Personal Finance

Here's how much single people have saved for retirement

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Single women need to be saving even more since they live longer and are more likely to outlive their savings. Flickr / Jim Fischer
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Retirement savings in the US are low across the board — but they're even lower for single people.

"Single people tend to be less prepared for retirement than their married counterparts," writes the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in a new report, "The State of American Retirement." "Even among those approaching retirement (age 56 – 61), most single men and women do not have any retirement account savings."

Only 43% of single men and 42% of single women have retirement account savings at all (scroll over the chart below to see how the numbers have changed over the years):

 

And those who do have savings accounts aren't setting aside nearly enough. Among single men with retirement accounts, the accounts hold an average of $34,000. Among single woman, there's an average of $30,000 saved:

 

In general, the EPI notes, people need to set aside more, but women are particularly vulnerable because they live longer and are more likely to outlive their savings.

The amount you should have in your retirement fund is highly personal, but to get a general idea of how big your nest egg should be by now, check out this handy retirement savings checkpoint guide from JPMorgan.

See the EPI's full report.

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Kathleen Elkins
Kathleen is an investing correspondent at Business Insider and the author of the Small Business Insider newsletter.She's been writing about personal finance for BI and other publications, including CNBC, since 2015. Her coverage includes the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement, side hustles, and small businesses. She also enjoys writing personal narratives about her own experiences building businesses and navigating the world of money.Elkins graduated from Williams College in 2014 and resides in Los Angeles. Outside work, she trains for marathons and triathlons in the Santa Monica Mountains.Follow her on LinkedIn.Popular articles: