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Retirement Planning > Saving for Retirement

Women Need Financial Planning Help in These 3 Areas: Fidelity

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What You Need to Know

  • Fidelity says its female customer base is growing fast and is largely making smart investing decisions.
  • According to a survey, women's top financial stressor is thinking they should do more with their money.
  • Women's financial plans should account for caregiving, longer life spans and health care costs in retirement, Fidelity says.

Fidelity Investments released research Monday, showing that women are making smart money decisions to gain ground with their finances. 

The firm added 48% more female customers in 2023 than in 2019. This included 99% more Generation Z customers and 48% more millennials. (The oldest members of Gen Z, born in 1997, were 22 in 2019.)

Fidelity’s research shows that women are making financial gains on many fronts and modeling healthy money behaviors. Fifty-one percent of those who invest in the market say they typically stay the course on their investments when the market experiences a dip, compared with 43% of men. 

Despite this progress, Fidelity said, more work needs to be done as women’s finances often must stand up to caregiving responsibilities, longer lifespans and higher health care costs. 

The research is based on findings of an online survey conducted by Big Village in July among a sample of 1,002 women and 994 men. 

Why Women Need to Plan Differently 

Although women have made considerable progress, the survey found that the percentage of those who consider themselves knowledgeable about important financial topics — such as how to invest to prepare for retirement, when to start taking Social Security and how to pay for health care expenses in retirement — has stayed relatively flat since 2019, with slightly more than half of women over the four years saying they are knowledgeable. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, the top five financial stressors facing women are largely tied to these factors, all of which affect women disproportionately more than men. In descending order, they are: 

  • Thinking I should do more with my finances than I am
  • Saving enough to retire
  • Paying off debt
  • Tackling health care costs in retirement
  • Knowing how to invest savings to reach my financial goals

Key Financial Planning Areas

To help reduce these stressors and make the most of their money, Fidelity said it is important for women to consider the factors that can often make financial planning different for them, especially in three key areas: 

Caregiving

More women have been returning to the workforce since the end of the pandemic, but they continue to shoulder the majority of caregiving duties, which can affect their mental health, career trajectory and savings potential. The survey found that 22% of female caregivers say they’re not saving as much for retirement because of these responsibilities, including 24% of millennial caregivers and 28% of those in Gen X.

Women in the survey were also more likely to say they had had to leave a job or retire early because of caregiving duties, and 10% said they were unable to invest outside of retirement.

Extended Retirement Years

Citing research from MedRxIV, Fidelity noted that, on average, women live six years longer than men. As a result, their dollars need to stretch to cover a longer retirement. 

More women are feeling on track with their retirement savings since 2019, up 5%, while the number of men who feel on track is down 12%, according to the survey. Female baby boomers are feeling the most confident since 2019, up 39%, which is encouraging considering they are approaching their retirement years, Fidelity said. 

Yet nearly 60% of women overall in the survey still do not think they are on track with retirement savings, pointing to a lack of confidence in their financial plans. 

Health Care Costs

Fidelity’s study shows that a disconnect exists when it comes to how much it will cost to cover those expenses. Although Fidelity estimates that women will need $165,000 on average for health care expenses during retirement, half of those surveyed anticipate needing $150,000 or less — and 36% have no idea what they will need. 

At the same time, Fidelity customer data shows that women are taking advantage of savings vehicles such as health savings accounts, outpacing men in both account starts and asset growth over the past four years. 

Since 2019, HSA account opens by women have grown by 204%, compared with 172% by men, and asset growth among women has increased by 334%, compared with 309% for men.


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