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Why many retired women live in poverty
CNN Money ^ | 13MAY2014 | Melanie Hicken

Posted on 05/20/2014 9:34:42 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine

Gender inequality doesn't end at the workplace. For many women, the gender gap haunts them well into their retirement years, when far more women find themselves living in poverty.

In fact, women are almost twice as likely as men to live below the poverty line during retirement, with single and minority women struggling the most (see chart).

On average, women 65 years and older rely on a median income of around $16,000 a year -- roughly $11,000 less than men of the same age, according to a Congressional analysis of Census data. And many elderly women rely exclusively on Social Security benefits.

The problem: Women earn -- and save -- less over their lifetimes than men, leaving them with a smaller nest egg. And because they tend to live longer, that savings has to last longer, too.

(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: poverty; retirement; women
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To: ottbmare

I hope for the best for you and I also hope your children you raised will help you as time goes by. God Bless you.


21 posted on 05/20/2014 10:55:21 PM PDT by HANG THE EXPENSE (Life's tough.It's tougher when you're stupid.)
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To: TigersEye

And weemen keep thinkin they’re so darned smart.

Q.
Know why men die younger than weeme?

A.
Cuz we wanna ....

You literally talk us out of living and it just sometimes seems the only way out.


22 posted on 05/20/2014 11:05:37 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: iowamark

“Because they voted Democrat?”

Exactly!


23 posted on 05/20/2014 11:08:35 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: ottbmare

I agree kind of. My friends shopped and partied never thinking about tomorrow.
My choice was to spend my money raising my kids, some college, some tech school. It was a choice I willingly and consciously made. Don’t regret it.
Due to this decision life is gonna be a bit harder but my rewards are my here or now.
living a simple life sounds real good to me.


24 posted on 05/20/2014 11:12:20 PM PDT by Donnafrflorida (Thru HnodredscottIM all things are possible.)
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To: ottbmare

I just saw your tagline. Btw my son joined the army almost a year ago. I guess we did good lady.


25 posted on 05/20/2014 11:15:00 PM PDT by Donnafrflorida (Thru HnodredscottIM all things are possible.)
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To: ru4liberty

Do you live in GA, Florida, Sc, ala or nc? I know a company hiring even at 60.


26 posted on 05/20/2014 11:19:30 PM PDT by Donnafrflorida (Thru HnodredscottIM all things are possible.)
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To: ru4liberty

I agree with this article because I find it to be true. At age 66, I’ll be getting $1200-1300/mo from SS while my husband will get $2400. However, I had my own medical transcription service for 10 years so I could have flexibility raising my kids. Being self employed didn’t leave us with much money on paper, though. When the kids were older, I went to work at a hospital but only worked 32 hours, again, to be there for the kids. Meanwhile my husband had a full time day job as well as working several nights a week as a server, so of course his income base is larger and he’ll receive more than me.

We made the conscious decision to raise our children this way, and it has paid off very well. All of our kids are smart, funny, creative, and a joy to be around. They love hanging out with us and even invite us to their parties, which we usually attend. I have no doubt they’ll be there for us in the future if we need help, as we were there for them.


27 posted on 05/20/2014 11:23:19 PM PDT by Prince of Space (Be Breitbart, baby. LIFB.)
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To: ottbmare

talk about boo-hoo on parade. Any other excuses you would like to throw out why you are lazy? I am a single dad working 50+ hours a week, pulling all nighters working on the weekends and raising two kids while cooking for them every night and teaching them responsibilities. Sounds to me like you want a pity party. Go join the DEM party.


28 posted on 05/20/2014 11:25:18 PM PDT by Ghost of SVR4 (So many are so hopelessly dependent on the government that they will fight to protect it.)
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To: Prince of Space

$3,700.00 per month in Social Security alone will provide for a reasonably comfortable retirement in most of the country. Surviving spouse will get the higher of the two, so the least you’d be looking at would be $2,400.00, which is still decent assuming a paid off primary residence and no other debt.


29 posted on 05/20/2014 11:29:02 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: Ghost of SVR4

I was cheerfully greeted and had my order rung up by a woman who had to be in her seventies today, in a fast food restaurant. She was happy to be there, made her life so much better to have the extra income. We talked. I felt bad for her when I first saw her, and felt something akin to proud of her by the time I left. You do what you have to do, and she’s doing it in good spirits. No point in getting down or complaining, it only makes matters seem worse.


30 posted on 05/20/2014 11:34:51 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: maine-iac7

Not all of us have given up.
I was fourty-seven when my dad died, he was a railroader so my mom got virtually nothing.
My brother and I had to steal her mail to pay her bills for her (she was living off her savings). Stubborn old lady, she found out what we were doing and damn near chewed both of us a new one.
We finally convinced her that it was not a big deal to us and we could afford it. Both my brother and I and our wives had raised our kids and they were out in the world, so we had the money.
She gave to us her whole life, it was time to give back.


31 posted on 05/20/2014 11:40:37 PM PDT by 5th MEB (Progressives in the open; --- FIRE FOR EFFECT!!)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

For a large part of my adult life, I have been a stay at home mom. I have two college degrees and worked before my kids and on and off from home now that they are teens. This was a decision my husband and I came to as it was the best for our family, and his job provided more money, more benefits, and more flexibility. Not because he was a man but because of his degree, experience and skill set. My experience and skills also can more easily be used in a career I could have from home.

With that being said, we planned for retirement with both of us equally
covered. My husband has much more life insurance on him, our retirement savings and accounts are equally both of ours, and he has a pension he can begin collecting on when he can retire in 4 years that I am “half owner” of.

So we’ve done what we can do to ensure the best for our retirement,
hopefully together for a long time, but later for the one. It was about
choices and we would of had more for retirement had I worked f/t all those years. But we think we got and gave something money can’t buy with me staying home.

Now if there was ever a divorce, husband would probably complain to the
world how I “am ripping him off” as he “worked”. Oh, trust me, I worked! And I protected myself. But after nearly 20 happy years, I think we did the best possible. If I had been making more, husband would have stayed home.


32 posted on 05/20/2014 11:41:48 PM PDT by MacMattico
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To: Ghost of SVR4

You seem to be outvoted on this thread.

I have not engaged in what you are pleased to refer to as “a pity party,” sir. I said I made a choice to put my children first, before a lucrative career. I chose jobs from which I wouldn’t get fired if I took days off to attend to a child who had a serious chronic illness. I didn’t make as much money as the men and women who had supportive spouses or no children. It was simply a matte of priorities, not a complaint.

It’s very difficult for everybody else to figure out why you’re so resentful about that. I’m not asking you or anyone else for a penny. Kindly note my tag line: I raised a US Marine, I did it without a lick of help from anybody, and I’m damn proud of the way I conducted my vocation as a mother.


33 posted on 05/20/2014 11:43:06 PM PDT by ottbmare (the OTTB mare, now a proud Marine Mom)
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To: Ghost of SVR4

And by the way, before you accuse me of being lazy with my jobs and home business: while you’re working fifty hours a week and pulling all-nighters, who is watching your children? It’s nice if there’s a family member who is prepared to spend the night with them. We aren’t all lucky enough to have living family members to do that. (Surely you aren’t leaving them alone, of course.)


34 posted on 05/20/2014 11:51:51 PM PDT by ottbmare (the OTTB mare, now a proud Marine Mom)
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To: Jack Hydrazine
They do get Social Security from their deceased husbands, well, except for those who divorced their husbands.

Heavy Hitters: Top All-Time Donors, 1989-2014
http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php
National Cmte to Preserve Social Security & Medicare $10,414,606 [Democrat] 82% [Republican] 17%


35 posted on 05/20/2014 11:54:52 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: Jack Hydrazine
Why Hillary’s high numbers (even among Republicans!) won’t last
Fox News ^ | May 19, 2014 | Howard Kurtz
"And 'nearly one-quarter of Republicans said they had a favorable view of Clinton.'"

[But we know that favor for Hillary in a sizable contingent of Republicans has lasted for decades and will last as long as those particular constituents do.]


36 posted on 05/20/2014 11:56:33 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: RegulatorCountry

My husband lost his day job last year so he went full time at his part time job. He will be 61 next week and he’s a waiter at a casino steakhouse. Sometimes he feels down about it, but I just remind him that it’s temporary until he gets another sales job, and in the meantime he’s making over $35/hour so (quoting Cher in Moonstruck)....snap out of it. I’m glad that he is able to continue to provide for us and proud that he’s so good at what he does.


37 posted on 05/21/2014 12:12:41 AM PDT by Prince of Space (Be Breitbart, baby. LIFB.)
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To: Prince of Space

There are a lot of people in reduced circumstance having to do the same thing, and a lot of people who would love to have that job, disappointing as it may seem to your husband to be temporarily forced out of his career field. If he can keep convincing himself to be the best casino steakhouse waiter they’ve ever had, and make the most of it for as long as it’s needed, he’ll be happier and probably make more money at it.


38 posted on 05/21/2014 12:16:46 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: Jack Hydrazine

It almost certainly IS true (at least in broad terms), but as they also bury, just past the provocative headline, the reason why. Those distinctions are almost entirely due to life choices made by the people in question. It’s going to be very hard to alter this situation in a way that is both just and/or makes economic sense.


39 posted on 05/21/2014 12:19:03 AM PDT by Vanders9
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To: Ghost of SVR4

Those statements are uncalled for sir.


40 posted on 05/21/2014 12:25:30 AM PDT by Vanders9
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