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What are the top concerns of women facing 50 and beyond?

At about age 50, women encounter new demands, desires, and biological realities that are not reflected in the media or popular culture. Added to those changes, the state of the economy is forcing women to redefine many things they previously took for granted. How have these dynamics affected what women of this age group care about?

To learn more, I asked a group of women for their top five concerns. Here is the countdown of the responses from less important to most important:

5. Aging parents. Women report having to come to terms with their parents’ or partner’s mortality, whether through some sudden life threatening incident or inescapable frailing. Added financial, custodial, or health related responsibilities compete with other personal priorities for time and attention.

4. Financial security. Baby boomers were the generation of financial planners, 401Ks, and access to individual investing, which were supposed to mean more financial security. Once children graduated from college they were supposed to be able to provide for themselves. However, these suppositions are not proving to be true.

3. Healthcare. Women over 50 are wondering how they will pay the cost of insurance and for what is not covered by their policies. They worry about who will take care of them and what kind of care they will receive as they outlive the actuaries’ models.

2. Career satisfaction. Definitions of success are changing. Long hours, being on the road, climbing the corporate ladder has become much less attractive. Women are wondering about the alternatives and how to   reinvent themselves.

1. Health. Suddenly women are faced with physical issues for which there are no quick fixes, such as menopause, arthritis, weight gain, bad teeth. Perhaps, they have had to stop doing some activity they used to excel at because of bad knees, feet or hands. How do we maintain fitness as we age?

It used to seem that when you got to 60, you were entitled to cast off the mantle of cares and woes. That’s just not true anymore. Instead, we’re facing another 30-50 years that we need to prepare for by maintaining and improving our health, financial condition, relationships, and social systems.

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