Three Part Series (1 of 3)

How Can Women Close the Retirement Savings Gap? (2 min read)

A recent survey by the MassMutual insurance company found that women expect they'll have a five-year income shortfall in retirement. Men, on the other hand, believe that their income will be enough to meet their needs.

Today in the U.S., women earn about 80 cents to each dollar a man makes.

Couple the difference in wages with the fact that women in the U.S. tend to outlive men by approximately five years, and you can see why their fears of outliving their retirement savings are real.

Here's the first of three things a woman can do to shore up their savings:

Start a Spousal Individual Retirement Account

Spousal individual retirement accounts let you set aside $5,500 each year in an IRA, plus $1,000 if you're 50 and over toward a non-working spouse's retirement.  However, some rules do apply.

• One spouse must be earning income in order to sock money away into an IRA. 

• For Roth IRAs, you cannot contribute if you have joint income $199,000 or over for 2018 

• The couple must file a joint income tax return, and 

• They must be married.

Investors who turn 70½ are prohibited from making contributions to traditional IRAs. The same age limit applies to stay-at-home spouses.

The amounts you save in a spousal IRA can add up over time. If you invest $5,500 per year over 10 years, that's $55,000 plus growth …

Source: CNBC