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Credit Union Women: Are You on Track for Retirement?

mature African American woman
Theresa Witham Photo
VP/Publications & Publisher
CUES

2 minutes

The latest issue of Advancing Women offers tips for overcoming common challenges women face in planning for their future.

Quiz time! The unique financial planning needs of women include: 

A. a longer expected life span than their male counterparts.
B. earning gaps from taking time off work to care for children and/or elderly parents.
C. underfunded retirement accounts due in part to pay inequities. 
D. all of the above.

If you said D, you are correct! This is one question in a new quiz in this latest issue of CU Management’s special online publication Advancing Women. Will you score 100%? And more importantly, will you be able to reach retirement that you envision? 

In our feature article “Focus on Personal Finances,” we offer five expert recommendations to plan for—and achieve—a secure future. These tips are applicable to anyone who wants to retire some day but, as Susan Mitchell chair of the Global Women’s Leadership Network and CEO of Mitchell Stankovic & Associates, points out in an article for us, women face unique retirement obstacles. As a result, we need to be extra proactive for ourselves, our colleagues and our staff.   

If you want to help female leaders reach their full potential, I implore you to consider gender bias and root it out of your credit union’s culture and performance evaluations. A second feature article this month looks at how “prove it again” and other types of bias hurt women in the workplace. 

In each issue of Advancing Women, we like to bring you inspiration. This month we are excited to profile four amazing leaders. Supervisory committee member Sharon Dunbar talks about how her career as a military officer—and now as a credit union volunteer at Andrews Federal Credit Union—helps her help people find a pathway to a better future.

CUES member Felicia Pope, CSME, VP/marketing and business development for ArrowPointe Federal Credit Union, is passionate about marketing, helping people and giving back.

In a video, Debbie Matz, former chair of the National Credit Union Administration, discusses what led her down her varied career path and offers advice on keeping your options open while pursuing your goals.

Finally, Miriam De Dios Woodward, CEO of PolicyWorks, LLC, has advice for aspiring leaders: “Devote time to building robust business and community experience by working for a variety of organizations, including large and small organizations, nonprofits and for-profits, and serving on boards. This will help you better understand what your purpose is, what drives you and how you want to lead.”

Who should we profile in a future issue? Let me know! And if you would like to receive Advancing Women in your email, it’s easy to sign up

Before I go, I want to thank CUES Supplier member PSCU, St. Petersburg, Florida, for sponsoring this issue of Advancing Women! This support helps us bring you high-quality content on the topics that are important to professional credit union women.

Theresa Witham is managing editor/publisher at CUES.

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