Unique financial advice for women

Women are more vulnerable as we age because we have 5 very unique money issues:

1. Lower earnings
   
2. Work patterns
   
3. Health status
   
4. Life expectancy
   
5. Marital status
   

Money mindset: Women have long owned nearly half the country's financial assets but few know the state of their own finances. Money is important so you need to learn more about accumulating it and protecting it. Education (what we learn) plus motivation (what we do with what we learn) will get you closer to your money goals faster.

Talking points:

• Lower earnings: work in different, often less lucrative occupations and sectors.
  
  
• Work patterns: on average work 13 years less than men and during our time away not increasing our earning power, not vesting in pensions and lifetime earnings for Social Security income are lower; women on average about 11 ½ years off the job; men only about 16 months.
  
  
• Health status: the system sees us differently as our illnesses frequently result in the need for long term care and other needs often aren't covered by many insurances or Medicare.
  
  
• Life expectancy: on average 5 years longer than men but our income at age 65 is half that of men.
  
  
• Marital status: widowed and divorced women are three to four times more likely to be poor than women in couples.

Bottomline: Building a sound personal money foundation requires knowing:

• What you know you know.
  
• What you know you don't know.
  
• What you know you should know.
  
• What you don't know you don't know (most problematic)
  

About Valerie Coleman Morris:

Valerie Coleman (now Valerie Coleman Morris) was a Bay Area native when it comes to television news. She began her career in the early 70s in San Francisco at KRON-TV as a reporter and then KGO-TV as a long time anchor.

She was part of the Van Amburg/Jerry Jensen/Pete Giddings news team that branded "happy talk" as a new news genre.

Valerie's the former Business Anchor for CNN domestic and international - her dozen daily reporters were seen every day by more than 290 million households, businesses and airport networks.

She still appears on CNN as a personal finance guest expert but now focuses her works as a financial journalist/educator with a unique point of view about money. Her "mind over money matters" approach gives the thought process for a behavioral change: re-calculating your relationship with your personal money.

Valerie's mantra: "It's your money, so take it personally."

Valerie's blog site "Women and Money:" Posts domestically, internationally every Thursday -- thethinpinkline.com

Valerie's daily podcast "Valuable Money Tips" For professional women -- www.napw.com

CBS Network Radio "With the Family in Mind - Money Matters:" Three times a week syndicated radio column