May #2 In a completely unsurprising turn of events, the Tories have not done well at the recent local elections. Can you feel the shock waves running through Parliament? No,.
Read moreMonday Musings 12/06/2023
By Caroline Rupik
I’m sure you’ve heard about the gender pay gap. Did you know there is a gender pension gap too? A couple of weeks back I’d been looking into current research on this as it’s something I’d been quite concerned about, and I wanted to know if I was right to be concerned. There was a lot of data out there, but most of the research had been conducted years ago and I struggled to find something up to date.
Low and behold, on the 5th of June the government published a report (the first of its kind) stating that women’s pensions in the UK at the age of 55 are worth on average 35% less than their male counterparts. For people eligible for Auto enrolment the news is a fraction better. The gap narrows to 32%. But before you pop your party hat on, its worth noting the gap rises to 47% for those aged 45 – 49.
To add to this, the report doesn’t take into account the financial situation of people without any pension savings at all. And guess who this is more likely to be? That’s right. Women.
But why is this? Simply put, (and yes, this is a generalisation) women don’t earn as much as men so don’t invest as much into their pension. There are a multitude of reasons behind this. The gender pay gap, women are more likely than men to take time out of careers to raise children, or be unpaid carers, or to take on part time work. The list goes on. Of course, this isn’t intended to denigrate men or deny those men who do take on child rearing or carer roles, you are very much out there and we salute you.
But I also wonder if another reason is that women talk about their pensions even less than men do, and if its true that pensions are marketed to women less. Are pensions seen as less of a priority for women? When I think about how financial advice is discussed in mainstream media, I struggle to think of many times when the target audience seemed to be women. Lets put it this way, I don’t ever remember the Scottish Widow looking like Gerald Butler, do you?
There are so many working single women out there, women in long term same sex relationships, and women in blended families who need their financial independence and security. How many of us have really thought about our retirement future? How many of your sisters and daughters have been encouraged to get timely financial advice? Come on ladies, I think its time to talk.
So, to the markets:
30.12.2022 | 12.05.2023 | % Change | % Change on week | |
FTSE 100 | 7451 | 7573 | Up 1.63 | Up 0.14 |
Dow Jones | 33147 | 33980 | Up 2.51 | Up 0.31 |
Nasdaq | 10466 | 13324 | Up 27.30 | Up 0.49 |
S&P | 3839 | 4308 | Up 12.21 | Up 0.22 |
NIKKEI | 26094 | 32434 | Up 24.29 | Up 0.52 |
Hang Seng | 19781 | 19404 | Down 1.90 | Up 0.07 |
Shanghai | 3089 | 3228 | Up 4.49 | Down 0.08 |
CAC 40 | 6473 | 7261 | Up 12.17 | Up 0.66 |
DAX | 13923 | 16087 | Up 15.54 | Up 0.86 |
May #1 One of the challenges with writing these is not so much finding something to write about, it’s that there is so much I could write about! I know.
Read moreNot all of its bleak out there. Sometimes we hear good things in the press. Ok, not often. But sometimes. For example, news came in the press recently that the.
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