9/8/2015 – Homeowners face risky retirement scenarios (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

Homemakers often play a big role in raising children, managing households and caring for sick loved ones. But because the job does not come with a steady paycheck or retirement benefits, they can be forced to rely on others for income and face tremendous risks when it comes to retirement. “In devoting their time to unpaid work, homemakers financially rely on their spouses or partners — a reliance that they expect to continue through retirement, a reliance that comes with risks,” said Catherine Collinson, president of the nonprofit Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies in Los Angeles and executive director of the Aegon Center for Longevity and Retirement. The Aegon Center is based in The Hague in the Netherlands and is collaborating with the Transamerica Institute, which has been conducting research on retirement, health and aging in the U.S. for more than a decade. Their new report, “Homemakers are not off the hook: How should they be planning for retirement?” surveyed 1,600 self-described homemakers spanning 15 countries. Workers and retirees in the survey were more likely than homemakers to associate retirement with positive words such as “leisure, freedom and enjoyment.” In contrast, homemakers were more likely to cite negative words such as “insecurity, poverty and ill health.”

Read the full article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.