Opinion | Girls, when young never wed an old man
Women are much better off financially if they marry someone younger than they are
Would you mind marrying a husband younger than you? That may be a wise choice financially, according to a study that shows older women are falling into poverty partly because they married even older men.
The age gap between husbands and wives, as well as the fact that women live longer than men, means many widowed women struggle to make ends meet, according to a study by fund house Allianz entitled "Younger Wife's Curse".
In Hong Kong, women on average live six years longer than men. Hong Kong women are on average younger than their husband by 2.5 years. This is narrower than 1971, when Hong Kong women were on average 6.4 years younger than their husband.
The result of the age gap is a rising number of ageing widows. In 2006, 48.4 per cent of all Hong Kong women aged 65 or above were widowed.
This older generation were born at time when not all women would work after marriage.
They were generally housewives and they relied on their husband as the breadwinner. This is why our mothers and grandmothers are at greater risks of suffering from poverty once their husband dies.
Hong Kong is not alone in suffering the "younger wife curse". Globally, it is a fact that wives are younger than their husbands, which may relate to the fact that women mature earlier than men. In some Asian countries, it was believed having a younger wife increased the chances of offspring.