The Bag Lady Nightmare

You’ll be surprised at how many women — successful women — are afraid they’ll end up pushing a shopping cart.

Nearly half of women fear life as a bag lady.

No kidding: 46 percent of women suffer from what is now called “Bag Lady Syndrome.”

They might have good salaries, money in their purses, decent savings and investments — but still they are afraid that they will wind up broke, forgotten and destitute.

Bag ladies.

According to The Washington Times (August 23, 2006), a recent survey of almost 2,000 women reveals that 90 percent of them feel financially insecure. Forty-six percent are troubled by a “tremendous fear of becoming a bag lady,” and this anxiety actually increases as incomes rise. Among those with annual incomes of more than $100,000, 48 percent of women fear a life of destitution.

Lily Tomlin. Gloria Steinem. Shirley MacLaine. Katie Couric. “All admit to having a bag lady in their anxiety closet,” writes MSN money columnist Jay McDonald. They all suffer from the bag lady nightmare.

What’s going on here?

Women have complicated...