Data & Research July 9, 2008

Preferred Retirement Activities Differ by Gender

If men and women pursue their dreams, they will be spending plenty of time apart during their years in retirement.

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“Taking care of things around the house and yard’ beat “spending time with grandkids or other family members’ as the main focus for retired males responding to a survey. However, spending time with grandchildren and other family members was the top priority for retired women, according to a press release from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

The national survey of 800 American adults age 60 to 74 conducted for Thrivent found that overall the main retirement focus for retired males included:

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Taking care of things around the house and yard (28%);
Spending time with grandchildren or other family members (26%);
Enjoying things like playing golf, shopping, going out with friends (18%);
Pursuing hobbies (12%);
Volunteering in the community (7%); and
Watching where your money goes, clipping grocery coupons, etc. (6%).

The main retirement focus for retired females included:

Spending time with grandchildren or other family members (36%);
Taking care of things around the house and yard (25%);
Enjoying things like playing golf, shopping, going out with friends (16%);
Pursuing hobbies (8%);
Watching where your money goes, clipping grocery coupons, etc. (7%); and
Volunteering in the community (3%).

Interestingly, the survey found that as retired males’ incomes increase, their focus on taking care of the house and yard diminishes from 43% to 17%, and as retired females’ incomes increase, their focus on taking care of the house and yard increases from 24% to 32%. Retirees of both genders having incomes of $40,000-$79,999 are most apt to cite spending time with grandchildren or other family members as their main focus in retirement (34% of males and 42% of females).

Data for the survey was collected via telephone interviews by the Discovery Research Group on behalf of Action Marketing Research between December 1 and 13, 2007, among a nationwide cross section of 800 U.S. adults age 60 to 74 of whom 397 were men and 403 were women. Sixty-four percent of respondents indicated that they are retired, 16% identified themselves as partly retired, and 20% considered themselves not retired.

Data & Research July 9, 2008

Women Could Face More Savings Shortfalls than Men

Hewitt Associates research said that not only will women need more retirement savings than men, but the gap between what they need and their savings is greater than the gap for men.

Reported by

Rebecca Moore

The study said both women and men are on track to replace 85% of pay at retirement, assuming average life expectancy; however, women need to replace 130% of their final pay, while men need to replace 123% of pay at retirement. When factoring in differences in longevity, the gap of unpreparedness grows even greater for women, a press release said.

Hewitt claimed the average women will need to save 2% of pay more than men to have the same standard of living in retirement. It noted that not only do women make less on average than their male counterparts, but they are expected to live an average of three years longer than men.

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Other factors contributing to a lack of retirement readiness for women is they save less than men and invest less aggressively. The Hewitt research found the average 401(k) plan balance for women is $56,320—nearly $47,000 less than the average for men—and women contribute, on average, 7.3% of pay compared with 8.1% for men. Additionally, 30% of women did not contribute to their 401(k) plans in 2007, and another 24% did not contribute enough to get full company match.

Women invest less in riskier investments (65% verse 71% for men), and they are half as likely as men to make trades (13% verse 24%).

In addition, Hewitt noted that women wait two to four years longer than men to start saving for retirement, and are more likely to move in and out of the workforce, making their savings patterns “spotty.”