The financial state of the American mom MoneyWatch/ May 10, 2013, 7:24 AM (MoneyWatch) The perfect Mothers' Day gift this year could be some financial reassurance. A quarter of America's working moms say they are struggling just to make ends meet and are worried about meeting their long-term financial goals, according to a new study. The report from MassMutual shows most mothers are working these days and most working mothers are doing so to pay the bills. More than 77 percent of women with school kids between six and 17 are working either full- or part-time. When asked why they were working full-time, 68 percent of moms say their income is needed just to help pay the bills. Slightly more than half said they were also working because their career is important to them and 42 percent also answered that it was so their family could have health benefits. Some 63 percent of mothers feel they have a good work-life balance, yet that balance appears to take something away from their career: Sixty-seven percent say they are not actively trying to get ahead at work. The younger a working mother is, the more torn she is likely to be about choosing between her job and her family. Nearly 40 percent of Gen Y mothers (those born between 1980 and 1992) say they struggle with the desire to spend time with children and the need to work. The MassMutual study also finds mothers who already feel overburdened at home having to take on financial management as well. Nearly 70 percent of working moms say they do more than their spouse when it comes to chores and nearly 60 percent feel that way about child rearing. Fully half say they do more around financial planning then their significant other. Not surprisingly, college is a big and sometimes baffling concern for working mothers. While 78 percent say it is never too early to start saving for their children's college education, 46 percent admit they don't have a college savings plan. Nearly a quarter of all mothers surveyed say they want to save for college but don't have the money to do so. Ten percent say they have cut back on saving for their own retirement in order to increase the amount being saved for colleges. The report also found that planning for retirement is another big challenge for mothers. Only one-quarter of those surveyed said they felt confident they were doing a good job of preparing financially for retirement. Further, 40 percent say they haven't tried to figure out how much they need to save for retirement.