Leadership and Executive Development for women of all races, cultures and backgrounds
Issue link: https://diversitywoman.epubxp.com/i/91258
DW Life > Money Matters ing jobs, your kids may also remain fi- nancially dependent on you longer than expected. Also, aging parents are living longer; that means they may need financial help or caregiving that can force you to cut back on work. (We're liv- ing longer, too, and need to plan to sup- port ourselves well into our nineties.) In this environment, retirement plan- ning tends to take a backseat to more im- mediate financial concerns. One-third of workers surveyed earlier this year by the Employee Benefit Research Institute said they'd had to dip into their savings dur- ing the previous 12 months to cover basic expenses. Te same survey found that Americans' confidence about retirement had dropped to its lowest level in more than two decades: just 14 percent felt confident that they'd be able to retire comfortably. Te good news: retiring well isn't impossible—even if you're struggling to cope with aging parents, boomerang kids, mar- ket meltdowns, and general gloom and doom. Te key is to take care of How to Retire to Hawaii 9 Easy Steps for Building Your Nest Egg by Katherine Griffin I f you're worried that you won't be able to retire comfortably—or at all—congratulations: you've demon- strated excellent awareness of some frightening trends that have added new layers of complexity to retirement planning. www.diversitywoman.com For starters, it's likely that the finan- cial downturn has taken a bite out of your retirement savings. Other econom- ic changes, meanwhile, make it harder to keep putting money aside. You may have suffered a job loss, a pay cut, or both. And because grown and almost-grown children are having a tough time find- yourself first. "As women, we can get way too easily distracted by how much everyone else needs," says Megan Poore, a financial advisor at Lucien, Stirling and Gray Ad- visory Group in Austin, Texas. If you focus your attention on the right things and stick to a dis- ciplined strategy, you can build toward a retirement that meets your needs. Tese tips from three financial planners can help you bridge the gap between here and there. Create a vision You'll be more motivated to save for a goal that's clear and vivid, and makes you feel good every time you think about it. "Define what you are look- ing forward to," says Diahann Lassus, a fee-only financial advisor in New Provi- dence, New Jersey, and past chair of the Fall 2012 DIVERSITY WOMAN 65 THINKSTOCKPHOTOS