Retiring singles face growing challenges

If retirement planning had a soundtrack, a great candidate would be “Love and Marriage,” the old Sammy Kahn lyric made famous by Frank Sinatra:

“Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage.”

So much planning advice focuses on married couples – and no doubt, that’s where some of the most valuable retirement benefits can be found. Think Social Security spousal benefits, joint and survivor pensions, or beneficiary rights for 401(k) and IRA accounts.

But how about retired singles? Their numbers will be increasing in the years ahead – about one third of adults ages 46 through 64 were divorced, separated, or had never been married in 2010, compared with 13 percent in 1970, according to demographers at Bowling Green State University.

And they will face tougher challenges achieving a secure retirement than married people. Living expenses are higher as a proportion of income – the cost of shared housing, food, utilities, and transportation are easy to manage when spread over two income streams. Single people also can’t take advantage of the tax breaks available to joint-filing married couples. All of that puts a drag on their ability to save for retirement.

Single women have an especially steep hill to climb. They tend to outlive men, which means they need to stretch retirement savings further. Yet they earn less than men; the median pay for a woman in 2013 was $39,157, just 78 percent of the median $50,033 earned by men, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. That gap translates into lower retirement saving rates and lower credits for Social Security and pension benefits.

“Women do earn less than men, and that means they need to plan more aggressively for retirement,” says Manisha Thakor, CEO of MoneyZen Wealth, an independent advisory firm specializing in planning for women.

The Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies has studied the retirement gender and marriage gaps, and the numbers aren’t encouraging. Consider the following responses by workers age 50 and older to a Transamerica survey:

• Fifty-two percent of single women expect Social Security to be their primary income source in retirement, compared with 38 percent of single men – and just 33 percent of married couples. • Forty-eight percent of single women expect their standard of living to decline in retirement, compared with 39 percent of men and 37 percent of married women.

• Fifty-six percent of single women expect to work past age 70 or to never retire compared with 51 percent of single men. The numbers are far lower for married people – 39 percent of women and 46 percent among men.

• Single women have median retirement savings of just $35,000, compared with $70,000 for single men and $153,000 for married women.

How can single people flip these figures? Experts also offer the following suggestions.

1. Have a plan.

Transamerica’s survey research shows that married couples tend to be more engaged in planning for retirement. Seventy-four percent of married workers describe themselves as “very involved in monitoring and managing their retirement savings,” compared with 62 percent of unmarried workers. Seventy-six percent of married workers discuss saving, investing, and planning for retirement with family and friends, compared with 66 percent of unmarried workers.

2. Focus on guaranteed income.

For women, greater longevity offers good reasons to focus on maximizing guaranteed income from Social Security and defined-benefit pensions. It also offers a rationale to consider certain types of annuities.

Never-married singles can boost Social Security income through a delayed-filing strategy. That’s not to say filing early is never the right move – it makes sense if you’re in poor health or have a dire need for the income and can’t work or draw on savings. But more often than not, women will come out ahead waiting at least until their full retirement age (currently 66), or closer to 70, the last age when additional credits are available.

3. Weave a health care safety net.

In a health emergency, spouses and children often are the first line of defense. Single people without kids may lack that natural support network – so take the time to build one through friends and family. Finally, take the time understand your Medicare insurance selections, and consider whether you’ll want to purchase long-term care insurance.