Be Honest. How Much Money Will You Have to Retire On When You Stop Working?

I wonder how many of you even know. I'll bet a lot of you don't know. Or you kind of know but not really.

It's vitally important for you to know.

For some of you, if you have a more 'elaborate' retirement planned (lots of travel etc) you will need more than someone who has very simple wants and desires. There certainly is no right way but you need to know your truth.

One of the lucky things about being a woman is you generally live longer than men. Wonderful!! But you will need more money.

So you need to probably save more, if you are saving at all right now. Or you may need to get a job. Or start your own business. Whatever it takes for you to be financially safe.

Here's a fact. Due to the fact that we live longer and that often times women marry men older than themselves, most men will die while being married. We will probably die as widows. According to the Huffington Post half the women over 65 are widows and you outnumbers widowers by three to one. (This is one reason why women friends are so important.)

It's great if you were able to stay home with your children. But it may have been difficult to get back into the work force. What is worse is if you leave your job to take care of aging parents. Now, when you want/need to go back to work, you are even older.

And age discrimination is alive and well in the work force.

This is why you see so many older women working for themselves. And those statistics are growing quickly.

Due to the above, as older women, you may have less money in your retirement account then men have.

In 2009 the Administration on Aging did a study and discovered the medium income of women 65 and over was $15,282 per year. Men on the other hand had a medium income of $25,877 so about 59% over women.

Scary numbers and I doubt the % has changed much over the years.

So, what are you going to do about this? How are you going to empower yourself so that you can feel safe and sound in retirement?

How can you turn the tide for yourself?

You have heard me say time and time again that being an entrepreneur, working for yourself, may be the answer for you.

I also know that entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. It takes guts and lots of people will have no idea why you are doing what you are doing, but don't let that get to you. Surround yourself with other entrepreneurs! We are all cut from the same cloth.

You can do this. You can grab a hold of that brass ring and create a safe future for yourself.