64 ; and rich morin and d ’ vera cohn, ( 2008 ) “ women call the shots at home ; public mixed on gender roles in jobs, ” a social trends report ( washington, d. c. : pew research center ) ; see also, “ pew social and demographic trends topline questionnaire. ” aarp foundation women ’ s leadership circle, ( 2006 ), looking at act two of women ’ s lives, ( washington, d. c. : aarp foundation ) ; and vanguard 2008 defined contribution plan data study, “ how america saves, 2009. ” one upside of being risk averse is that women incur fewer transaction fees and costs because they tend to invest more conservatively than men and hold onto stocks longer. 8 so, while women are demonstrably more cautious than men and are often experiencing transformational life events and investment decisions simultaneously, i would not conclude that they are more emotional than men regarding money. myth 3 : women are impulsive shoppers and equally impulsive with financial decisions. underlying this myth is the notion that anyone who purchases something on impulse does not have the self control to save in an organized, regular way. evidence does not necessarily support the vision of women as impulsive shoppers. and impulse purchases, especially small ones made within the parameters of an overall budget, do not necessarily indicate a lack of discipline about financial matters. for example, internet shopping data indicate that 51 percent of online shoppers are mothers, and 92 percent of women shopping online share information about bargains with friends and family. 9 this picture of women searching out information online, thoughtfully comparing bargains, and then sharing the information with their circle of friends does not support the image of impulsive shoppers. in addition, women have demonstrated their ability to save, especially for items related to family milestones or the advancement of opportunities for their children. 10 nonetheless, women also need to recognize that saving for themselves, whether to continue their education or provide for their own retirement, is as important as saving for and investing in their children. saving is an activity that has several important dimensions for the stability of women and their families. myth 4 : women don ’ t have the math skills necessary to make successful financial decisions. the notion that girls are not good in math has been around for a long time. somewhere in the k - 12 educational experience the rumor that girls aren ’ t good at math inevitably circulates. i am not sure anyone has any real evidence that

with a lag, also raise benefits under current law. moreover, because the long - range budget assumptions already make a reasonable allowance for future productivity growth, one cannot rule out the chance that productivity growth will fall short of projected future averages. in fiscal year 2005, federal outlays for social security, medicare, and medicaid totaled about 8 percent of gross domestic product. the long - run projections from the office of management and budget suggest that the share will rise to 9 - 1 / 2 percent by 2015 and to about 13 percent by 2030. so long as health - care costs continue to grow faster than the economy as a whole, they will exert budget pressures that seem increasingly likely to make current fiscal policy unsustainable. the likelihood of growing deficits in the unified budget is of especially great concern because the deficits would drain a correspondingly growing volume of real resources from private capital formation and cast an everlarger shadow over the growth of living standards. the broad contours of the challenges ahead are clear. but considerable uncertainty remains about the precise dimensions of the problem and about the extent to which future resources will fall short of our current statutory obligations to the coming generations of retirees. we already know a good deal about the size of the adult population in, say, 2030. almost all who will be in that population have already been born. thus, forecasting the number of social security and medicare beneficiaries is fairly straightforward. so, too, is projecting future social security benefits, which are tied to the wage histories of retirees. however, the uncertainty about future medical spending is daunting. we know very little about how rapidly medical technology will continue to advance and how those innovations will translate into future spending. consequently, the range of possible outcomes for spending per medicare beneficiary expands dramatically as we move into the next decade and beyond. technological innovations can greatly improve the quality of medical care and can, in some instances, reduce the costs of existing treatments. but because technology expands treatment possibilities, it also has the potential to add to overall spending - - in some cases, by a great deal. other sources of uncertainty - - for example, the extent to which longer life expectancies among the elderly will affect medical spending - - may also turn out to be important. as a result, the range of future possible outlays per recipient is extremely wide. the actuaries'projections of medicare costs are, perforce, highly