By Debra Wood, RN, contributor
Few nurses are planning and investing to meet their retirement needs, and most acknowledge they need to increase their financial acumen but lack the time to prepare, according to the recently released Nurse Investor Education Survey.
“[Retirement saving] is an area where you need to think of yourself first,” said Cindy Hounsell, president of the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER). “That’s hard for women generally, but much harder for nurses.”
WISER and the Center for American Nurses teamed up to learn more about nurses’ retirement plans, garnering funding support from the FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ) Investor Education Foundation. Together, they conducted the current study and have developed action-oriented educational programs just for nurses.
“Our mission is to provide financial information to underserved audiences, and we thought nurses needed more information,” John Gannon, president of the FINRA Investor Education Foundation “The survey results that came out of the grant we funded indicate nurses are not getting the information they need to be secure in retirement.”
Researchers sent a survey to a random sample of 4,600 nurses selected from licensure rosters of six states and 1,400 nurses randomly selected from the membership of the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetrics, and Neonatal Nurses and the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses. In addition, nurses visiting several Web sites were offered the chance to respond.
From those that were invited, 901 nurses from 47 states participated. Most were Caucasian, female and worked full time. Seventy percent earned $75,000 or more annually. They ranged in age from 20 to 78, with an average age of 52.5.
“The thing that concerned me was the average of the respondent was 52.5 years, which is pretty old, but 37 percent of the respondents had saved less than $50,000 for retirement,” Gannon said. “That $50,000 is not going to go very far.”
Among other findings, the survey showed that 61 percent of respondents said they did not have time to plan for retirement, 24 percent indicated they were not earning enough money to save and 59 percent said they didn’t know where to begin.
Hounsell recommended that nurses start by identifying their assets and determining how much money they will need in retirement. She suggested starting early and putting away as much as possible, even if someone cannot save 15 percent of their salary in a retirement account.
“You have to start somewhere,” Hounsell said. “To reach the goals you should be saving more every year.”
Hounsell advises nurses to take advantage of employer matching programs and to put bonuses in the retirement account. That’s extra money not missed in the budget. It’s also smart to consider employers’ pension plans before switching jobs.
The Nurses’ Investor Education Project has piloted the educational programs in six states and will roll out three webinars and print and electronic workbooks this fall. The materials are designed to motivate nurses to prepare for retirement.
“We want to make sure the information is getting into the hands of as many nurses as we can,” said Wylecia Harris, executive director at the Center for American Nurses.
While the Internet contains vast amounts of investing resources, Hounsell said, nurses have a difficult time finding basic information.
“People don’t know how to take those first steps, so it doesn’t matter if there are 500 pages on the Internet,” Hounsell said. “If people don’t have that ownership, they are not going to read.”
All investors should diversify their portfolios, but as nurses approach retirement, they should move money out of stocks and into safer investment vehicles, Hounsell advised. Nurses also should find out what fees the brokerage house or bank charges, because fees can erode earnings.
Most importantly, according to Hounsell, nurses of all ages need to remember that it’s never too early to start squirreling money away. And for procrastinators who only plan to work a few more years, it’s time to really step it up.
“I encourage nurses to save for retirement,” Gannon agreed. “I note 7.6 percent of the respondents claim never to retire, but that’s unlikely to be the case. Most people retire earlier than anticipated for a variety of reasons and will live in retirement for many years. Having a plan in place for a long retirement is very important.”
For more information about retirement planning, visit:
The Center for American Nurses
WISER – Nurses’ Investor Education Project
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