Women spend less than half of adult life in marriage- implications for retirement

A study by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found that the average US woman now will spend less than half of her adult life as part of a married couple. This "has significant implications for financial planning," the study's authors note. (8/21/17 Retirement Security Smartbrief).

Do Women Still Spend Most of Their Lives Married?

byAlicia H. Munnell,Geoffrey T. SanzenbacherandSara Ellen King

IB#17-14

The brief’s key findings are:

• Traditionally, women spent their adult lives married, so it made more sense to study households rather than women separately.
• The question is whether today’s women are spending fewer years married.
• The analysis looks at four birth cohorts, ranging from the Depression Era to Mid Baby Boomers.
• No matter how you define the age span, the percentage of years spent married has dropped from about 70 percent to 50 percent.
• The reasons are three-fold: 1) fewer women get married; 2) when they do marry, they get married later; and 3) more women end up divorced.
• Thus, looking at women’s finances separately from men is increasingly necessary for a full assessment of their retirement security.

http://crr.bc.edu/briefs/do-women-still-spend-most-of-their-lives-married/ 

Women need to invest for retirement security beginning with their first job and not depend on a man for financial security in later life.