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Traditionally, men and women have planned for and responded to life changes with very different styles,
and when we extend that kind of thinking into retirement
in very different opportunities and burdens for men and women.
Acknowledging the similarities between challenges that men and women face as they enter their retirement years
is one step in the direction of having men and women learn from each other's experiences.
Nowhere is this more important than in reconciling your health and financial plans for your future in retirement.
There are some very clear risks that women have when they're planning for retirement.
We know that women's life expectancy is longer, but what we also know is that their income generally is lower than the average man's.
Also they've more typically had a sporadic type of career path, which means that they often haven't built up resources such as pension plans
or even some of their investment resources, and this can very clearly put them at risk.
But, you know, men aren't off the hook in this one, either.
Men are living much longer lives, and this means they're taking on more risk. As they live longer,
their health becomes more dynamic and those changes might mean that there's more need for financial resources.
When you talk to an advisor, make sure that that information is clear and that it gets built into your plan.
Today's men are faced with some emerging health risks
that previously didn't occur because men weren't living long enough to experience these same problems that women have been.
Osteoporosis is one of those conditions.
Middle-aged men don't experience the same rapid loss of bone mass that women do in their post-menopausal years.
The problem is that this hasn't been a traditionally-recognized male risk factor,
so the diagnosis and the attention to lifestyle and preventative factors that could help men deal with osteoporosis
sometimes aren't implemented early enough.
What we see is that women are doing financial planning from a holistic point of view,
whereas men are typically not. It's that investment return, the risk and the reward that men focus on,
whereas women are looking at their priorities, what's important in their life, and building a financial plan to match that.
Now, here's where the changes happen.
We know that men are living longer, and what that means is that they're going to experience more health issues.
Those health issues mean that the plan, the financial plan, needs to be dynamic to match those health changes,
so that's what's causing men to take a more holistic view.
After all, men are closing that gap with life expectancy,
and what that means is that there are going to be more health changes as they live longer.
The financial plan needs to match with that, so when they're building a financial plan,
what they need to talk to their advisor about is their life priorities and, as those change,
how their financial plan will change.
Just as the cardiovascular disease risk of women was overlooked in previous generations, putting those women at greater risk,
we are in danger of the same thing happening to men in this generation with respect to osteoporosis.
This puts men at greater risk because there isn't a history of paying attention to this disease for men,
and men are just not as aware that this is now an emerging health risk factor for them during their retirement years.
A very interesting conversation with your advisor can be the discussion about the actual retirement date.
What we know traditionally is that men have established the retirement date.
They know what that date is and when they move into their retirement and how their lifestyle will change.
What we know with women is that they traditionally have that second shift,
and retirement isn't quite so clear for them,
and that makes a really interesting conversation when we have men and women together in the room with the advisor.
Aging and retirement are complex issues for both of the sexes.
Health and financial changes can occur rapidly, and men and women need to learn from one another.
They can do this by helping one another to identify the health and financial risk factors they're going to face
by choosing their advisors wisely, and by not accepting gender stereotypes for their health and financial planning.
Learn more about taking control of your personal health and financial situation.
Review our online research report and our self-assessment activities. Find out how you measure up.