This is Motley Fool Answers. I'm Alison Southwick and I'm joined as always by,

that's what my wife said to me every morning. Personal finance expert here at the Motley Fool. Hey, bro. How you doing?

Hi, Allison. So great to be here. So in this week's episode, we're going to give

you five dues for successful investing because last week we gave you seven don'ts. We didn't

want to leave you hanging. So that's what we're going to talk about today. All that and more on

this week's episode of Motley Full Answers. So, bro, what's up?

Well, Allison, you know, retirement planning isn't easy for anyone, but it's particularly

challenging for women. They generally earn less, more likely to spend time out of the workforce,

caring for family members, and live longer, which is a good thing in general, but it means

retirement savings have to last longer. A recent report from

the Brookings Institution quantified some of these challenges. First off, they cite a study which found

that women with one child earns 28% less on average over her career than a woman without a child.

In contrast, becoming a father typically does not reduce a man's

earnings. Women are also more likely than men to care for their aging parents, a responsibility

that predominantly falls on women over the age of 50. So people who leave the labor force early to care

for a parent or other elderly relative lose on average $142,000 in wages.

So obviously people who earn less can't save as much.

So that's one reason why they might be behind in retirement savings.

But the report also quantified the impact on social security benefits,

which is the number one source of income for most retirees.

Here's what the report concluded.

Women receive social security benefits that are on average 80% of those that men receive.

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