Are women retirees really much poorer than men?

Submitted by Mastodon on Fri, 2013-03-29 23:23

Article here. Excerpt:

'I’ve covered gender differences in financial issues for years. Periodically, studies come out that say women are worse at planning for retirement than men. They outlive men, on average, and tend to put away less for retirement, so they end up poorer. The studies are pumped out with a frightening degree of regularity by financial institutions and think tanks. But I’ve started to ask: Is it really true that women are worse off in retirement?
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From the EBRI survey, I would gather that male retirees are slightly better off financially than females. The fact that men rely more on their own savings than on government programs proves they’ve done a better job of setting money aside. But the differences are slight, not oceanic.'

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Comments

Are too many women, esp. from the Boomer and earlier generations, simply in the habit of assuming someone else will take care of them financially in their later years? I think men in general are more accostomed to the idea that they are on their own, financially, and so historically may have been more likely to plan for less-than-optimal retirement futures.

But this is a bigger issue than men, women, and generational differences. A part of our brave new world is that many of us are living a lot longer than we used to-- one reason our Social Security system is as stressed as it is. Fair to say many of us will be working for quite a few more years longer than we planned.

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Submitted by Matt on Fri, 2013-03-29 23:55