New Study: Women Behind in Retirement Savings

Libby Kane

Posted on May 3, 2012

ING released new research today on women and retirement.

Care to guess what it says?

Women, as compared to men, are grossly underprepared for retirement, to the tune of $41, 000 less in average retirement savings.

In their study Retirement Revealed, the ING Research Institute surveyed 1,944 women (and 2,106 men) ages 25-69 with full-time jobs and a household income of $40,000 or higher and found that “a key driver of total retirement savings is the percentage of salary that individuals contribute to their employer-sponsored retirement plan.”

The study found that a larger percentage of women than men save only the minimum 1%-5% of their salaries for retirement and that 56% or women feel financially unprepared for retirement, as compared to 42% of men. Even more alarming, only 25% of women have a formal investment plan to reach retirement goals (compared to an admittedly low 33% of men).

(Find everything you need to know about retirement in one place.)

ING also segmented their results: They found that a whopping 60% of mothers do not feel prepared for retirement and 46% don’t know how to achieve their retirement goals. Among divorced and widowed women, 44% spend some or a lot of time thinking about retirement and 61% list retirement as their primary long-term financial goal.

They also studied single women, and created the infographic below based on their findings: