Men and women like-minded, mostly, in retirement thinking

Do men and women have anything in common? Surprisingly they do, at least when it comes to retirement planning, according to the 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey co-sponsored by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a nonprofit research group.

Men and women are equally likely to say that they and/or their spouse have saved — or are currently saving — for retirement. And they are almost as likely to indicate that they have tried to calculate how much they will need to save for a comfortable retirement, with 45% of women and 47% of men claiming to have tried to make that calculation.

They also both expect to retire at age 65, although each has changed expectation on this count in the past 12 months, with 23% of men and 26% of women adjusting their retirement age. Among those who altered their plans, the vast majority of men (90%) and women (86%) say they plan to retire later than they anticipated a year earlier.

Interestingly, women are more likely, albeit marginally, to think they will need less than $250,000 for retirement, even though women tend to live longer and face higher health care expenses. Thirty percent of women and 28% of men calculated that they will need less than $250,000 in retirement savings, according to the survey.

Still, the male/female divide managed to rear its head. Men are significantly more likely than women to feel very confident about having enough money to live comfortably throughout their retirement years. Almost two in 10 men (17%) were very confident, whereas only 10% of women felt that way.

The survey was conducted in January 2013 through 20-minute telephone interviews with 1,254 individuals age 25 or older in the United States.

Margarida Correia is Associate Editor of Bank Investment Consultant, a SourceMedia publication.