Those Who Married Once More Likely Than Others to Have Retirement Savings

Many adults approaching retirement age may not be financially prepared to retire: 49% of adults ages 55 to 66 had no personal retirement savings in 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).

How many times you marry and whether you have children with one or more partners can have continual and lasting impacts on retirement finances.

About 50% of women ages 55 to 66 have no personal retirement savings, compared to 47% of men.

SIPP is uniquely able to assist in this research as it collects data on all members in the household, marital history, fertility history (including multiple partner fertility) and retirement savings. The analyses in this story are based on 2018 SIPP data.

Do Men or Women Have More Retirement Savings?

About 50% of women ages 55 to 66 have no personal retirement savings, compared to 47% of men (Figure 1).

Women also lag men at the other end of the spectrum: 22% of women have $100,000 or more in personal retirement savings compared to 30% of men.

Because 65% of men and 58% of women ages 55 to 66 are married (defined as those whose spouse lives in the same household), the amount of retirement savings available is difficult to assess. Married couples plan their retirement together and save together.

Women and men have more comparable retirement savings when couples’ savings are combined with personal savings. However, there is still a smaller percentage of women who have retirement savings of $100,000 or more compared with their male counterparts (34.2% compared to 36.4%).

The term “retirement savings” is used here to mean the combined measure of personal and spousal retirement savings for those who are married and personal retirement savings for those not living with a spouse.

Brittany King is a survey statistician in the Census Bureau’s Fertility and Family Statistics Branch.

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