One-third of Americans plan to retire later due to Covid-19, study finds

One-third of Americans plan to retire later due to Covid-19, study finds

It's no secret that Covid-19 has upended people financially at all stages of life. Now, one new report shows just how the pandemic has changed the way people think about retirement. The study from Age Wave and Edward Jones finds that about 1 out of every 3 Americans who are planning to retire now say that will happen later due to Covid-19. About 69 million Americans now say Covid-19 prompted them to change their retirement timing. That's up slightly from 68 million as of May 2020. The results come from three tracking surveys that were conducted between May 2020 and March 2021. The latest poll was conducted in March, and included 2,042 adults ages 18 and up. The research shows people have adjusted their approaches to retirement in some important ways. Retirement savings disrupted About 14 million Americans have stopped contributing to their retirement accounts every month as of this March, the research found. That's an improvement from December, when 22 million people said they had paused their retirement savings. Women's saving suffers A so-called she-cession is poised to make the already existing financial gender gap worse. Just 41% of women say they are saving each month for retirement, versus