Despite the CARES Act making it easier to do so in 2020, female investors are actually less likely to tap into retirement funds than they were a year ago, according to the most recent wave of StreetWise, the E*TRADE quarterly tracking study of experienced investors.
With Women’s History Month underway, the study looked at retirement savings trends among female investors and found that fewer than one out of three (30%) women said they have withdrawn from their retirement accounts early, down 10 percentage points from Q1 2020. And 30% of the total population has tapped into retirement funds early, down just 3 percentage points from last year.
The study also found more women are contributing to their retirement accounts. Contributing more to a retirement account ranked as the top action female investors took (36%), followed by paying down personal debt (27%)—compared to 34% and 23% of the total population, respectively.
“Amid an incredibly disruptive year, it’s encouraging to see female investors thinking long-term and putting more away for their future selves,” said Deniz Ozgenc, Executive Director of Financial Product Management at E*TRADE Financial.
“The pandemic has taken a major toll on us all, so it’s no small feat to prioritize retirement and rebound from the challenges this year brought on,” Ozgenc added. “But if the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected—and putting a little away now can help ease the burden when times get tough.”
Barriers to retirement for women still loom large. Among female investors, the top barrier to saving for retirement is health care costs (47%), followed by rent or mortgage (41%). And the top reason women withdrew early from their retirement funds was for a medical emergency (13%). Paying for education costs (10%) or spending on herself or her family (10%) closely followed.
This wave of the survey was conducted from January 1 to January 7 of 2021 among an online U.S. sample of 904 self-directed active investors, including 346 women who manage at least $10,000 in an online brokerage account.
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