Women tend to live longer and earn less than men over their lifetimes, contributing to unique difficulties in saving for retirement. Every year,
the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies (TCRS) explores the problems which cause women
undue hardship in retirement planning.
Some standout findings include:
- 45% percent of surveyed women expressed medium-to-low confidence in their retirement prospects, compared to 32% of men.
- Only 19% of surveyed women have a “Plan B” in the event that they’re forced into retirement sooner than expected, compared to 31% of men.
- 27% of women expect Social Security to be their primary source of retirement income, compared to 23% of men.
- Median household retirement savings among women comes to $34,000. The median for men is $115,000.
- 34% of both men and women report that working with a financial advisor would motivate them to learn more about saving and investing for retirement.
Daniel Williams of LifeHealthPro provides further analysis here.