Do People Save More in Their 401(k)s After They Marry?

Does getting married later have any effect on retirement saving?

New research from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College analyzes individuals’ contributions to a 401(k) plan before and after marriage to find out.

“Millennials marry later than previous generations. Since marriage is a major life milestone that often marks a line between youth and adulthood, a logical question is how this delay affects retirement saving,” the report states.

At age 30, just 41% of the millennials were married compared with 59% for the late baby boomers.

The report uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation linked to W-2 records on defined contribution plan deferrals to determine the extent to which marriage affects retirement saving.

The results of the analysis does find that people increase both their participation in and their contributions to 401(k) plans after marriage.

In terms of participation, men respond slightly more after marriage than women. The research finds that men have lower participation rates than women before marriage, but they end up at the same level once married.

After marriage, women increase their contribution rate by an average of 0.8 percentage point compared to only 0.3 for men, according to the research.