YOU HAVE GOT A NEW FUNDS

According to the eighth annual Scottish Widows Women and Pensions report released on October 22^nd 2012, the gender gap in retirement savings has increased by over 10 per cent in one year.

Half of women report feeling worse off than 12 months ago, compared to 45 per cent of men.

When it comes to retirement savings, women are now saving an average of £776 annually less than men for use in retirement. This is drastically higher than the £700 gender gap evidenced in 2011.

For example, if a 30 year old woman keeps up with this annual rate of saving, at retirement age (65 years old), she will have a £29,800 shortfall in today’s money, compared to an equivalent male.

The amount of women not saving anything at all for retirement has also grown since the previous year.

The study was based on a sample of 5,200 adults and showed that more than a quarter (26 per cent) of women are presently failing to save any amount of money for retirement. In 2011, this figure was 23 per cent, three per cent lower than this year.

In contrast, only 19 per cent of men admitted to not saving anything for retirement, said the report.

This disquieting shortage of provision has reverted back to levels from three years ago, rolling back any improvements made in 2010 and 2011.

Women find it harder to save money for the long-term and retirement because of important lifestyle differences, such as having a full-time caring role or being employed part-time, explained Lynn Graves, head of business development at the firm.

This is why it is vital that employers, the government and the pensions industry raise awareness of the gender gap in retirement savings to assist women in prioritising their pensions. Lombard Odier has a specialist occupational pension team that can assist people in planning for their retirement.

Over the last year, the savings rate among women has decreased immensely partly due to the repayment of short-term debt.

A third of women (31 per cent) are putting debt repayments ahead of saving for retirement.

The average amount owed – excluding mortgages – increased extensively from £10,174 in 2011, to £10,922 in 2012.

Within widespread economic uncertainty, many people in the UK are under pressure regarding their household finances. However it is obvious that women are side-lining long-term saving in favour of a more short-term approach, with 42 per cent of women placing living expenses above retirement saving this year.

Further to this, the most popular reason given by 31 per cent of women for saving long-term is to “save for a rainy day”, not to save for retirement.

The perspective of saving for a rainy day shows that women see their savings as a fund to dip into anytime to cover any unexpected costs, not one to be protected for the future to pay for retirement.

On the positive side, women who are already saving for their pension would rather cut back elsewhere if faced with an income drop, than decrease their pension contributions. Just three per cent said they would decrease their pension contributions.

Additionally, 28 per cent of women surveyed are planning on boosting their contributions over the next year.

While women are right to focus on ensuring their debts are managed, alternative sacrifices need to be made to make sure retirement planning is in place. Lombard Odier has recognised expertise in occupational pensions, including tax consultants, actuaries and lawyers to help people make the most of their pension plans.

Blogger Robert Scoble met up with Brin at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco and, seeing that Brin was wearing a pair of the freshly unveiled Google Glasses, took a photo of the two of them with his camera, which he promptly posted on Instagram and Twitter.

Scoble says Brin wouldn’t let him try on the sci-fi specs, which communicate with the wearer’s smartphone to relay information and turn the glasses into a futuristic heads-up display. However, he did say the glasses appeared to be very lightweight and that they seemed to be flashing info to Brin as they talked. He also said they looked “self-contained,” not requiring other hardware (although a wireless connection to a phone wouldn’t be visible).

Yet in spite of the hype and the fact that in February, The New York Times reported that Google was planning to release such high-tech glasses later this year, not everybody is holding their breath for an actual product like the one in the video.

According to Wired, at least a couple of experts say the technology Google is showing off can’t possibly deliver what the concept video depicted.

“In one simple fake video, Google has created a level of over-hype and over-expectation that their hardware cannot possibly live up to,” said Blair MacIntyre, director of the Augmented Environments Lab at Georgia Tech.