Retirement planning for women and men can take different forms. Men might feel confident they have saved enough for their golden years but struggle to adjust to a new routine that doesn’t provide the predictability and recognition offered by a job. Women, on the other hand, might have a strong personal network but feel less sure of their financial footing.
“Men need to plan on the social side and the purpose side, where women need to focus on the financial side,” says Jon Sabes, CEO of financial firm Longevity Financial Partners.
That isn’t to say women aren’t saving for retirement. Women and men both contribute to their employer-sponsored retirement plans at about the same rate, roughly 80%, and both begin contributing at a median age of 26, according to a 2025 report from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.
“I hear a lot of misconceptions that women need different investment advice,” says Jackie Prideaux, lead advisor for financial firm Brighton Jones. Investment advice doesn’t depend on someone’s gender, but women might have different priorities that change how they save and spend.
Here are some of the differences in how men and women retire.
— Women may have fewer financial resources in retirement.
— Men are more confident about their retirement planning.
— Women are more likely to be alone in retirement.
— Men and women may differ in how they spend.
— Couples need to plan with both spouses in mind.
[Read: What Is the Average Retirement Savings Balance by Age?]
Women May Have Fewer Financial Resources in Retirement
Although women participate in workplace retirement plans at roughly the same rate as men, they generally end up with less money by the time they retire. The Transamerica study found baby boomer women had saved $165,000 as of late 2024 while men of the same generation had saved $350,000.
The reasons for this difference vary, Prideaux says. She points to wage gaps, smaller employer 401(k) matches and caregiving as potential contributing factors.
Caregivers lose $237,000 over the course of a lifetime, according to the nonprofit Urban Institute. Of that amount, 80% is lost earnings and 20% is lost retirement income due to reduced Social Security and employment-based retirement plan benefits. Of the 53 million caregivers in America in 2020, more than 60% were women, according to the Commonwealth Fund 2023 International Health Policy Survey, meaning women are more likely to experience this income loss.
“It’s a compounding issue for women,” Sabes says. Women may earn less but live longer than men, meaning they have to stretch smaller savings over a longer retirement.
In addition to having more savings, men are more likely to expect an inheritance that could shore up their retirement funds. More than a quarter of men say that have received or expect to receive an inheritance of at least $100,000, according to Fidelity’s 2025 Women & Money Study. Only 20% of women expect an inheritance this size, and 61% say they don’t think they’ll receive an inheritance of any size, compared to 52% of men who don’t expect one.
Men Are More Confident About Their Retirement Planning
Heading into retirement, men feel more confident in their plans, perhaps because they have more money saved. The 2026 Read on Retirement Study from BlackRock found that women’s retirement confidence lags 13 percentage points behind that of men. Women also express a greater concern about generating retirement income.
That concern may help shape retirement planning strategies for women.
“I would say women tend to be a bit more willing to consider (financial) protection and not be subject to exuberant optimism,” says John Gillet, CEO and founder of the Gillet Agency, a financial firm in Hollywood, Florida.
While men may be content to leave their money in the stock market, women may be looking for assurances that cash will always be there for them and their family. “I think because women are more (often) caregivers, they are more acutely aware of the risk,” according to Gillet.
That may be why women seem more inclined to purchase an annuity, a financial product that provides a guaranteed stream of income in retirement. A 2023 study from Alliance for Lifetime Income and CANNEX found that 43% of women working with a financial advisor are likely to buy an annuity, if recommended, compared to 20% of men.
[Read: What Is a Good Monthly Income in Retirement?]
Women Are More Likely to Be Alone in Retirement
A woman’s life expectancy at birth is 5.3 years longer than that of a man, according to 2024 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That gap narrows as people age, but statistically, women always have a longer life expectancy than men.
“Women are planning on a future in which they might spend part of their retirement on their own,” Prideaux says.
Not only will some women outlive their spouse, but more are choosing to be single today. Sixty-two percent of single women said they were not looking for a committed relationship or casual dates, according to a 2020 report from the Pew Research Center. At ages 18 to 39, nearly 40% of single women said they weren’t looking. After age 40, that number jumped to 71%.
Being single can present challenges, even for those who aren’t interested in a relationship. For instance, having only one income in their household could make it more difficult to save for retirement.
Unmarried people of both genders tend to save less than their married counterparts. While 88% of married men and 76% of married women have saved for retirement, only 49% of unmarried men and 52% of unmarried women say the same. That’s according to the 2023 Retirement Confidence Survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
There is also the question of long-term care. Without a spouse — and potentially without children — single people need to figure out how to navigate the aging process alone. If they can no longer live independently, the cost of assisted living or nursing home care may be harder to absorb without a second income or long-term care insurance.
Men and Women May Differ in How They Spend
Once they reach retirement, women and men may have different priorities.
“Women are a bit more concerned about leaving a financial legacy behind,” Gillet says. They may be focused on a retirement plan that ensures there will be enough left over for others after they are gone.
Men may not be as focused on leaving behind a legacy because they tend to be more likely to give money to family members while they are alive. A 2021 study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found men tend to expand their social networks after retirement and are more likely to “activate economic transfers with kin members.” Meanwhile, women were more likely to give their time to family members in the form of caring for grandchildren.
[How to Retire at 55 on $1 Million]
Couples Need to Plan With Both Spouses in Mind
When men and women are part of a couple, that can completely change their approach to retirement.
“For single clients, planning feels simpler, but it also feels more vulnerable,” Prideaux says. There is less margin for error since they don’t have a second stream of income available. With couples, there can be more money, but there is also the complexity of trying to create a plan that accounts for two different retirement timelines, health histories and lifestyle goals.
Since one spouse typically will outlive the other, they should consider a Social Security claiming strategy that will maximize benefits. If one spouse has a pension, they may also have the option of a survivorship benefit. That may mean lower payments, but it allows a spouse to continue to receive the pension after the worker passes away.
“Annuities have gotten a bad rap,” Sabe says, but he thinks they can be a valuable tool for couples to create an income floor.
Working with trusted financial advisor can help men and women — whether single or part of a couple — ensure they have the right accounts in place prior to retirement.
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How (and Why) Men and Women Retire Differently originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 07/22/26: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
