Women outlive men by almost seven years. Many may outlive a spouse and spend a portion of their retirement years self-supporting.
Women also have considerably lower total lifetime earnings than men.
Therefore, women need to be especially careful of falling into financial patterns that will land them in trouble when it's time to retire. Women tend to be more conservative than men when it comes to investing. Studies show that women allocate more to bonds and fixed income accounts than men. They are also more likely to not participate in high long-term growth options in their retirement accounts, and therefore may have a smaller balance at retirement. In fact, it is often smarter to pursue a more aggressive investment strategy when you are young and begin to transition to more conservative investments as you near retirement.