• 56 million US workers lack employer-provided pension or retirement savings plans.
• A new AARP report highlights the financial insecurity facing workers without retirement plans.
• Those workers would likely have difficulty living solely off Social Security.

Many Americans don't feel ready for retirement — and their jobs aren't stepping in to fill in the economic gaps.

A new analysis from the AARP Public Policy Institute finds that, in 2022, 56 million Americans — nearly half of the private-sector workforce — worked for employers who didn't offer pension or retirement savings plans.

Workers with less education and lower earnings were less likely to have access to plans. Specifically, AARP said that about 75% of private-sector workers with less than a high school degree, 50% of workers with some college, and 31% of workers with a bachelor's degree do not have a retirement plan. On top of that, about 79% of workers earning $53,000 or less annually and 21% of workers earning over $53,000 do not have retirement plans.

David John, one of the AARP report's authors, told Business Insider that even while those workers would get Social Security benefits, they likely wouldn't be enough to supplement other expenses.

"The fact is that if you are a career lower-income individual, yes, Social Security is going to replace a higher proportion of your earnings, but you still have the emergencies that are going to come up," John said. "And that includes things like car repair, cost of medication, house repair — hot water heaters don't really care who you are at the time they decide to fail."

The AARP report said that, with the average Social Security benefit totaling around $1,767 a month in 2022, most retirees will need additional income sources to stay financially afloat.

"We have a substantial number of people who don't have sufficient retirement savings to supplement their Social Security. Social Security is it for a substantial number of people," John said. "And that means, essentially, that they may not have the kind of retirement that they dreamed of."

The report uses data from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey on employer coverage, which provides data on Americans' work, earnings, and education, and adjusts it by factoring in additional data from the Survey of Consumer Finances and IRS to bring the findings in line with the overall population, allowing the researchers to break out specific demographic groups.

Financial security remains a top concern for many older adults. A recent report from the Alliance for Lifetime Income's Retirement Income Institute found that in 2024, over 30 million Americans born between 1959 and 1964 — the tail end of the baby boomer generation — will start turning 65, meaning many of them will increasingly start to rely on retirement savings. Without a retirement plan, some previously told BI they would likely have to continue working to supplement their Social Security.

Some states have taken steps to aid workers who do not have access to retirement plans through their employers. California created a program in 2019 called CalSavers, which requires employers in the state who do not sponsor a retirement plan to provide individual retirement accounts that employees are automatically enrolled into unless they opt out. John said that some variation on that type of plan could work at the federal level.

"The basic model or the basic way the state programs are structured can be a guide to help create a national solution to the retirement coverage problem," he said.

The latest Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees report found that Social Security will only be able to pay out full benefits for the next 11 years if Congress does not intervene.

John said that the lack of coverage goes beyond just weighing down individuals — it could also have a drag on the wider economy.

"If we have a substantial number of people who don't have sufficient resources, they're going to put pressure on governments," he said. Those retirees will likely be more dependent on government programs like housing, healthcare, and senior citizen centers. "There is an expense to the economy and there is an expense to frankly the future by not dealing with this problem."

Do you not receive retirement benefits through work and are worried about your future? Contact these reporters at [email protected] and [email protected].

• Unmarried women in the US without kids at home have a median wealth surpassing unmarried men.
• The former tend to be baby boomers, who have benefited from stock and real estate booms.
• Some of them told BI about how they are traveling solo and living life to the fullest.

Ruth Schick, 85, considers traveling in retirement her third career.

She began her solo travel in earnest in 2000 after her husband died. She's been to every continent and every state in the US. Her favorite domestic expedition was retracing Lewis and Clark's route. She's been to Antarctica twice.

"Any number of people have said, 'well, why would you want to go there?' But my only piece of advice is, whether it's travel or something else, don't fritter away your life," she said. Before retirement, she worked as a community college counselor and in historical research.

Schick is one member of a group that's doing surprisingly well in the US: women who aren't married and don't have any of their own kids under 18 at home. Those women tend to be older, and any children they may have had are now adults.

Based on a new analysis of 2022 data from the Pew Research Center, this group's median wealth has surpassed that of unmarried men, with or without kids. Their wealth benefited from rising home values, savings, and no husband or young children. As the US approaches a peak in boomer retirements and birth rates decline, their ranks will likely grow.

The chart above shows the median wealth of US households by marital status and the presence or absence of children under 18. In 2022, unmarried women without kids had a median household wealth of $87,200, while unmarried men had a typical net worth of $82,100. Women classified as unmarried were either divorced, widowed, partnered, or have never tied the knot. Pew could not divide unmarried men by parental status because the group with children living with them was so small.

Big nest eggs, empty nests

So why are unmarried women without kids doing better than their unmarried male counterparts? It's all about age, said Richard Fry, a senior researcher at Pew and the author of the analysis.

The former group is 61, on the median, part of the baby boomer generation. Baby boomers, ages 60 to 78, have had the time and good market fortune to accrue valuable assets through big stock and real estate booms in recent decades.

Unmarried men tend to be younger; they're 50-year-old Gen Xers on the median. Plus, men don't live as long as women. As of 2022, women's life expectancy at birth in the US was 80.2 years old; for men, it was 74.8.

"Your wealth is what you've built up, it's what you've accumulated, it's your nest egg," Fry said. "And effectively it takes time for people over their working lives to build a nest egg."

Despite the benefit of time to accrue wealth, Fry said that by some measures, like wages, women are still far behind men.

"But they're not so far behind in terms of building a nest egg. And wealth is important because you don't always want to work; someday, you want to retire." Wealth is an especially important cushion in case of a sudden loss in income or a health emergency. "Wealth is nice to have around because you can maybe tap it to sort of tide you over the bad economic times."

Older single women were more likely to own their homes and have fewer debts than younger single women, Fry said. Both older single men and women had a median of around $200,000 in home equity. Older single women had around $90,000 in their retirement accounts, compared to $125,000 for older single men.

That's not to say that married couples are falling behind or wage gaps don't exist. Men still outearn women and accumulate larger net worths and married Americans are accumulating much more wealth than their single counterparts. But the data does show that these Golden Girls are doing better than one might expect given those facts.

For Patricia Wahlen, 80, a nest egg has meant the ability to travel the world. Wahlen said she didn't have a passport until she was 46 — she was busy working as a professional fundraiser and parenting two kids. After her husband died when she was 61 — she said he'd only want to visit locations with golf courses — she got the travel bug. She's been to 85 countries; she liked visiting Scotland, where her father was from, and she hopes to return to Turkey someday.

"I love the travel. I love reading about the places I'm going to go to and arranging the trips and seeing the world. I just feel so lucky. I've seen most of the world," she said.

Wahlen said she signed up early for a pension fund, inherited some stock when her parents died, and lived frugally throughout her career. When her husband died, she didn't inherit anything from him — instead, she attributed her finances to managing her savings and retirement well.

Beyond her travels, Wahlen is in two book clubs and another social group of seven women.

"I just can't imagine staying home and doing nothing," she said. "My friends are all exactly having lives just like mine."

Women are unhappier than men for most of their lives — until age 85

Many women are still struggling in retirement and living off paltry incomes; women over 65, in particular, are more likely to live in poverty than older men. And many boomers are dealing with their own retirement and savings regrets, such as not saving enough or investing in a nest egg. Business Insider has spoken with several women over the age of 65 who have had to "unretire" or take other measures to make ends meet while surviving off Social Security.

Conversely, research finds people's self-esteem peaks around age 60 and stays high for the next decade, while satisfaction with being single also increases. And other research suggests that while women are unhappier than men for most of their lives, they take the lead on happiness after they hit age 85. On the whole, studies have suggested that single women are happier than their married counterparts.

For some single women over 65, retirement has meant an opportunity to spread their wings. According to internal data provided to BI by Road Scholars, an educational nonprofit travel company that caters to the 50+ crowd, just 29% of women over 65 setting out on adventures through the company in 2014 were solo travelers. By 2024, that rose to 37.4%. In total, over 19,000 women over 65 traveled solo in 2024 through the program.

Schick, who worked as a counselor at a community college for decades, said she and her husband never had a huge amount of income coming in. They were both on education salaries; she had a pension that she contributed to for 22 years. But thanks to those savings and her husband's thoughtful approach to retirement while he was ill, she's been able to fulfill her travel dreams. Her house and car are paid off, and she's prioritizing putting her income toward travel.

"I'm making the most of what I have, and I know that that's the attitude of most people that I know or that I relate to." She said many of the people she knows in a similar position have the same outlook: "Life isn't over just because you're getting older."

Are you an unmarried woman over the age of 65? Contact this reporter at [email protected].

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• I thought I'd retire at 65 or 70, sell my house, and relax. Instead, I bought an RV at 57.
• My wife and I built a slab for our RV on my son's property so we can be near family when we want.
• But we spend a lot of the year traveling around the US. It's not what I planned, but it's great.

I'd spent years as an executive in Southern California, and I had a retirement plan in place for quite some time.

I planned to work until I was 65 or 70, sell my big house, downsize, and live off the proceeds of the sale, as well as draw my retirement income. I'd definitely do some gardening and catch up on a lot of television — maybe my wife and I would travel or move closer to my son.

Then, life happened. When my son came off active duty, he and his wife settled in Vancouver, Washington. Shortly thereafter, our granddaughter arrived.

Once I saw the smile on my wife's face when she held that baby, I knew everything going to change.

My vision for retirement didn't include living in an RV or moving to Washington state. But life — and my wife — had other plans for me.

In 2022, at age 57, I did both.

We stayed close to the kids for the first year of our journey and then hit the road

Once we had our RV, we built a pad on the side of my son's half-acre property, ran utilities out to it, and built a fence around the side yard to create our own space.

My son's house was a fixer-upper, so we helped out with all sorts of projects to help the kids make it their dream home. And, of course, we spent lots of time playing with the baby.

About every three or four weeks, we'd head out with our trailer for short one- or two-week trips around Washington and Oregon.

It was a lot of fun, but after 14 months of living with the kids, helping with construction projects, and watching the baby grow, my wife and I hit the road.

We cruised around Central and Southern California, revisiting campgrounds we'd been to in the past and seeing family and friends.

We had the kids fly down in December for a Disneyland vacation. From there, we headed toward Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Nevada.

We watched the sun set over Lake Havasu, visited the UFO Museum in Roswell, showered in a natural warm spring in Nevada, and saw Bison poop in our campsite in Texas.

After six months on the road, we returned to Vancouver in time for our granddaughters' third birthday.

In many ways, we're living out our retirement dreams

So far, we've spent more than $150,000 on our 30-foot fifth-wheel trailer by Grand Design, truck, hitch, accessories, and customizations.

Our expenses average about $3,000 a month, roughly half of what we paid when we owned a home.

This includes gas, groceries, dining out, campground fees, Starlink internet, cellphone and streaming subscriptions, maintenance, and household items.

When we're back on my son's property, our expenses for gas and camping are far lower, but we spend a lot of the money we'd save on the kids — buying gifts for our granddaughter and treating the family to dinner out.

Our investment portfolio covers all of these expenses, which is great because I'm too young to draw any retirement benefits.

My wife wants me to officially retire and take Social Security at 62, but I want to wait until 70. I've committed to traveling for at least five years since I don't necessarily need to work but I'd kind of like to.

For now, we have time and money to both travel and spend time with family. We'll figure out the other details later.