“Women’s pension assets are less than men’s. We will do our part to close that gap”

Danes are living longer and are living more of their years as pensioners. This should be a happy story about living a longer and contented life. But unfortunately, the picture isn’t so rosy. The fact that the Danes aren’t saving equally, women tend to live longer than men, and they are saving less. For many, life as a pensioner can easily turn sour with a cut in lifestyle, or force some back into work to make things meet.
‍
Women are expected to be hit hard especially hard due to a combination of a longer life expectancy, and because they saved up less funds for their retirement than men; on average 24% less according to ATP. Women live 2,7 years longer averagely than men, they leave the job market 1,6 years earlier than men, and bear the biggest burden when it comes to maternity leave which means more and longer periods without pension payments. These factors combined mean that women face retirement with more economic uncertainty than men.

The turning point

The pension gap first caught the attention of Mie Ejdrup after reading the bestseller ‘The 100-Year Life’ by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott. The book is about living and working in an age where most people can expect to live to 100:
‍
“It was truly shocking for me to read just how big the difference was between the amount men and women put aside for retirement. Women end up being in a significantly worse position when they retire. The book was a turning point in my own pension situation, I started paying more into my pension, I invested in real estate, and in generally became more focused on my economic future.

Pension in a pandemic

Unlike many start-ups, the two founders of Finematter, Mie Ejdrup and her friend Caroline Chalmer chose to prioritize pension for their employees from the very beginning. Despite of the fact that the company launched in the spring of 2020 in the middle of a global pandemic.
‍
”Of course it was nerve wrecking to launch a company in the middle of the Covid crisis. But on the bright side we got an opportunity to really think through what type of company we wanted to be. It was important for us to do things differently. We wanted to create a modern company with way more freedom, where there’s unlimited holidays, no expansion policy, a hybrid work model, and of course where the employees get pensions.

Good advice

Besides starting a pension savings plan as early as possible, Mie Ejdrup has one other piece of good advice, that she hopes we’ll all learn from - for our own sake:
‍
”My best advice is not to put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to your savings. It’s your choice whether your savings consists of art, stocks, gold, diamonds, real estate, or a company- and or a private pension. As long as it is made up of several different things, you’ll have a solid economic foundation to retire on.”