No matter how intelligent they may be, no matter what their status in the work world, Jean Leonard knows that women tend to put financial matters on the back burner.

“A lot of women don’t have the time to focus on learning about investments and finances,” she said.

The president of Jean Leonard Wealth Management in Newtown, and a financial advisor and strategist since 1996, she hopes to remedy that deficit through a series of Newtown Continuing Education classes she will lead in October and November.

“Retirement Realities for Women” takes place Tuesday evening, October 21, addressing the common questions women have when moving into this later phase of life. Participants will also learn what Ms Leonard believes are the five top mistakes women make when planning for retirement.

“Social Security Strategies for Women” is geared for women over the age of 50, and will focus on applying for Social Security benefits. The two-hour class is offered Tuesday, October 30.

On November 5, Ms Leonard will address Social Security again, in a class for women and men. “Social Security and You” will discuss the best ways to maximize Social Security and Medicare benefits.

One of the reasons to single out women from men for these classes, she said, is that women tend to make decisions differently than men do, gathering information rather than making “gut decisions.” They can become immobilized out of the fear of doing the wrong thing, she said. The classes will help women find useful financial information and then use it wisely. The purpose, she said, is to “empower women, especially, to make decisions and take control of their financial future.”

“A significant portion of how women view money is what we were taught, and were we taught [about finances],” Ms Leonard said. “Women need to know, is the internal script hurting us, or do we need to reframe that script?” she asked.

Her own interest in the financial world began as a young girl, Ms Leonard said. “I always liked accounting and finance, and I was always entrepreneurial,” she said.

A conversation with her father after graduating from college was pivotal for her. “I was talking to him about being offered participation in the 401K program at work, and told him I wasn’t sure I could afford to do it. He told me to do it, and then we had a ‘retirement’ conversation that evolved into how pensions, like he had, were beginning to disappear,” Ms Leonard recalled. Around the same time, she read an article noting that the savings rate for Americans was less than six percent.

“I started wondering, ‘What are people going to do?” I knew if people were not saving, that pensions were fading, and Social Security was in controversy, it could not be a good outcome [for people’s financial futures],” said Ms Leonard.

With that in mind, over the course of her career Ms Leonard has compiled statistics that highlight the circumstances affecting women and their financial futures. Those numbers should be cautionary to women of all ages, she said.

“Ninety percent of women, at some point, will have to take financial control,” she said. More than 50 percent of marriages end in divorce, she pointed out, and the average age of widowhood is 56. Women outlive their husbands by 15 years, on average. “At age 85,” Ms Leonard said, “there are twice as many women as men.”

Nor are women minor players in the work world. They make up 47 percent of the work force (although only 4.4 percent are CEOs in the Fortune 500 companies) and 57 percent of the college graduates in 2010 were women.

“Forty percent of all US households with children under the age of 18 have a woman as the sole income earner, and twice the number of single women as single men are homeowners,” she said. But despite the fact that more women are graduating from college, and in the work force, women still earn only 80 to 81 percent of what men do.

“[Women] make less, but have to save more, because we live longer,” Ms Leonard said. A widow herself since 2008, with three children, she is passionate about educating women in money matters. She considers herself fortunate to have been in a position to handle the financial issues raised by her unexpected reentry into single life. Many women who are widowed or divorced are thrust into an unfamiliar or uncomfortable role, she said.

Her job is to teach women to lay out a road map to get from point A to point B, “in an efficient manner,” she said.

Retirement Is Unavoidable

Whether married, single, divorced, or widowed, retirement is unavoidable.

“It’s never too late to start planning,” she said, nor is it ever too early. “I always ask women to consider, ‘What do you want to be when you retire?’” Clarifying that vision is one thing she hopes women will take away from the October 21 class.

Women have questions about Social Security, and about risk management in the markets.

“They need to know how potentially being out of the work force affects earnings, and about claiming strategies for taking Social Security benefits. When to start taking the benefits, whose benefits to take, and when Social Security benefits can be deferred are just a few of the common questions she hears from women, said Ms Leonard.

Each class will be open to all questions regarding finances, and Ms Leonard hopes that women will be comfortable asking questions. In classes geared for women and led by a woman, she believes participants will find the setting nonthreatening. “There are no stupid questions,” she stressed. 

“These will be instructional workshops,” she said, “giving a broad overview of women and finances.” She looks forward to sharing her knowledge.

“For me, the best part of teaching these classes is seeing women engaged in conversations about money, and seeing that ‘Aha!’ moment. If somebody could walk away with one or two pieces of information that could change her situation, for me, that’s a win-win,” she said.

Ms Leonard is a former Senior Financial Advisor with Ameriprise Financial Services, Certified Financial Planner, and Certified Retirement Planning Counselor. She earned her BA at Southern Connecticut State University and her MBA in Finance and International Business at Sacred Heart University. She is chairman of the Newtown Economic Development Commission and a board member of the Newtown Chamber of Commerce.

To register for Newtown Continuing Education courses, visit www.newtown.k12.ct.us/departments/adultcontinuingeducation, or call 203-426-1787 for more information.