| lenona321@yahoo.com: Apr 27 12:40PM -0700 According to MRA Ian Ironwood (not his real name, of course). First of all, this is a guy who doesn't really believe that childfree (as opposed to childless) women really exist. However, he seems to imply that even the average childfree woman won't be able to retire without a husband's financial support. Why? Because since she's female, she will have made too many stupid spending decisions when she was younger. (Note the last sentence from the excerpts.) So, even an infirm elderly man can pay for all his needs because men are ALWAYS smart enough to be rich in advance, while women never manage to do that? I wonder. Somehow, if Ironwood's argument were anywhere near true (regarding childfree women, at least) you'd think it would be in the news by now. To wit: http://theredpillroom.blogspot.com/2012/03/if-women-dont-need-man-these-days-how.html Excerpts: ...there is a difference between being able to support yourself at a subsistence level and actually thriving in our society. As Badger points out, women tend to do better, personally, in two-income households. As a single woman in a blue or pink collar job, the cost of basic living expenses and the "feminine supplies" implicit in being a girl (cosmetics, health-and-beauty, twice as much underwear, birth control, feminine hygiene supplies, 8.2 assloads of shoes), there is precious little left with which to advance either the poor girl's education and training or her standard of living. Call this the "Laverne and Shirley" mode. As a young single woman you have a job that pays for your basement apartment and food, and you work part time for pizza-and-beer-and-gossip-mags money. This is "subsistence living, industrial style". Add even a single child to this equation and suddenly you're in poverty. Luckily (for women) there are plenty of service jobs that pay slightly more than the blue/pink collar jobs out there. As long as a young woman pays for all of her necessities and is thoughtful and careful about her spending, she should be able not just support herself, but to gradually improve her standard of living and/or invest in her education. Of course the number of young women who understand budgeting and saving and investment - not to mention thoughtful and careful spending - is so statistically small so that what usually happens (according to a veteran financial planner friend of mine - I got nerds) is that the young lady in question racks up a lot of debt early on and ends up using up most of her expendable income in finance charges... ...I know a dude I went to High School with who skipped college, turned his tech skills into a full-time data management job at a hospital, and by the time the rest of us were struggling to graduate and living at home, he had moved out of his shitty apartment and bought a house. At 23. By 25 he cashed in his equity and appreciation and upgraded. I don't know of a single female peer who showed as much financial initiative. Indeed, three of my wife's friends from HS had filed for bankruptcy by the time they were 25. So being a woman who can make her own money is great . . . as long as she doesn't care about her own future or want children. You go, girl! (snip) Sheesh. Lenona. |
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