Sarah Siddons, Chartered Financial Planner at Siddons & Co Financial Planning based in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, is a woman on a mission.

She wants to break the taboo of discussing money, to empower women to put themselves first for once and take control of their financial lives. She is aware that not taking control of financial matters is a real risk for women, as ultimately it may lead to them facing a cash strapped retirement. A fact that is certainly backed up by the figures.

Throughout the timeline of women’s lives they face physical, emotional and social challenges with many of these bringing financial challenges. There may be certain milestones that can have a huge impact on women’s finances.

Although women live longer than men¹, on average they are retiring with significantly lower private pensions than men and are more likely to feel that they are not preparing adequately for retirement².

And whilst the gender pay gap is shrinking and now stands at a figure of 7.9%³, it is still very high in the 40-49 year old age category with a figure of 11.4%³ and if we take into account both full time and part time jobs, the overall figure is 15.4%³.

This is because women fill more part-time jobs with women with dependent children seven times more likely to work part time than men⁴ and these jobs have lower hourly median pay than full-time jobs and are more likely to be in lower-paid occupations.  With lower pay, women are less able to make comparable pension contributions as their male peers (due to restrictions on making personal pension contributions up to 100% of Relevant UK Earnings and also affordability)

As Sarah explains:

“It’s so important for women to be armed with the right knowledge and necessary facts about their finances and financial future because so many women may be heading into retirement blindly, not knowing how much money they will need to live comfortably; some may not even know how much money they have and may be leaving the management of their finances to their partners.

“Many women I’ve spoken to tell me that they’re too ashamed to admit they haven’t made any concrete financial plans; they want to ask lots of questions and really need to understand the pros and cons before making decisions. A good adviser will be non-judgemental and supportive, creating the perfect environment for them to learn and gain confidence.

“I know from my own personal network that many women keep a lot of plates spinning, and if they can outsource some of the worry about money matters to a supportive and trusted expert, that’s one less thing they have to think about. And once they’ve gained financial control, security, wellbeing and peace of mind for the future won’t be far behind.

“It's simple really, women need to be in control of their own financial lives and I want to help them do that. It just takes a phone call to start the process”

¹ ONS, National life tables – life expectancy in the UK. 2018 to 2020, released 23 September 2021.

² Scottish Widows Women and Retirement Report 2021

³ Office for National Statistics (ONS), Gender pay gap in the UK. 2021 released 26 October 2021.

⁴ ONS Families and the labour market, UK: 2020 released 8 March 2021