Are military households more prepped for retirement?
A new study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald Research suggests that military households are in a stronger financial position and exhibit more confidence in their retirement prospects compared to their non-military counterparts.
Drawing from the 34th Annual Retirement Confidence Survey, the report found households that include veterans, their spouses, partners, or those they widowed outdo other families on several financial fronts.
Military households are more likely to have substantial financial assets and are less troubled by debt. Nearly half (49 percent) of military households reported having $250,000 or more in financial assets, compared to 40 percent of non-military households. What’s more, 55 percent of military households indicated that debt is not a problem, in contrast to 46 percent of non-military households.
Those findings in stark contrast with other research by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, which found active duty military personnel and their loved ones are more likely to struggle with their finances, miss credit card payments and turn to payday loans.
The survey found military households are more proactive in their retirement planning with 52 percent considering how much money to withdraw from their retirement savings, compared to 42 percent of non-military households.
The gap also extends to other aspects of retirement, including how they’ll spend their time in retirement (68 percent of military households vs. 58 percent of non-military homes), estimating health expenses in retirement (50 percent vs. 41 percent), estimating monthly income needs (63 percent vs. 54 percent), and having contingencies for emergencies (47 percent).
The survey also found a split in
Read more on investmentnews.com
