That outlook is likely to get more bleak as more employers eliminate general pensions and the solvency of the Social Security system remains in doubt, said Elizabeth Allen, a Livonia-based certified financial planner and president of the Michigan Society of the Institute of Certified Financial Planners. They ask me if they will ever be able to retire. But the vast majority are not doing OK at all. Several studies have found that women aren't making the most of what savings they accumulate because they keep the money in low-yield accounts like certificates of deposit and money markets. That's partly because women haven't been socialized to take care of financial matters, she said.
Women talk about family, relationships and other things.
So they don't grow up picking up financial information. And a woman who is a secretary or a clerk at Meijer is less apt to have a plan, or to have money to put in a plan. So they stick to investing in things that seem 'safe' but barely keep them ahead of inflation. If it had been in the stock market she would have easily made a 15-percent return. Another obstacle is that women often put off financial planning because they don't have thousands of dollars to invest, Southworth said.