Women’s Retirement Views Differ by Age

A Wells Fargo news release said 18% of 20-something women say Social Security will be available to them in their retirement vs. 23% of men in their 20s. Almost three-fourths of men and women in their 60s believe Social Security will be available for their retirement.

Meanwhile, 46% of 20-something women said that if given $5,000 to put away for retirement, they would put it in the market versus 66% of 20-something males. In the “stressed” 40s, 72% of men say they’d put money in the stock market, vs. 57% of women in that age group.

Other findings include:

• Women in their 40s are the most likely of all respondents to have cut their spending on both discretionary items and basic necessities (42% vs. 29% overall) and reduced their retirement savings since the recession started (25% vs. 20% overall) and the most likely to say they cannot save more because of other financial priorities (69% vs. 55% overall).
• Women from the 20s to the 60s voiced stronger support than men for several proposals that could encourage retirement savings, and they were much more likely to say an in-person financial adviser is important to them:
• 83% of women agree that employers should provide personal advice to help employees manage retirement savings (76% of men agreed). Single women were most enthusiastic that employers should do more to encourage retirement planning (89%).
• Among the age groups, women in their 20s and 30s were most enthusiastic that employers should encourage retirement planning, with 86% and 88% in agreement, respectively.

On behalf of Wells Fargo, Harris Interactive Inc. conducted 1,756 telephone interviews of middle-income U.S. residents in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. The interviews were conducted between September 9 and October 7, 2010.   

More information is at a new Wells Web site for women at https://www.wellsfargo.com/beyondtoday.