The typical middle-age American is saving far too little for retirement, and the Employee Benefit Research Institute has estimated the shortfall: an average of $47,732 per individual over the course of that person’s retirement.
The number was intended to show how much additional income future retirees — in this case, people currently 36 to 62 — would need to sufficiently cover basic expenses and uninsured health care costs upon reaching retirement age. (Not all health care costs are covered by Medicare, after all.)
The retirement savings shortfall varies by gender, household size and generation, according to the model used by the institute, which is a nonpartisan research organization.
For example, Generation Xers — that is, people born from 1965 to 1974 — have a higher estimated retirement shortfall for any given household type. That is primarily because health care costs are rising so quickly, and will be especially expensive by the time that generation retires.
The costs of nursing home and home health care expenses increase the average retirement shortfall by $25,317 for married households (whose inhabitants can pool expenses). The shortfall for single men increases an average of $32,433, and for single women the average increase is $46,425.
