10/5/2014 – Retirement Planning Tips for Singles (The Wall Street Journal)

Preparing for retirement is hard enough when two people are in it together. When you are on your own, it can be even harder. Many Americans will head into retirement solo for different reasons, of course, including the death of a spouse, divorce and changing lifestyles. In the 2013 U.S. Census, some 54% of women 65 or over were unmarried, and 27% of men. But something senior singles tend to have in common, financial advisers say, is that their retirement-planning needs can be very different from those of married peers—and that many of them are unprepared. In fact, a study by Rand Corp. says that single people are at much greater risk of not saving enough for retirement than married couples. The study, by researchers Michael Hurd and Susann Rohwedder, found that 20% of married couples won’t save enough for retirement, but that some 35% of single men and 49% of single women will enter retirement financially unprepared.

 

Read the full article at The Wall Street Journal.