Don't bet your retirement on the farm. Or collectibles. Or gold.

That's advice from Sheran Cramer, University of Nebraska family economist who studied Nebraska women's retirement savings habits and patterns.

More than a third of 130 Nebraska women Cramer surveyed indicated coins, stamps, other collectibles, and gold, silver or gems as their top two personal savings categories.

That's surprising and worrisome. "Counting on collectibles is risky," Cramer said. "They lack liquidity."

Hearing women's retirement woes over the years prompted Cramer's interest in women's savings patterns. She found many Nebraska women aren't adequately preparing for retirement. Survey respondents, ages 30-61, had saved an average of $8,000 for retirement.

Twenty-eight percent had Individual Retirement Accounts and 22 percent had mutual funds, both regarded as retirement income builders. That's lower than in some other states.

A study of Wyoming, Idaho and Nevada women showed about 64 percent expected IRAs and nearly 40 percent expected mutual funds to feather retirement nests, she said. Women in that survey stated expected retirement income sources, while the Nebraska women listed what they'd saved toward retirement. This may account for the difference, Cramer said.

Cramer said her most important finding was that about half of younger women surveyed cashed in retirement benefits without reinvesting them.

"That's when you'd want to be saving money, because time is our ally," she said.

Retirement planning is crucial for women, whose expanded life spans make them depend on personal savings as well as employer-provided and Social Security benefits. Women typically earn about 30 percent less than men, which makes employer benefits and Social Security retirement checks correspondingly lower, she said. While just over half the Nebraska women surveyed had employer benefits, more than one-third didn't have them available.

"The level of Social Security benefits is questionable," Cramer said. "Employee-provided benefits are no longer a given. Today, decisions we face are multiple choices."

Women also are more likely to work part-time or leave and re-enter the work force. One study revealed women who leave the work force for seven years get half the retirement benefits of those who worked for 40 years straight, Cramer said.

Women who aren't saving may reflect "a lack of previous role models," Cramer said. "This is the first generation we've had as many women working outside the home."

Forty-four percent of respondents expected an inheritance or considered one a possibility. That's hardly a solid retirement strategy, Cramer said.

For example, 35 percent of those expecting an inheritance were counting on inheriting a family farm. Such women need tax planning to save money and to encourage family discussions of the financial implications, Cramer said.

More than 60 percent surveyed expected to inherit life insurance. Beneficiaries should know the policy's current value, she said.

Cramer's research identified several areas ripe for women's financial education programs: saving early and consistently, saving via employer-provided benefits and developing a retirement savings plan.

NU Cooperative Extension financial programs are using some of Cramer's findings. Next, she'd like to study whether women expecting an inheritance feel less compelled to save.

- Molly Klocksin

This chart shows various types of personal savings listed by participants in NU Family Economist Sheran Cramer's survey for her research on Nebraska women's retirement savings habits and patterns. These figures total more than 100 percent because many respondents listed multiple forms of savings.