Report: Senior citizens’ incomes fall short in 47 states, including R.I.

BANKRATE.COM SAID Rhode Island seniors have the ninth-largest gap income gap in the nation at nearly 56 percent. In Rhode Island, the median household income for those 65 and older is approximately $38,000, while the median household income for those ages 45 to 64 is $68,843. The chart shows the 10 states with the worst income gaps for seniors, with Massachusetts leading the nation at 48.2 percent. Financial experts say retirees need 70 percent of the income that they earned during their working years. / COURTESY BANKRATE.COM
BANKRATE.COM SAID Rhode Island seniors have the ninth-largest gap income gap in the nation at nearly 56 percent. In Rhode Island, the median household income for those 65 and older is approximately $38,000, while the median household income for those ages 45 to 64 is $68,843. The chart shows the 10 states with the worst income gaps for seniors, with Massachusetts leading the nation at 48.2 percent. Financial experts say retirees need 70 percent of the income that they earned during their working years. / COURTESY BANKRATE.COM

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island residents who are 65 and older have a median annual income that’s 56 percent of the median annual income earned by the state’s 45-64 year-olds, the ninth-largest gap in the nation, according to Bankrate.com.
In Rhode Island, the median household income for those 65 and older is approximately $38,000, while the median household income for those ages 45 to 64 is $68,843.
The financial services website cited statistics from financial experts that say retirees need 70 percent of the income that they earned during their working years, noting retirement incomes are exceeding that target in only three states: Hawaii (72.6 percent), Alaska (71.1 percent) and South Carolina (70.2 percent).
Massachusetts had the greatest gap at 48.2 percent, with the median household income for those 65 and older at $41,489 and median household income for those ages 45 to 64 at $86,036. The nationwide average is 60.3 percent.
“These numbers help illustrate how underprepared many Americans are for retirement,” Greg McBride, Bankrate.com’s chief financial analyst, said in a statement. “It’s especially important for millennials to save aggressively, because they face the biggest retirement savings burden of any generation in American history.”
Bankrate said it used data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey fopr its anaylsis. For each state and Washington, D.C., it then divided the median annual household income for those who are 65 and older by the median annual household income for those in their later working years, between ages 45 and 64.
The Census Bureau defines income to include wages, salaries, tips, social security, welfare, interest, dividends, pensions, income from defined contribution retirement plans (such as 401(k)s and IRAs), rental properties, royalties and other sources.

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