factor in the value of your retirement savings plans, the value of your home and the bump you might receive from Social Security.