Despite Strong Participation Rates, Many Nurses Face Savings Shortfall

One of the U.S.’s most in-demand professions has a near-perfect retirement plan contribution rate, but that might not be enough to guarantee that nurses have long-term financial security.

In 2024, 96% of nurses participated in defined contribution plans, Fidelity’s 2025 Nurses Financial Wellness and Retirement Readiness Study found. Yet only 56% of nurses were on track to meet their retirement income goals.

Positive Trends

Sangeeta Moorjani, head of tax-exempt business and retirement solutions at Fidelity Investments, credits three influences for the positive trends: plan design (including automatic enrollment and employer matching contributions); nurses’ deep commitment to their professions and, therefore, diligent utilization of their benefits; and increased hiring since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Nurses’ hiring has gone up by 50% [in the last five years],” Moorjani says. With a younger demographic, auto-enrollment is “setting [that generation] up for a good path.”

Nurses enrolled in retirement programs that include automatic increases were projected to retire with about $4.6 million in plan assets, $800,000 more in savings than those not enrolled, Fidelity’s study found.

Of nurses enrolled in Fidelity retirement plans in 2024, 59% were members of Generation Z or Millennials, up from 50% in 2020. One-half of nurses had fewer than five years of tenure, “highlighting a workforce that is early in their careers and potentially less financially prepared,” the report stated. The profession’s younger demographic, especially, could continue to benefit from the increased adoption of auto-enrollment.

“This is a profession people choose for the long term, if not a lifetime,” Moorjani says. “They’re very proactive in engaging with their benefits because they know … this is where they’re going to make a future.”

According to the study, 80% of nurses engaged with Fidelity through its Net Benefits digital platform or via phone call—and higher engagement correlated with better savings behavior and beneficiary coverage.

“The high digital connectivity is what helps people pursue their personalized financial goals,” says Moorjani. “They’re seeing their balance, and they’re seeing how they can do better.”

Another “encouraging” finding, according to Moorjani, is that 86% of nurses have an age-appropriate asset allocation. She says this reflects an understanding by nurses of their goals and how to align their retirement strategies to their goals.

Roadblocks to Readiness

But nurses also face obstacles to retirement readiness, the report indicated.

“Even though [nurses are] engaged in their workplace plans, they often have insufficient retirement savings,” says Moorjani.

Of nurses who completed a Fidelity “wellness checkup” between 2022 and 2024, 63% said they did not have adequate emergency savings. Moorjani says this leaves nurses vulnerable to the risks of withdrawing their retirement savings early—potentially incurring penalties and fees—or taking a loan from their retirement plan.

Another factor damaging nurses’ preparedness is student loan debt. An average of one in three nurses has outstanding student debt, with an average balance of $47,000, Fidelity reported. Moorjani sees these issues contributing to a greater savings problem.

“I would say the most concerning [finding] is that nurses accumulated savings equal to about 4.1 times their annual income,” Moorjani says. “The Fidelity recommendation is that you have 10 times your income by the time you retire.”

In addition, Fidelity found that only 56% of working nurses are projected to reach their retirement goals.

“It’s really more systemic challenges that go beyond individual saving habits that get in the way,” Moorjani says.

Among U.S. health care workers, 55% reported feeling burned out, according to the report. Nurses cited long shifts, the high attention needed to care for patients with severe or complex health conditions and relentless pressure as key factors contributing to their workplace stress. Overwhelming, unsafe patient loads; compensation frustrations; work-life imbalances; and mental health and leadership support gaps topped nurses’ list of reasons to consider quitting.

While turnover among nurses has reduced in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic—down to 16.4% in 2024 from 27.1% in 2021—staffing shortages have concerning implications for patients. An average of one in eight health care professionals is a nurse, and nurses comprise “40% of health care providers’ operating costs,” Moorjani explains.

Forty-one percent of nurses who said they intend to leave the profession within five years point to stress or burnout as the root cause, Fidelity found. The firm indicated this threatens both staffing stability and patient-care quality.

“There’s such a chronic shortage of staffing, and it’s expected that by 2030, we’d [need to] hire another 1.2 million nurses,” Moorjani says. “That’s why we do this research. … For a health care organization to be successful, we need to make sure that nurses are successful.”