What to do?

Women should invest a substantial part of their income regularly, right from the early years of employment in order to build a sizeable retirement corpus. A young woman should allocate a major part of her portfolio to equity mutual funds in the early stage of her career. This will help her build a good retirement corpus. It is also advisable that they restructure their portfolio in later years, depending on their risk appetite. Financial knowledge is key. Women should increase their financial know-how. This will help them make the right investment decisions and generate better returns on investments.

The role of the women in society is gradually changing. They are breadwinners in many families. As a head and responsible members of the family, they should make retirement planning top priority. As high lighted, the retirement needs of women differ from men. In order to meet them, it is important that a woman starts investing in financial instruments besides fixed income securities. They should also work for a longer period to accumulate greater wealth as the benefit of compounding is at its best during the later years of one's accumulated corpus.