Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108CH APTER 3 67 Marriage and Wealth The unique design of the HRS—following both people in a married couple over time—permits examination of changes in marital status over time while estimating the economic, health, and social effects of such changes. As discussed throughout this publication, HRS data show that economic well-being in later life is linked to marital status—that married older couples have higher incomes and greater wealth than those of unmarried individuals. A change in marital status because of death or divorce can dramatically change a person’s financial situation, however, and with the significant rates of divorce, remarriage, and reorganizing of families in recent decades, the HRS provides data on the consequences of changes in family structure. Women lose more than the companionship of a spouse when they are widowed—their wealth suffers significantly as well. One study focused on the original (1992) cohort of female HRS participants ages 51 to 61, tracking their net worth from 1992 to 1998 (Weir et al. 2002) (Figure 3-8). They compared three groups of women: those who were married in 1992 and stayed married through 1998, women who were married in 1992 but became widowed before 1998, and women who were widows in 1992 and stayed unmarried through 1998. The median wealth in 1992 of women who were newly widowed between 1992 and 1998 was lower than that of other married women in 1992, indicating that poorer married couples are more likely to be widowed in the first place. Further, the new widows’ wealth declined both absolutely and relatively over those 6 years. In contrast, women who were widows at the beginning of the HRS and who remained unmarried had constant net worth over time, and women who were married throughout the period saw their household net worth rise. and median household wealth balances for the year 2000. Table 3-2 shows amounts for all HRS households combined, although the research also estimated balances for different types of households (e.g., those with and without retired residents, and single-person households). As would be ex- pected with the inclusion of pension wealth, the total average amounts are higher than those using alternate definitions of wealth or net worth (see Figure 3-10 for example). Table 3-2 also demonstrates the importance of considering medians instead of means (averages). As noted above, the distribution of wealth is highly skewed. More than half of HRS households in 2000 had neither a defined-benefit pension plan nor wealth in the “other annuity” category. Median amounts for the other five component categories also were lower than the aver- age amounts. Therefore, the median wealth value is substantially less than the average value. Focusing on medians may give a truer and more useful picture of wealth in the aging United States.