Study Shows Married Baby Boomers Better Prepared for Retirement

On February 11, 2013, the Insured Retirement Institute released the results of a study that compared the amount of retirement savings between married baby boomers and single baby boomers. The study found that married baby boomers are far better financially prepared for retirement. According to the study “more than 8 in 10 married baby boomers (81.9%) report having retirement savings and 55.7% have gone through the process of calculating a retirement savings goal, compared with only 66.6% and 40.8%, respectively, for singles.”

Another significant difference that the study found was that married baby boomers are far less likely to rely primarily on social security for retirement income. For example, 37.1% of married baby boomers anticipated they will rely on social security compared to 52.7% of single baby boomers as their primary source of income during retirement. Furthermore, married baby boomers rely more heavily on their 401(k) retirement plans to be a significant income source in retirement and almost half (47.1%) are relying on an employer-provided plan compared to only 27.8% of singles.

However, all baby boomers still indicated that they are insecure about their financial stability during retirement. For example, less than 40% of married baby boomers are confident in attaining financial security in retirement while only 28% of single baby boomers are confident about their retirement savings.