It’s a fairly well known fact that women have a raw deal in retirement these days. What’s happened is that the female baby boomers who are retiring now may well have believed in women’s lib and in fact pioneered when it came to fighting for equal rights, but few of them realised that they’d need financial independence in retirement if they wanted to be assured of a comfortable existence.
I’d like to think that we modern women wouldn’t make the same mistakes as our mothers and grandmothers – but the fact of the matter is, financial advisers report time and again that their female clients are few in number and of those they do advise, fewer still are managing their money well for their retirement’s sake. All too often women are still relying on their partner’s pension provisions for their long-term financial wellbeing, whilst putting off a commitment to some form of pension because of concerns about the irregularity of their earnings if they take time out to have children etc.
Female expatriates are ironically even less likely to have their finances well sorted – and yet they are the one group of women who really have an incredible advantage and can get well ahead in the retirement savings race if they want to. We really do urge women expats to take charge of their financial future – because you really should only ever rely on yourself when it comes to the security of your financial future girls. Even if you’re accompanying your partner on assignment abroad, this article will show you how and why you can get ahead in the great pensions race.
Wise Words for Single Women Working Abroad
If you’re going overseas to work or have moved abroad and have found employment you’re potentially in a great position to get saving. As an expatriate there are possibly taxation advantages to you saving offshore for example, and these can see the sums that you do save boosted and advanced. Alternatively or additionally, there are far more interesting and potentially beneficial and flexible paths to saving for retirement once you move abroad…after all, is there anything less flexible than an onshore pension plan! Offshore you can access the likes of QROPS which are highly flexible, dedicated schemes for the saving of money towards retirement – and into which you can incorporate any onshore pensions you may have been saving into before you moved abroad. The number one advantage of this sort of scheme for many people is that you do not have to purchase an annuity with them when you want to retire – you can pretty much do what you want with the money!
This is just one example of what’s on offer – and obviously, you have to find the savings path that best suits you as an individual. To that end you have to seek personalised advice from the likes of an expatriate financial adviser. Now whilst you may not relish the thought of committing to a financial review and making long-term plans about your money matters, what alternatives have you really got? Are you just going to sit there waiting for your pension pot to magically fill itself up! The sooner you bite the bullet and take advice, the sooner you’ll be on the right path to saving and investing for your future, and the sooner you can forget all about having to worry about your money.
In a recent survey into expatriates’ lives conducted by HSBC it was made very clear that expats on average earn more and save more than they did before they moved abroad. This is what we talk about when we refer to the ‘expatriate advantage’ – i.e., you are often in a position to put more money away towards your future when you’re living abroad. So don’t waste the opportunity, get saving today even if you don’t know what you’ll be doing this time next year. The more intensively you can save now, the less you will have to worry about money matters going forward.
Married Women Need Money Too!
If you’re in a partnership with someone and you’re currently watching them squirreling away their earnings into a pension scheme or an investment portfolio designed to look after their short, medium and long-term money needs, you may need to think about where you factor in! Sure, they may well be saving for your joint future – but are you genuinely comfortable handing over the money reins to your partner 100%?
If you’re working and earning as well, you need to put some of your own cash aside to protect your own future. If you’re at home caring for children and/or managing all aspects of your partner’s life so that s/he can go to work and advance their career, then your contribution needs to be recognised in some way. There are even potential financial advantages to your partner perhaps paying you a ‘salary’ for your contribution – and from this you can save your own money.
You probably know that in money terms you should never put all your eggs in one basket…e.g., you should have all your money housed in one financial institution. Well, think about it, by spreading the saving for retirement across two people, you’re further hedging your bets and diversifying for success hopefully. What’s more, if you and your partner don’t last the distance, wouldn’t it be far less frightening to face the future if you have financial security independent of your partner? Yes, married women, trailing spouses, supporting partners and women from all walks of life need to have money of their own! So find a way to save today…speak to an adviser, speak to your partner, but ultimately, make the commitment yourself because it is your future financial security we’re talking about here.
In Conclusion
Expatriates have a massive advantage when it comes to saving money. Many earn more, have a lower cost of living, can access tax saving advantages by going offshore and have access to an incredibly flexible wide range of savings solutions simply because they are residents in a new nation. As a woman in such a position you have as much right as anyone else to take these advantages that are available to you – what’s more, because your financial future may be even less predictable than a mans if you decide to have children for example, you really need to get in a position where you’re saving hard today for what ever may come tomorrow. Speak to an adviser, get a money makeover, and start protecting your financial future.
