Retirement Spending for Women: Planning for a Longer Timeline

A woman retiring at 65 today is statistically likely to spend more than two decades in retirement, and may do a significant portion of that alone. That single fact reshapes nearly every decision in a retirement income plan: how much to draw down each year, when to claim Social Security, how to structure healthcare reserves, and whether the portfolio is built to last long enough. Understanding why women face a distinct spending picture in retirement is the first step toward building a plan that accounts for it honestly.

The Longevity Factor Is the Starting Point

Women's longer life expectancies are well-documented. In 2024, a 65-year-old woman could expect to live another 20.8 years, compared with 18.4 years for a man. That 2.4-year gap at the median understates the real planning challenge, because retirement income plans need to account for the possibility of living well beyond the average, to 85, 90, or beyond.

The financial consequence of that longer horizon is direct. More years of retirement means more years of portfolio withdrawals, more years of healthcare cost exposure, and more years of inflation compounding against purchasing power. While five years may not sound substantial, financially it represents years of additional housing costs, healthcare expenses, inflation, taxes, and portfolio withdrawals.

Women, on average, retire two years earlier than men. A woman who leaves the workforce at 63 and lives to 88 is funding a 25-year retirement, often with a smaller accumulated balance than a male counterpart who worked those two additional years.

The Savings Gap Entering Retirement

Women tend to arrive at retirement with fewer resources, which makes the longer spending runway harder to navigate. Women workers reported estimated median household retirement savings of $56,000 in late 2024, compared with $92,000 reported by men, according to the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. The causes are structural and well-understood: time out of the workforce for caregiving, a persistent wage gap, and shorter contribution windows all reduce what women accumulate over a career.

The confidence data reflects the anxiety this creates. In the Federal Reserve's 2025 household well-being survey, only 32% of nonretired women believed their retirement savings were on track, compared with 39% of men. That gap in confidence isn't irrational, as it tracks a real difference in circumstances.

Many women will also spend part of retirement single, widowed, or primarily responsible for their own financial decisions. That shift, from a two-income household to a single-income one, often happens without warning, in a moment of grief, at exactly the point when financial decisions carry the most long-term consequence.

Healthcare: The Largest Variable in the Spending Equation

Healthcare is where women's longer retirement most visibly translates into higher costs. A healthy 65-year-old woman could face $313,000 in total health care expenses over her retirement, compared with about $275,000 for a man, according to the 2025 Milliman Retiree Health Cost Index. That $38,000 difference stems almost entirely from the additional years of coverage and utilization that come with a longer life.

Long-term care is the single largest wildcard in that projection. About 57% of Americans who reach age 65 will develop a disability serious enough to require long-term care. Roughly 1 in 4 women, 26%, will need such care for longer than five years, compared with 17.5% of men.

For a semi-private room in a nursing home, the median daily rate in 2025 was $315 per day, or $114,975 annually, and for a private room it was $355 daily or $129,575 annually, according to CareScout. For an assisted living facility, the monthly cost was $6,200, or $74,400 annually. These are material expenses that most portfolio withdrawal strategies are not designed to absorb without deliberate planning.

There is also a sequencing risk specific to married women. In many cases, a couple's assets are first used to cover the husband's care, and then the woman enters the highest-risk stage of her life with fewer resources and no partner to share the burden. That dynamic makes long-term care planning a couples-level conversation, not just an individual one.

The question for women in retirement isn't just whether the portfolio is large enough on day one. It's whether the income structure is durable enough for year 25.

Social Security Claiming: Where Timing Decisions Compound Over Decades

Because women tend to live longer, the Social Security claiming decision carries more weight for them than it does on average. Claiming benefits early reduces the monthly amount permanently, and permanently matters more when a benefit must stretch over a longer period. Individuals who have reached full retirement age and wait to file can earn delayed retirement credits of 8% per year, up until age 70, which can increase monthly benefit amounts by up to 32%.

For women who are widowed, the claiming decision becomes more complex. Widows and widowers who want to maximize their Social Security retirement benefits need to coordinate their own benefit with survivor benefits. Surviving spouses who are at least age 70 at the time of their spouse's death should take the larger of their own retirement benefits or their survivor benefits, while those younger than age 70 have more factors to consider.

Among those who receive Social Security benefits, 42% of women rely on it for more than half of their income. That dependency makes the claiming decision one of the highest-leverage financial choices a woman approaching retirement will make. Getting it wrong by even a few years can materially reduce lifetime income.

Building a Spending Plan That Accounts for the Full Timeline

The practical implication of all of this is that women's retirement spending plans need to be engineered around a longer horizon and a wider range of risk, not simply scaled versions of a generic plan. Several considerations deserve particular attention.

• Withdrawal rates: A 30-year or longer retirement horizon changes the math on sustainable withdrawal rates. A rate that might be reasonable over 20 years may carry meaningful depletion risk over 25 or 30. Portfolio construction and withdrawal sequencing both need to reflect this.
• Healthcare reserves: Earmarking a dedicated pool of assets (whether through an HSA, an annuity, or a specific portfolio segment) for healthcare and long-term care costs keeps those expenses from competing directly with everyday spending in the later years of retirement.
• Income floor design: Reliable, guaranteed income (whether from Social Security, a pension, or an income annuity) provides a baseline that continues regardless of market conditions. For women who may spend years managing finances alone, that floor reduces both financial and psychological volatility.
• Inflation exposure: Healthcare costs have historically risen faster than general inflation. A spending plan that doesn't account for that asymmetry will likely understate real costs in years 15–25 of retirement, precisely when resources may be thinning.

None of these considerations are unique to women, but the weight each carries in a plan is meaningfully different when the planning horizon is longer and the income base may be narrower.

Common questions

Why do women typically face higher retirement costs than men?

The primary driver is longevity. Women tend to live several years longer on average, which means more years of living expenses, healthcare costs, and portfolio withdrawals. According to the 2025 Milliman Retiree Health Cost Index, a healthy 65-year-old woman is projected to spend $313,000 on healthcare in retirement, compared with $275,000 for a man, with the difference attributed largely to additional years of coverage. Long-term care costs compound this further, since women are more likely to require care for five or more years.

When should a woman claim Social Security to maximize lifetime income?

There is no universal answer. The optimal claiming age depends on health, other income sources, marital status, and whether survivor benefits are involved. In general, because women live longer on average, delaying benefits past full retirement age can provide meaningfully higher monthly income over a longer span of years. Delayed retirement credits of 8% per year accrue up until age 70. For widows, the decision also involves coordinating personal retirement benefits with survivor benefits, which follow different rules and timelines. A careful analysis of both benefit streams is worth completing before any claiming decision is made.

How should long-term care risk factor into a retirement spending plan for women?

Long-term care is one of the larger unbudgeted risks in retirement for women, given the combination of longer life expectancy and higher probability of needing extended care. Roughly 1 in 4 women will require long-term care for more than five years, compared with 17.5% of men. Options for addressing this risk include dedicated insurance coverage (standalone or hybrid), earmarked portfolio reserves, or annuity structures with long-term care riders. Each approach carries trade-offs in cost, flexibility, and coverage certainty, and none is right for everyone, so the choice is best made in the context of a broader income plan rather than in isolation.

If you are working through retirement income questions, whether that means modeling a spending timeline, evaluating Social Security options, or stress-testing a portfolio against healthcare costs, our team is happy to work through the specifics with you.

Sources

• In 2024, a 65-year-old woman could expect to live another 20.8 years vs. 18.4 for a man; women's median retirement savings trailed men's significantly.
• A healthy 65-year-old woman could face $313,000 in total healthcare expenses in retirement vs. $275,000 for a man, per the 2025 Milliman Retiree Health Cost Index.
• About 57% of Americans reaching 65 will need long-term care; 26% of women will need it for more than five years vs. 17.5% of men. Nursing home median daily rate in 2025 was $315 for semi-private.
• 42% of women who receive Social Security rely on it for more than half their income; women retire two years earlier than men on average.
• Delayed retirement credits of 8% per year accrue until age 70, which can increase monthly Social Security benefit amounts by up to 32%.