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Social Security plays a vital role in the lives of women.
With longer life expectancies than men, women tend to live more
years in retirement and have a greater chance of exhausting other
sources of income. With the national average life expectancy for
women in the United States rising, many women will have decades
to enjoy retirement. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a girl
born today can expect to live more than 80 years. As a result,
experts generally agree that if women want to ensure that their
retirement years are comfortable, they need to plan early and
wisely.
What you can do
The best place to begin is by knowing what you can expect to
receive from Social Security, and how much more you are likely to
need.
You can start with a visit to Social Security's Retirement
Estimator. There, in just a few minutes, you can get a
personalized, instant estimate of your retirement benefits. You can
find it at www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator/.
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You should also visit Social Security's
financial planning website at
www.socialsecurity.gov/planners.
It provides detailed information about how marriage, widowhood,
divorce, self-employment, government service, and other life or
career events can affect your Social Security.
If you want more information about the role of Social
Security in women's lives today, Social Security also has a booklet
that you may find useful. It is called Social Security: What
Every Woman Should Know. You can find it online at
www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/10127.html.
[Text copied from file
by Judith Bartels, Social Security district manager in Springfield]
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