Half of retired women are surprised to experience high costs in their golden years and wish they had saved more, finds new research out today by Corebridge Financial.
When asked about their greatest surprise in retirement, 50% of women said high costs were a major shock, followed by 46% who were surprised at retiring earlier than expected. In fact, just 19% of retired women are finding retirement to be exactly how they envisioned it, while 26% say it is not at all what they anticipated.
Despite the shock, 51% of retired women describe their financial health as “good” or “very good.” Still, 63% say they would have begun saving earlier if they understood how expensive retirement would be.
Twenty-seven percent of women surveyed started saving and investing between the ages of 18 to 29, while 42% did not start saving for retirement until they were 41 years old or older. Twenty percent said they still haven’t started.
“It’s encouraging to see more than half of retired women feeling good about their current financial situations, but there are clearly some stark differences between expectations for retirement and the realities,” said Terri Fiedler, president of Retirement Services at Corebridge Financial. “Women are both starting retirement earlier than expected and managing costs that are higher than anticipated. These dual challenges point to the importance of creating an action plan early in your working years that can help you both build your retirement savings and make them last throughout your retirement.”
Corebridge’s study highlights action steps women can take now to move forward with their savings. These include:
- Envision retirement: The most popular action step women in their working years are taking to address their financial concerns is conducting research to understand their retirement needs, according to the Corebridge survey. Looking ahead, non-retired women most commonly envision their retirement to include spending time with loved ones (39%), traveling (36%) and picking up new hobbies (33%).
- Maximize contributions by contributing to a workplace retirement plan as early as possible. If possible, participants should try to contribute enough to take advantage of employer matching, Corebridge recommends.
- Create lifetime income for retirement: Retired women surveyed were nearly three times as likely to own an annuity compared to non-retired women, at ownership rates of 13% and 5% respectively.
- Working with a financial professional: The Corebridge survey finds that working with a financial professional is strongly correlated with better financial health and confidence. Nearly three in five women who work with a financial professional (59%) rate their financial health positively, compared to just 33% who do not. Fifty-seven percent of women who work with a financial professional also have confidence in their ability to plan for retirement, and 46% are confident in their ability to make sound investments compared to just 24% and 18% respectively among those who don’t.
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