Retirement planning can be more difficult for women than for men for a few different reasons. On average, women work part-time or work fewer years than men, and earn less. They are usually the ones to interrupt a career to raise children, or follow a spouse out of state for a new job. Besides cutting back on income, popping in and out of the work force can result in having less access to company retirement plans, especially if you leave a job before becoming fully vested in a plan.

Some research shows that women tend to be less financially informed than men, and also tend to be more cautious with their investments, which yields them lower returns. Women also face other challenges that make it more difficult for them to be on firm financial footing when retirement time rolls around.

• Women often come out on the short end financially in a divorce.

• Statistically, women live five to seven years longer than men.

• Women are twice as likely as men to receive income below the poverty line in retirement.

Women are certainly not less capable than men, so it is important for women, in concert with a male spouse if one is in the picture, to take extra care to protect retirement resources.

For more information call the Employee Benefits Security Administration at 1-866-444-3272 and ask for the booklets Women and Retirement Savings and QDROs: The Division of Pensions through Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (this would include divorce orders).

Another source for information is the Social Security Administration (1-800-772-1213). Ask for their booklet Social Security: What Every Woman Should Know or visit them on the web.