When they write about how to plan retirement savings, magazines usually talk about men saving for their retirement; or they talk about couples. Rarely do they talk about single women all by themselves, planning for their golden years.

Often, women who have been part of the marriage for perhaps their entire adult lives, just leave all the financial stuff to their husbands. It’s not that they couldn’t do it; it’s just that that isn’t the role they are supposed to play. They would rather devote their energies to their work or their families. When divorce finally comes around, and it does come around in many women’s lives, they finally wake up and see that they just aren’t prepared. Once they are 50, on their own and looking at no more than 15 earning years left, they go into a panic. Not only do they have very little time in which to set up a retirement account and fund it adequately, they don’t even really know how to do all the stuff. But they learn. They learn about the stock market, about mutual funds, about IRAs and all the rest of it.

Starting a retirement savings plan can give you even greater advantage if you claim the retirement savings contribution credit the government offers at tax time.

At least women are a lot better off today than they used to be when they didn’t work. Perhaps young women today have their professional degrees and great prospects at work. Women who are close to retirement today, the ones who started out working in the 60s and 70s, often don’t have great jobs that pay well. Left on their own, they often quite understandably, fear that they will face a life of poverty when they grow old.

Single retirees are always at greater risk of poverty. And women are much more at risk because they tend to live longer and they never earn as much as men. With millions of the women from the baby boomer generation getting ready to retire as divorcees or widows, things could get a little scary.

There’s nothing like a little statistics to really bring a point such as this home. Women need to work far harder to plan retirement savings because on average, they only make 75% of what men make. 60% of all working women get by on $28,000 a year. And almost one out of two women who are senior citizens, live by themselves. Only one out of five men do that. But that’s not even the main point. Women on average spend 12 years out of their working lives away from workforce. They raise their children. They put in all that work only to be rewarded with nothing when they return to the workforce or when they retire. Their only reward is loneliness and poverty.

Still, women of the baby boomer generation are working hard to gain some traction. VibrantNation, a website for women of the baby boomer generation, really hands out great advice and rallies the rank and file. The discussion boards at the website are all about how to plan retirement savings. It’s a great way for women to take control back.