28% Of Retired Women Have Nothing Saved
Retired women are 33% more likely than men to say they don’t have enough money for a comfortable retirement. More than a quarter of retired women have no retirement savings at all, according to a new study from Clever Real Estate.
Although about 40% of all retirees worry they’ll outlive their retirement savings, the concern is particularly high among women. While women tend to live longer than men, they’ve only saved about half the retirement savings as their male counterparts. Living Longer With Less
As of 2024, the United Nations projects the average American will live to be 79.25 years old — 10 years longer than the expected life span of Americans just 50 years ago. Although women’s projected life expectancy is three years longer than men’s, their long-term financial outlooks are more precarious.
Clever’s study, surveying 1,000 American retirees, found the median retired woman has $100,000 saved, compared to $217,500 for men — even though experts recommend people start retirement with roughly $572,000, according to Matt Brannon, the report’s author and a data analyst at Clever.
“It’s possible this gap is explained partly by marriages where men tend to be the breadwinner,” Brannon explains. “But even among unmarried respondents, the typical unmarried retired man has twice as much saved as the typical unmarried retired woman — about $80,000 to $40,000. So the gap is real.”
At the same time, women are more than twice as likely as men to say they retired later than planned because they had too much debt. Women are also 78% more likely than men to say they wished they’d retired later because they can’t afford necessities. The Gender Gap
Institutional and societal factors continue to impact many women’s financial situations.
As of 2023, American women make 82 cents to the dollar compared to men. While this figure has improved since the 1960s, when women were paid 59 cents to the dollar, it still leaves women struggling.
According to the Department of Labor, women are also more likely than men to work part-time jobs that aren’t eligible for company retirement plans. Clever’s survey found that women were 47% more likely than men to say their employer did not offer a retirement savings plan for them.
Women often put their careers on hold to raise children or care for sick family members, which impacts their ability to put money toward retirement. Women are 87% more likely than men to have to retire early to care for their family, Brannon said.
While women are more likely to leave the workforce early to care for others, they also face challenges meeting their healthcare needs. Women surveyed were 41% more likely than men to struggle with paying their medical bills in retirement. An Emotional Toll
Many retirement-age women struggle not only financially with their retirement needs but also with anxiety and shame. Women are 41% more likely than men to say they feel stressed about retirement, Brannon said.
In the book Financial Feminist, money expert and podcast host Tori Dunlap writes that many financial woes women face come down to psychology. In working with clients, she found that women often experience substantial guilt and fear that impact their finances.
Dunlap generally suggests that women reevaluate their relationship with money. Her website, Her First 100K, aims to teach women about managing debt, negotiating higher salaries, and saving more money for retirement.
Those priorities are important for women who feel their income is insufficient for saving. More than half of the women in Clever’s survey said they didn’t make enough money in their working years to save for retirement.
Megan R. Gibbs, a Nebraska-based financial adviser at Edward Jones, says it’s important for women to understand their cash flow fully, including knowing which expenses are essential and which ones aren’t and reallocating discretionary money toward savings accounts.
“Another strategy could be to utilize any cost of living wage increases to fund retirement investments, either through an employer plan or an individual retirement plan,” she adds. “Taking care to understand your employer benefits and how to maximize any kind of retirement-savings match program can be impactful for your savings.” Breaking the Cycle
While retired women today may be struggling, there are options. For example, Gibbs encourages women to maximize their Social Security benefits.
“You can start taking Social Security at 62, but your monthly checks will be much bigger if you can afford to wait until your full retirement age, which will be around 66½,” she explains. “If you are married, you may want to coordinate your benefits with those of your spouse — in some cases, it makes sense for the spouse with the lower benefits to claim first, based on their earnings record, and apply.”
Younger generations of women should consider saving for retirement as soon as possible. As of 2024, Americans meeting certain income requirements can contribute up to $7,000 per year toward an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). Additionally, 401(k) plans allow Americans to contribute up to $23,000 annually.
“Try to contribute as much as you can afford to your 401(k) or similar employer-sponsored retirement plan,” Gibbs concludes. “Your earnings can grow tax-deferred, and your contributions can lower your taxable income.”
A common retirement savings benchmark is to have an amount equal to one’s salary saved by the time they’re 30 and three times their salary saved by 40.
Women shouldn’t necessarily feel discouraged if they see these benchmarks come and go without meeting them. It’s possible to play “catch up” using other assets, whether it means selling a home or vehicle in the future — or setting a goal to increase the amount they put in retirement savings each year.
If one’s employer doesn’t currently offer a retirement plan, employees should consider asking their company to add one. Even a simplified retirement plan can mutually benefit the company and its employees.