3. DIRECTOR OF TOXICOLOGY AT A LARGE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY

Related Articles Minding your $ and ¢ 1. FIRST-YEAR POSTDOC AT A LARGE UNIVERSITY 2. MID-LEVEL RESEARCHER AT A SMALL BIOTECH 4. RESEARCHER AT THE US FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION Economic Status: This 56-year-old woman has been at her company for 12 years. She has $500,000 in her 401(k) plan and makes $165,000 plus $25,000 in bonuses per year. She shares custody of her three children - 21, 17, and 9 - with her ex-husband. She aims to retire in 10 years. Financial C

Written byBob Grant
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Economic Status: This 56-year-old woman has been at her company for 12 years. She has $500,000 in her 401(k) plan and makes $165,000 plus $25,000 in bonuses per year. She shares custody of her three children - 21, 17, and 9 - with her ex-husband. She aims to retire in 10 years.

Financial Considerations: Ensuring adequate retirement funds, securing long-term care, planning a last will and testament, creating buffering for turnover at pharmaceutical companies, saving for college tuition on a sizable salary.

Goals: Get long-term care insurance, suggests Tom Nowak, a certified financial planner at Quantum Financial Planning in Illinois. With this plan, her company provides for nursing home or home elder care after retirement. "The problem is, if you don't buy it at the right time," says Nowak, "you can't buy in once you need it." Arrange estate planning documents and plans for power of attorney. "These are things ...

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Meet the Author

  • From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.

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