Are Self-Employed Women Prepared For Retirement?

By
IntelligentHQ
Are Self-Employed Women Prepared For Retirement?
Are Self-Employed Women Prepared For Retirement?

A third of women are not able to save anything for their future. The number of self-employed women in the UK has surged 700,000 since 2005. Women now account for 34 per cent of Britons running their own company, up from 27 per cent in 2005. However, The Scottish Widows Women and Retirement report published last month found a third of these women are not saving anything at all. A further one in four are not saving enough into their pension to provide themselves with a sustainable income when, or should they ever retire.

It was recently reported that the size of the gig economy has doubled in size over the past three years and now accounts for 4.7 million workers and the flexibility offered by Britain’s freelancers is worth £21 billion to the UK economy in added value.

Despite this, many Brits are being dissuaded from pursuing a lucrative self-employed career due to the inconsistent and late payments that blight the arena, prevent people from saving for their future and planning their finances appropriately. Research from ETZ Payments found the following:

    • 30% of Brits think that they would earn more if they were self-employed, but they choose not to due to inconsistent payment structures
      • This applied to 34% of middle-class workers
    • 13% of Brits spend 4 hours and above a week chasing invoices
      • 15% of middle-class workers
    • 15% of Brits think the biggest issue they’ve faced as a self-employed worker is chasing invoices
      • 15% of middle-class workers
    • 15% of UK freelancers and self-employed people have had to turn to payday lenders or short term finance solutions due to inconsistent payments from their work
  • A quarter of the UK self-employed population can’t afford big-ticket commitments such as weddings planning, holidays, and home improvements due to the payment structure

Nick Woodward, CEO of ETZ Payments, offers the following commentary:

“The gig economy offers lucrative work to a range of highly-skilled workers who are employed in a range of industries including technology, healthcare and finance. What is disheartening is that self-employed women are being hampered later in life by inconsistent payment structures.

Furthermore, our research at ETZ Payments shows that 15% of freelancers and self-employed people are actually having to turn to payday lenders to see them through from month to month. The payment structures for freelancers and the self-employed need to be overhauled so that late payments are a thing of the past and more people can receive the benefits they deserve after work.”

Being self-employed  as evidently important freedoms. One of the most important among them are the ability to set your own schedule and the freedom to focus on your passions without answering to anyone else.

Unfortunately, it also means that you’re 100% responsible for your own finances—and that means that you are the only one who will be able to manage them correctly. This is even harder for women. It is thus very important that one creates a safety net, where one can ensure both that you’ll have the finances necessary to keep your business running and that you will be able to manage your personal finances even when your paycheck may need to drop for a period of time.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR