| Scope of Study. Problems of inadequate financial resources affect many women during their senior years. Midlife women may avoid such problems if they take personal responsibility to plan financially for their retirement years.; Two hundred and twenty-two women, 40 to 55 years of age, responded to a mailed questionnaire about retirement planning. The response rate was 57%. Correlations, factor analysis, and multiple regression were used to analyze relationships between retirement planning, and personal, economic, and social-psychological variables.; Findings and Conclusions. Responses were considered in the context of five steps of ideal planning: goal setting, long-range planning, anticipated resource identification, information seeking, and implementation. Overall, the women were goal setters but lacked information about future retirement benefits and needs. Information seeking was limited for most of the respondents. Asset choices appeared to lack diversity; life insurance, savings accounts, IRAs, and pensions were selected most often by the respondents. Less than one-third owned stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, or limited partnerships.; Multiple regression analysis identified women most likely to be planning for retirement as those with higher household income, pensions, willingness to take financial risk, and believing that they, rather than chance, controlled their lives. Social-psychological variables had a major role in explaining various aspects of retirement planning.; Greater cooperation between educators and financial planners is recommended to help women better manage their finances. Education may be needed to help women overcome inhibiting social-psychological factors in order to learn to take responsibility for future financial security. |
