Women still underfunded on the road to retirement

By Ginny Kipling

February 08, 2011 at 07:00 PM

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A Wells Fargo survey about women's retirement found only slightly more than half of middle-class women are confident they will be able to save enough money for retirement. The survey, which focused on middle-class women from their 20s to 60s, asked questions regarding retirement, the amount of money saved and pensions.

Fifty-four percent of women, compared with 62 percent of men who answered the same question, were confident they will have enough saved to last throughout retirement. Also, only 40 percent of female respondents believed they would have a pension available to them when they retire, compared with 48 percent of men.

Both men and women are unprepared financially for retirement, although men have saved a median $5,000 more than women.

The predicted median income the surveyed women said they would need to retire was $200,000, exactly half of the amount the surveyed men said they would need.

The survey also found most married women do not consider themselves the primary financial decision maker, though a majority, 83 percent, said they do consider themselves a "joint" decision maker, whereas only 58 percent of married men said they are a joint decision maker.

Another result from the survey shows just 27 percent of women have confidence in the stock market, 13 percent less than men. When asked what they would do with $5,000 they had to use for retirement, 40 percent of the women said they would buy bank CDs, instead of investing it in the stock market, compared to 30 percent of men.

Source: Wells Fargo, Businesswire.com

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