Blog | Entrepreneurship, Personal Finance

What Millennial Women Can Teach You About Financial Security

It all starts with one important factor

For years, I’ve invested my time, energy, and resources into helping women rise up, become financially independent, and live the richest life possible, in every sense of the word.

I’ve personally seen in my life many women whose lives were ruined because they didn’t understand how money worked. They instead chose to rely on a job or a man to take care of them. But as I’ve said before, a man isn’t a financial plan —and neither is a job.

Traditionally, most women have struggled to find their place in this world outside of those two structures—family and work, and when one of those things collapses, it can spell financial catastrophe. A while back, in a post I wrote called “Take Charge of Your Financial Future ,” I shared some of the depressing facts around women and money.

- 47% of women over the age of 50 are single. (This means they are financially responsible for themselves).

- Women’s retirement income is less than that of men because a woman is away from the work force an average of 14.7 years as compared to 1.6 years for men. (Women are typically the primary caretakers of the home). This, along with lower salaries, adds up to retirement benefits that are only about 1/4 of those of men (National Center for Women and Retirement Research – NCWRR).

- 50% of marriages end in divorce. And who typically ends up with the children? The woman. So now she is solely financially responsible for herself—and her children. And what is the #1 subject couples fight about? Money.

- In the first year after a divorce a woman’s standard of living drops an average of 73%.

- As of 2000, women are expected to live an average of 7 to 10 years longer than men, (Ann Letteeresee June 12, 2000), which means they must provide for those extra years. However, married baby boomer women can expect to outlive their husbands by 15 to 20 years on average.

- The average female born between 1948 and 1964 may likely remain in the workforce until at least 74 years of age due to inadequate financial savings and pension coverage (National Center for Women and Retirement Research, 1996).

- Of the elderly living in poverty: 3 out of 4 are women (Morningstar Fund Investor), 80% of the women were not poor when their husbands were alive, and approximately 7 out of 10 women will at some time live in poverty.

- 90% of all women will have sole responsibility for their finances within their lifetimes…yet 79% of all women have not planned for this.

- 58% of female baby boomers have less than $10,000 in retirement.

- It’s estimated that only 20% of baby boomer women will be financially secure in their retirement (Ms. Magazine, 2002). This means that 80% of us will not be.

But this week, some happy news comes from Glamour magazine. According to Glamour the U.S. Trust Insights on Wealth and Worth reveals the following facts about millennial women in the US:

- They are 3.4 times more likely to be entrepreneurs than women from other generations

- They are 2.8 times more likely to use hedge funds

- They are 1.8 times more likely to use venture capital

- They are 3.1 times more likely to use impact investments

- They are 5.6 times more likely to achieve big gains through big risk investing

The reason why these women are thriving financially in a way that many women before them haven’t? Self-confidence .

As Glamour reports: “‘Millennials are far more likely than older generations to believe that their success is attributed to their own innate talents,’ according to a survey statement, ‘yet they are relentless and hardworking, acknowledging that the harder they work the more success they will have.’”

This is a great confirmation of what we’ve been teaching at Rich Woman all along, you don’t need a man or a job in order to be financially secure. All you need is you. You are enough. You have everything you need within you to live a rich life.

Today, learn something from our younger generation and begin investing in yourself and your financial future.