Smart Retirement Savings

Retirement? Spouses Don't Think Alike

You would expect marrying couples in the 50s talk a lot about retirement, but apparently they don't. I have been starting to prepare my wife for the retirement since the 30s :-)

In all, 502 couples were asked about their plans for retirement. The couples were married 24 years, on average, and were about nine years from retirement. Husbands were 54 years old, on average; wives were 53. Spouses were questioned individually.

Partners in 41% of the couples interviewed gave different answers when asked whether at least one spouse will work in retirement. Wives and husbands in more than one-third of the couples (35%) differed when asked about each other's expected retirement ages. (Wives did a better job of identifying when their husbands expected to retire; husbands tended to underestimate when their wives planned to leave the office.)

When asked whether their nest egg would allow them to lead a comfortable, or less-than-comfortable, existence, 37% of the couples surveyed had wives and husbands giving different answers. Men were slightly more optimistic than women that their finances would be adequate in later life.

Why the different answers? Again, preparing for retirement means talking, and couples don't always have the time or inclination to grapple with some of these issues. "It's hard to overcome inertia," says Steven P. Akin, president of Fidelity Personal Investments. "This is hard work. Thinking about retirement is daunting."