5 retirement strategies many women are taught too late in life

• Women can miss out on retirement savings, as they're more likely to work part time or take time off.
• Automate regular increases to your 401(k) contribution and maximize any employer match.
• An HSA account can help you save for healthcare costs in retirement and medical emergencies.

Swamped with the day-to-day tasks of work and family care, many women barely have time to stop and think about retirement.

According to the US Department of Labor, older women are more likely to live in poverty than men, and more than half of women are not saving for retirement. Because women are more likely to work part time and take more time away from work to care for others, they miss out on key opportunities to maximize employer benefits and save for retirement.

Here are five retirement strategies too many women aren't taught until it's too late.

1. Start investing your cash as early as possible

Financial planner Mindy Neira, a CFP at Modera Wealth, says many women keep too much cash in savings, opting for a more conservative approach to investing their retirement funds than men typically do.

Neira advises women clients to start putting extra cash into retirement accounts and other diversified investments as early as possible to give money time to grow. Money saved in retirement accounts is invested in the market, meaning it accrues compounding interest — interest that earns interest on itself. By retirement, money invested in retirement accounts (and other brokerage accounts) will have grown exponentially compared to the fixed-interest rates of saving accounts.

Note that Neira isn't advising against saving any cash at all. Experts typically recommend building an emergency savings fund — three to six months worth of living expenses earmarked for emergencies, typically held in an easily accessible high-yield savings account — before focusing on investing.

And if you haven't started yet, or are still in the process of building an emergency savings fund, it's never too late to start.

2. Use passive investment strategies

When experts talk about investing, they usually don't mean yelling into phones like in the movies, or constantly buying and selling via apps you might read about online. They're talking about long-term strategies designed to take advantage of compound interest that require little energy, and no day-to-day action.

Sabrina LaFleur, a financial planner at LearnLux, says finding passive investment strategies might be the key to retiring comfortably. "Unlike active traders, passive investors do not seek to profit from short-term price fluctuations or market timing," she says. "They instead focus on maintaining a diversified portfolio that should be balanced enough to weather any financial storm."

On top of retirement accounts like a 401(k) or Roth IRA, LaFleur says income streams from additional investments can help ensure that you're taken care of in retirement. This doesn't mean you have to be actively managing your accounts. A passive strategy like dollar-cost averaging — investing a fixed dollar amount at regular intervals over a long period of time, much like you make a monthly 401(k) contribution — could be the key to stress-free retirement planning.

3. Schedule automatic increases in your 401(k)

A 401(k) is an employer-sponsored retirement plan where employees can contribute and invest pre-tax income that grows tax free over a long period of time.

If you have a 401(k) match benefit at work, LaFleur recommends contributing the maximum amount that your employer is matching. "If you can't afford to do that," she says, "start with 1% to 3%, and automatically increase your contributions every six to 12 months."

If you don't have a 401(k), remember that you can still open a tax-advantaged retirement account on your own — an IRA or Roth IRA (or SEP IRA, if you're self-employed) — and automate your contributions.

4. Enroll in a Health Savings Account (HSA)

If you work for an employer that offers a high-deductible health-insurance plan, LaFleur suggests contributing to your HSA as soon as possible.

A health savings account is a triple-tax-advantaged account that gets invested in the market, allowing it to grow income over time with no tax implications for early withdrawal. That means you can use your HSA savings now, later, or for healthcare costs in retirement.

"HSAs offer a great way to save more toward retirement while still allowing you to access the funds for any medical or healthcare expenses," LaFleur explains.

She adds that, thanks to the CARES Act, menstrual products like pads, tampons, and liners are now considered qualified medical expenses. Women and gender-diverse people who menstruate can now use their HSA funds to pay for period-care products, or use the account to save money for healthcare costs in retirement.

5. Hire professional services

Neira advises women to hire two professionals to help you strategize retirement savings, if your budget allows it:

• A financial planner to create an overall plan for wealth management and retirement savings
• An estate attorney to set up your estate documents and make sure you're covered if you're incapacitated or you die

"You will pay a fee for these services, but in the long run it will pay off," Neira says. Hiring professionals can help you maximize every opportunity for retirement savings.

If you cannot afford to hire professionals to help you manage your money, here are some organizations that offer pro bono financial planning and wealth management services:

• The Foundation for Financial Planning
• The National Association for Personal Financial Advisors
• Financial Planning Association

• Read more from Women of Means:
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• 5 reasons women face roadblocks to retirement and need to save more
• Living and working with a disability means after years of job interviews and résumé gaps, retirement feels as impossible as ever
• I expect to retire, but as an African American woman, the numbers make me wonder if I should plan for a funeral instead