Women face unique obstacles when dealing with retirement. On average women earn less, work fewer years due to child rearing, and live longer than their male counterparts. These factors make retirement planning and saving especially challenging. For this reason, it is important to provide women with the tools to make savvy financial decisions and ensure their future well-being. This edition of Ripples focuses on providing helpful information and resources for women regarding retirement planning and saving. For more information you should visit our homepage.
Hartford Faculty Scholar Highlighted in University Newspaper Dennis Kao, PhD, Cohort XIII Hartford Faculty Scholar (and Cohort IX Doctoral Fellow), was featured in The Daily Cougar, the University of Houston’s student newspaper, which highlighted his research funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation through the Geriatric Social Work Initiative (GSWI). To learn more about Dr. Kao and his work, “Using Geo-Ethnography to Explore Spatial Accessibility of Health Services for Aging Minorities”, click here.
Congratulations to Dr. Joseph Pickard for being selected as a GSA Fellow
Dr. Joseph Pickard, Cohort VIII Hartford Faculty Scholar (and Cohort III Doctoral Fellow) has been selected by the Gerontological Society of America to be a Fellow, the highest class of membership within the Society. It is an acknowledgment of outstanding and continuing work in gerontology. Dr. Pickard will be formally recognized at GSA’s upcoming annual meeting along with his fellow awardees. Please join the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Initiative in congratulating Dr. Pickard on this significant award. To learn more about Dr. Pickard and his research, click here.
GSA’s 65th Annual Scientific Meeting: Register by September 12 and Save!
Register today for GSA’s 65th Annual Scientific Meeting, taking place November 14-18, 2012 in San Diego, CA. Pre-conference workshops are now available: choose from a variety of topics including Frontier Issues in Long-Term Services and Supports. For more details and to register, visit www.geron.org/2012.
Gero-Ed Center Invites You to Join E-mail List The National Center for Gerontological Social Work (Gero-Ed Center), which promotes gero curricular and organizational changes, student recruitment, educational policy and resource dissemination invites you to learn more about Gero-Ed Center news and events via periodic updates. Click here to join the e-mail list.
New Gerontology Education Consultants Service The Gero-Ed Center has a new, free consultation service designed to help faculty prepare students to work with older adults and their families. Visit the Gero-Ed Consultants Web page for more information and to download a consultant roster.
Featured Video: Retirement Income Security and Older Women
If you cannot see the video, click here.
Why Women Should Think Differently AboutRetirement From longer life spans, to fewer years spent working women must think differently about retirement. This article from US News highlights some of the most important factors and strategies women should consider when planning for retirement.
Allowing Caregivers to Contribute to IRA May Alleviate Some Financial Pressures for Women The New York Times Bucks blog recently highlighted a new report from the GAO focused on the larger financial challenges that women face in retirement. The report included analysis of two national surveys, a literature review, and interviews with retirement experts.
New retirees receiving less in Social Security than they paid in, marking historic shift
People retiring today are part of the first generation of workers who have paid more in Social Security taxes during their careers than they will receive in benefits after they retire. It's a historic shift that will only get worse for future retirees, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. Click here to read the article.
Social Security is a Key Retirement Resource for Women AARP has released a factsheet that specifically focuses on the impact Social Security can have on a woman’s retirement, and how women use social security income. To review the fact sheet, click here.
National Women’s Law Center: Social Security & Retirement Resources The National Women’s Law Center has compiled several helpful resources to provide women with a better understanding of what tools are available to them when preparing for retirement. Various fact sheets, tool kits, webinars, and presentations are offered and cover topics ranging from pension plans, to policy surrounding retirement. To learn more about these resources, click here.
Webinar: How to Pay for Long-Term Care Without Going Broke
The Family Caregiver Alliance and Harold L. Lustig, a financial advisor and author, are sponsoring a webinar on August 16, from 11:00am to 12:30pm (Pacific) focused on strategies to pay for long-term care. Lustig is the author of Naked in the Nursing Home, which he wrote after his experience caring for his parents. Participants will learn about Medicaid/Medi-Cal mistakes to avoid, VA benefits, when to seek legal help, and how families can plan ahead for the cost of long-term care. For more information or to register for the webinar, click here.
Financial Steps for Caregivers: What You Need to Know about Money and Retirement Forty-four million adults in the United States provide care for a loved one. A majority of those adults, 61%, are women who face difficult decisions every day while juggling jobs and caregiving responsibilities. WISER (Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement) has published a guide to help caregivers understand the financial consequences of caregiving and plan for a more secure future. To read the guide click here, to learn more about WISER visit their website.
Public Policy & Aging Report: Women’s Health and Retirement Security Public Policy & Aging Report, published quarterly, explores policy issues generated by the aging of American society. Edited by Boston University policy expert Robert B. Hudson, each thematic issue is designed to stimulate debate, highlight emerging concerns, and propose alternative policy options.The Women's Health and Retirement Security issue of PP&AR explores workplace policies, caregiving, and women’s long-term income security; the care gap: needs versus rights; and proposed policies to improve access, costs, and quality for Medicaid home and community based services. To purchase this issue (volume 19, issue 2), please click here.
Survey Reveals High Boomers Voting Anxiety A new AARP survey reveals that while the issues of job creation and employment are dominating the 2012 presidential campaign, not-yet-retired boomer voters are far more concerned about other economic issues. And they're upset that candidates aren't paying more attention to those issues. To learn more about the topics most Boomers are worried about, click here.
Empowering Diverse Older Americans to Become Civically Engaged Civic engagement is important for all age groups, but especially for America’s older adults. With the presidential election right around the corner it is necessary to encourage older adults to advocate for their needs as many approach their retirement years. Dr. Yanira Cruz discusses this topic and how various organizations are attempting to mobilize older voters. Click here to read what Dr. Cruz writes about civic engagement.
Ripples, an e-newsletter, is designed to keep interested deans and directors, faculty members, students, practitioners and others informed about the work of the Geriatric Social Work Initiative (GSWI).Please note that the information contained in Ripples comes from a variety of sources, including aging listservs, and social work and aging newsletters. In order to get this information to subscribers as quickly as possible, there is little to no additional verification of work or research of resources.
We welcome your feedback and encourage you to contribute any story ideas, stories, resources, news and other content to subsequent issues of the newsletter. To make a contribution, please contact us via email at gswi@geron.org.
For archived issues of Ripples, please click here.
