5 Retirement Planning Wrinkles for Couples With Big Age Gaps
Retirement decisions are always complex. But they can be doubly so when a big age gap between spouses means wide variations in retirement dates, life expectancy, health and other factors. Much of the standard retirement advice may not work for age-gap couples. "You have to throw away the playbook that you would use for a couple retiring at a similar age," says Steve Parrish, director of the retirement income center at The American College.
About 9% of all married couples have an age gap of 10 years or more, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, but large age differences become more common in later-life second marriages. About 20% of heterosexual remarried men, for example, have a spouse at least 10 years their junior,
