Though I never spent much time watching Leave It to Beaver as a child, I have often wondered if June Cleaver ever considered the state of her financial future. A stay at home mom, tasked with the unbelievable job of doing virtually everything in the Cleaver home, did June Cleaver consider her retirement? Did she keep a savings account apart from Ward’s? Would she now? Were her retirement hopes and dreams pinned entirely on her husband’s 401(k)? Joe Mont of TheStreet, in a recent article, suggests the need for stay-at-home moms and dads—whose job bring them to work the same unreal schedule as, for example, a medical student in his or her residency—to have a well thought out retirement plan.
Mont points out that with the unemployment rate still over 9.5%, and with millions still unemployed, the “unemployed half of a household” is taking responsibility for their family’s finances. Quickly becoming apparent is the fact that stay-at-home parents (both those who choose to stay at home and those who have been forced to) need a viable retirement option. Although it is possible to “piggyback” off a partner or spouse’s 401(k) plan, Sande Taylor of Schwab describes the necessity of “having a personal retirement plan…offering security and a supplement to whatever other savings might be mapped out.” There are viable saving/retirement options open to stay-at-home parents, says Taylor. One is a so-called spousal IRA, which allows one spouse to make contributions to the other, and includes both traditional and Roth IRAs. Taylor recommends that married couples treat paying into the IRA like paying for bills: “Pay into your IRA account like you would a monthly, quarterly or annual bill.” Of course, as Taylor points out, couples should look at their finances scrupulously before making any such decisions. No doubt, June Cleaver deserved the peace-of-mind that comes with the knowledge that one’s financial future is secure.
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