Due to women getting married later, fewer women gettingmarried and, among those who do marry, an increase in divorce, women arespending fewer years married overall, according to the Center for Retirement Researchat Boston College.

If women as a group now spend about half of their adultyears unmarried, it probably makes sense to explore their savings andinvestment behavior separately from men, the center says. This change hassignificant implications for financial planning.

For the oldest cohort, those born between 1931 and 1941, 72% of womens yearsbetween the ages of 20 and the last interview were spent married. Looking at mid-Boomers, i.e. those born between 1954 and 1959, the years spentmarried in that same timeframe had dropped to 54%. There is strong evidence to show that an individual's marital statusespecially an unexpected change in marital statushas a big impact on financial security over time.

The reason why the number of years women are married has declined is because,among the oldest cohort, the average age that women got married was 21.4. Formid-Boomers, this has crept up to 24.3. Among the oldest cohort, 3.9% nevermarried, and for mid-Boomers, this has risen to 12.2%. Just over one-third,33.9%, of the oldest cohort divorced, and today, 49.3% of mid-Boomer women aredivorced.

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston Collegesreport on this issue, Do Women Still Spend Most of Their Lives Married?, canbe downloaded here.

Excerpt from:
Women Spending Fewer Years Married, Shifting Retirement Outlook - Planadviser.com