Standard Life Retirement Pulse reveals women’s pensions are worth, on average, half of men’s, while over half of women feel anxious when thinking about their finances.
New research into pensions in Ireland has shown the average woman’s pension pot to be 48% less than their male colleagues.
This is according to pension and investment provider Standard Life who recently surveyed over 1,100 people across Ireland as part of its Retirement Pulse which regularly tracks consumer sentiment and attitudes to retirement.
The survey revealed that the average pension pot for women is €89,000. This is in contrast to €170,000 which is the average for men according to the company.
Although women are more consistent in saving, they’re not contributing as much the study highlights, with women contributing approximately €63 per month less on average.
This is resulting in almost a quarter (24%) of women not feeling confident that they’re making the most of their pension, according to the survey.
According to Standard Life:
“The findings highlight that a deficit in both contributions and financial confidence is leaving many women short-changed and emotionally burdened throughout their retirement planning journey.”
However, the survey makes no reference to how much women earn on average compared to men, which could play a key role in the ability to make contributions, especially lump-sum contributions.
Financial worries
The Retirement Pulse revealed that 56% of women of all ages reported feeling anxious about their finances, with pensions being a contributing factor according to the stats.
Women who reported having financial anxiety are less likely to feel that they can live comfortably off their pension than those who don’t have worries (40% v 14%).
Meanwhile, those without a pension were more likely to report feelings of financial anxiety (61%).
Interestingly, it would appear that financial anxiety has a crippling effect on financial assertiveness with 71% of those women surveyed saying they wouldn’t know where to begin.
Financial outlook
More than a quarter (27%) of men think of themselves as investors according to the survey results. However, over half (51%) didn’t agree that they saw themselves as ‘investors’.
Coming in at 58%, more than half of women don’t see themselves as investors, saying they wouldn’t know where to begin when it comes to investing.
Retirement plans
When it comes to retiring, women are more likely to be looking forward to it, with 61% of women excited to embrace the prospect compared to just 45% of men.
According to Standard Life, this gender difference is consistent across all characteristics such as employment status, income, and pension ownership.
Somewhat revealingly, almost a third of men (32%) do not find the idea of retirement appealing.
The survey also shed some light on plans for after retirement with 61% of women having travel at the top of their retirement plan compared to 49% of men.
Check out our personal finance articles
If you haven’t started saving for retirement and would like to find out more, you can consult our in-depth beginners’ guide to pensions at this link.
You can also listen back to one of our episodes of the bonkers.ie podcast in which we discuss everything you need to know about planning for your retirement.
In the meantime, if you’d like to find out more about other personal finance topics, why not have a look at some other helpful content we’ve written below.
- Considering taking out life insurance cover? Here are 10 important things to consider.
- For more about investing in your future, you can read more on your savings options here.
- Here’s everything you need to know about applying for a tax refund.
- If you’re looking for a new current account provider, see how you can reduce your fees in this article.
You can stay up to date on personal finance and pension news with our blogs and guides.
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If you’re looking to start saving money for the future, make sure you check out our savings account comparison tool. This will show you interest rates and account features from Ireland’s main providers, so you can decide on the best savings account for you.
We also offer comparison services for other banking products, such as current accounts, credit cards, pre-paid credit cards, personal loans and even mortgages.
Don’t forget you can also save on your energy, broadband and insurance costs on bonkers.ie.
Get in touch
Do you have any questions about Standard Life’s latest Retirement Pulse survey? Or any questions about pensions in general? Get in touch with us in the comments below.
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