Tonight withLester Kiewit

Women should take financial planning more seriously than men.

Here’s why (according to Galileo Capital personal finance expert Warren Ingram):

Women typically live longer and are usually paid less than men for the same job.

Increased longevity places real pressure on a woman’s financial position.

Combine this with the gender pay gap and it means women are under enormous pressure to plan their finances far better than men

Divorce rates are high.

Divorced women carry a greater financial burden when children are involved.

Ensure that your marriage contract allocates a greater portion of assets to women upon divorce when there are children.

Working women find that their earning power is compromised after they have children.

It is therefore important to ensure that their savings, investments and life assurance planning are sufficient before they have children.

Increasing numbers of women have children without getting married.

Ensure that there is proper planning with the father of the child where possible.

Points to consider:

• Will (including who will look after the children should the primary caregiver pass away)

• Life cover

• Cost of child carers

• Schooling

Women in a committed relationship should be equally involved in all the financial planning decisions.

There is no scope for stereotypical gender roles in financial planning.

It is likely that a partnership will perform better when both parties are involved.

Should the relationship not work out; the woman is likely to suffer greater financial harm without sufficient planning.

Ray White (in for Bruce Whitfield on The Money Show) interviewed Ingram.

For more detail on why women should take financial planning more seriously than men, listen to the interview in the audio below.

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