Homemakers at Risk in Retirement

Homemakers aren’t planning for retirement, and they’re extremely vulnerable to running out of money and ending their lives in poverty. They’re also not as optimistic about retirement as workers and retirees.

Those are the not-so-cheery findings of a report from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies and the Aegon Center for Longevity and Retirement, which found that homemakers are not in a good position when it comes to retirement—either globally or within the U.S.

The report “Homemakers Are Not Off the Hook: How Should They Be Planning for Retirement?” found that homemakers, 81% of whom in the U.S. are women, are far less likely to believe they should be taking an active role in ensuring that they have enough money to live on during retirement. U.S. homemakers, at 40%, are more likely to feel “very” responsible for doing so; globally the number is lower, with just 32% of homemakers feeling “very” responsible.

Now here’s the really scary thing: not even half of homemakers are actually saving for retirement.

Globally the percentage is higher than here at home; while 47% of homemakers across the world are saving, just 44% of those in the U.S. are. (And they’re the ones who feel “very” responsible at a higher rate than those globally!)

In addition, less than a third, no matter how you slice it (29% globally, 30% in the U.S.) consider themselves to be “habitual savers” who always make sure that they’re putting money away.