Panel Discussion:
Women in Transition; Successfully Transition to Retirement
April 2, 2024
6:00 pm, via Zoom
Working women experience many different transitions during their working years, some of which are market induced, some are career induced and some are life-cycle induced. The final transition is to retirement. Successfully transitioning to retirement begins long before actually retiring. There is no one way to retire; there is no one path to successful retirement; but it all begins with planning.
Since March 12 was Equal Pay Day, this is a particularly relevant time for this discussion. Working women earn less than working men; occupational segregation exists with more women being in lower paying jobs; women have fewer working years than men, mostly due to caregiving responsibilities; more women live with economic insecurity than men; and lastly women live longer than men, generally outlasting their husbands if they are married. All these factor into what retirement looks like for women.
Our panel will consider all these factors as it discusses successfully transitioning to retirement.
Panelists:
Cathy Brewer enjoyed a 42-year career in Direct Mail Marketing and Commercial printing. During that time, she was the sole owner of Liberty Mailing (a direct mail processing company) for 12 years, which was based in Hialeah, Florida. Her retirement came a year earlier than expected due to the Covid pandemic, but she is able to enjoy retirement with extra time to volunteer for Marrvelous Pet Rescue.
Amy Powell, founder of AimWell Financial, is a Chartered Financial Analyst® with over two decades of experience. Amy’s distinctive approach revolves around helping clients to identify core values and apply them for a more satisfying retirement, develop social support systems and approaches on how to make the transition to retirement easier, and deal with the financial anxiety related to loss of income/salary.
Kristin Smith, WMS, RICP®, has been a Financial Advisor with Raymond James for 27 years, specializing in helping women plan for retirement and secure their financial independence. She has also been a BPW member for 25 years, and has held leadership roles at both local and state levels. She has chaired Equal Pay Day events for her LO for the past 21 years.
Moderator Sheila Barry-Oliver, Ed.D., Immediate Past BPW/FL President, retired from a career in information technology/management consulting and higher education nearly 12 years ago. She transitioned to retirement through working part-time. Since retiring she has become very active in multiple non-profits, mostly in leadership positions on boards. She also travels extensively throughout the world.
