About Our Programs

Women's Financial Challenges:

Key Financial Issues

Highlights

Available in Spanish!

WISER’s guide, Financial Steps for Caregivers/ Medidas Financieras para los Cuidadores.

Five Questions to Ask Your Mother or Grandmother offers help with meaningful conversations to have with important women in your life.

Life can be unpredictable. An emergency fund acts as a financial “safety net” and can prevent the use of credit cards or high-interest loans to pay for expenses. See WISER’s Factsheet.

WISER’s Financial Caregiving Hub is a one-stop clearinghouse for information, tools, and resources to help family caregivers.

Your Future Paycheck® Calculator is an annuity calculator. See how a lump sum payment would be converted to a monthly amount.

New Research: National Council on Aging (NCOA) and WISER’s What Women Say survey finds American women ages 25+ face significant economic stress, and are concerned about how to pay for health care and other expenses in retirement. Across demographic and party lines, women express strong bipartisan support for federal policy solutions that could help.

Poor longevity literacy is an unrecognized barrier to retirement security, a new TIAA report shows. Workers with strong longevity literacy tend to be better prepared for retirement.

Poverty rates among older Americans rose from 8.9% in 2020 to 10.3% in 2021. For many older minority women, poverty rates were even higher. Pay inequity plays a role. See WISER’s factsheet: The Story is in the Numbers

A U.S. Census Bureau infographic illustrates the gap between women’s and men’s earnings by occupation.

News from WISER

Social Security benefits & SSI payments will increase 2.5% in 2025. On average, Social Security retirement benefits will increase by about $50 per month starting in January. Learn more.

THANK YOU speakers and participants for making WISER’s Annual Women’s Retirement Symposium, Addressing Women’s Retirement Gaps: Advancing Solutions a great success! Presentation slides are now available. AGENDA

Join us in celebrating Life Insurance Month with WISER partner, the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI). Life insurance provides financial protection for families and businesses through whatever life brings. See ACLI’s featured resources.

ARTICLE: Women worry more than men about outliving their retirement savings. Should they? Yahoo! Finance article/video from Kerry Hannon

WISER referenced in USA TODAY—Longer lives, lower pay: Why saving for retirement is harder for women

With Social Security Video Connect, you can meet with a Social Security representative via video. To use this service, you need access to a Microsoft Teams compatible device (desktop, laptop, tablet, or smart phone with web camera). Request a video appointment by contacting your local Social Security office or calling 1-800-772-1213 between 8:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The Latina Savings Project and WISER were featured on a segment on Wisconsin Public Radio, Latinas in Wisconsin find financial savings success through national program.

Top 5 Retirement Challenges for Women

Women usually live longer than men but tend to save less for retirement
Women make 82 cents to every dollar a man earns.
Women are more likely to work part-time jobs without access to workplace savings plans.
Women are still the primary caregivers, often leaving jobs to care for family members.
Older women rely on Social Security; for many it is their only source of income.

WISER’s goal is to help women make the best financial decisions they can by providing the information and resources needed to take action and create a secure financial future.

* WISER’S PUBLICATIONS AND FACT SHEETS ARE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD AND PRINT FOR PERSONAL AND INDIVIDUAL USE ONLY.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE MULTIPLE COPIES FOR DISTRIBUTION, PLEASE CONTACT WISER. *

Featured Resources

Featured

Older Women and Poverty

Every day more than 10,000 people in the United States turn 65. From 1969 to 2020, the portion of people over age 65 who were

Featured

I-Bonds Paying Interest Rate of 5.27%

Savings Bonds are often considered a safe and trustworthy investment because the U.S. government backs them. There are different types of savings bonds, the most recent and one of the most popular types being the I Bond. A key feature of the I Bond is that it is inflation-protected.

Media Highlights

The Broadcast Retirement Network features an interview with Cindy Hounsell of WISER and Ramsey Alwin of NCOA discussing the results from the recent “What Women Say” survey. Watch the video here.

Corporate gerontologist and caregiving expert, Sherri Snelling interviews Cindy Hounsell of WISER (Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement) on the Caregiving Club. Cindy talks about a new tool from WISER for caregivers called the Caregiver Financial Hub.