LA Times: Boomer Women Facing Significant Decline in Lifestyles in Retirement

Chilling front page article in today's Los Angeles Times concerning the financial peril facing many boomer-aged women as they enter retirement.

Like millions of other upwardly mobile women of the baby boom generation, Tucker Emerson faces the danger that retirement will bring a sharp downhill slide in lifestyle. Many of these women could suffer a greater decline in living standards in later life than their mothers did.

While men face the same threats to retirement security as women, experts believe that the problems for women are amplified by these factors:

Higher overall rates of divorce and singlehood. "Unmarried, older women have a higher poverty rates than their male counterparts and much higher poverty rates than married women."

Interrupted working years. Despite having more education, skills and experience than previous generations, many quit jobs or work to take care of family matters, slashing retirement benefits and reducing earning potential.

Long lives. In retirement, women are expected to live three years longer than men thereby raising the danger that women will outlast their savings.

According to Timothy M. Smeeding, an expert on the economics of aging at Syracuse University, a "fortunate third" of baby boomer women will enjoy "unprecedented levels of health and wealth in old age." The balance face risks and uncertainties with the divorcees and older, never married mothers facing the most significant economic risks in old age.

The Los Angeles Times occasionally writes articles about the threats to retirement security. An archive of these articles can be found here.