Women are 60% more likely to spend retirement in poverty, for a variety of reasons. One is a decision to leave the paid work force to raise a family.

Keep in mind your retirement goals and contributions when you budget for one-salary living. Some retirement options for stay-at-home parents, whether moms or dads:

1. "The best option is an IRA (individual retirement account). You can choose a traditional or Roth IRA. Under spousal contribution rules, even if the non-working spouse has no income, he/she can rely on the compensation of the working spouse to make a contribution of up to $2,000 a year," says Dennis Zuehlke, senior compliance analyst for CUNA Mutual Business Services Inc. (CMBS) in Madison, Wis.

2. If you have any income from self-employment, you can set up a Simplified Employee Pension Plan (SEP) and make contributions to that.

3. Leave your retirement savings with your former employer, if it's possible and if you like the way your employer's plan is performing. If you don’t have this option, you can roll over your retirement savings into an IRA.

You might be tempted to cash out your retirement savings when you leave the work force, but cashing out could hurt more than help. Two things happen when you cash out: You lose the retirement savings and you have to pay state and federal tax, plus a possible 10% penalty, so you may only end up with half the distribution amount.

Statistics say you'll need 70% to 80% of your preretirement income to maintain the same standard of living in retirement. "The key is to save early and save often. If you started to save $5 a week, which even on the strictest budget most people could afford, after 40 years of saving that amount per week in an IRA earning 5%, you would have $33,218 at retirement. That's basically saving less than $1 a day," says Zuehlke.

An advantage to opening an IRA at Bronco Federal Credit Union is that you're charged none of the fees--such as maintenance, early withdrawal, or transfer fees--that mutual funds and brokerage firms often charge. Bronco Federal Credit Union also has low or no minimum contribution to open an IRA, and we offer payroll deduction or transfer from savings.

Copyright 2002 Credit Union National Association Inc. Information subject to change without notice. For use with members of a single credit union. All other rights reserved.