Caregivers Often Reach Retirement With Less Savings and More Debt

AI stocks bounced after Thursday's rout. Jobs beat forecasts. The Nasdaq rose 1.09%. The Dow slipped.

The quick scan: Friday brought a partial recovery after Thursday's steep technology sell-off. AI and chip shares won back some of what they lost, and the Nasdaq led, while the Dow closed lower. A much stronger October jobs report, with 165,000 new jobs, kept Treasury yields firm. Oil eased, and the VIX fell but stayed above 25.

S&P 500: +0.31% to 7,376.86 – gained 23.13 points as technology rebounded; the rest of the market was mixed
Dow Jones: -0.46% to 51,285.73 – fell 237.33 points, the only one of the three indexes to close lower
NASDAQ: +1.09% to 24,579.42 – rose 264.43 points, but recovered only a small part of Thursday's fall of about 5.5%.

What's driving it: Two forces pulled in different directions. Technology stocks bounced after the worst of Thursday's sell-off, with Nvidia, AMD and Micron among the chip names regaining ground. But AI shares remained jumpy. Investors are weighing whether the US midterm results could bring new local limits on data centre construction, which could slow the spending behind the AI boom. The jobs report added a second layer. Payrolls rose by 165,000, well above forecasts, which is good news for workers and a reason for yields to stay firm, and firm yields tend to weigh on richly priced shares. Brent crude slipped below $100 a barrel on talk of possible diplomacy with Iran. The Russell 2000 of smaller companies also advanced.

Bottom line: Friday looked calm only because Thursday was not. A rebound of one percent does not undo a fall of five, and a single good session is no verdict on the trend. For L-Plate Retirees, the practical habit is to know your cash buffer before the market tests it. Today's article makes the same point from a different angle: caregivers who hold little in savings feel every shock harder, in markets and in life.

Caring for Someone You Love Can Quietly Reshape Your Retirement. Have You Counted the Cost?

The scoop: Picture two neighbours, both in their early sixties, both with the same job and the same kind of mortgage. One spends her weekends driving her mother to appointments, sorting pills into little boxes and covering the odd bill. The other spends hers at the garden centre. On paper they look alike. In a retirement-savings survey, they often end up in different places.

That is the thread running through the 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey, a US study from the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald Research, published in July 2026. This year's report looks at people who care for a spouse, a parent or another loved one, and compares them with people who do not.

A word about the messenger

This is the 36th year of the survey, and it is paid for by financial firms. We are leaving out its findings that serve those sponsors and sticking to the caregiver comparisons, which are plain survey answers. It is a single survey, widely reported but not repeated. It covers the United States only, and the page we read does not clearly state its fieldwork dates. So treat every percentage as a rough reading, not a precise measurement.

Who was asked

The survey spoke with 2,052 workers and retirees, with an extra group of caregivers included so they could be compared fairly. The answers were weighted by age, sex, income and race and ethnicity. Throughout this article we will say who each figure describes, because the group shifts. Sometimes it is all caregivers compared with all non-caregivers. Other times it is caregiving workers or caregiving retirees alone.

The savings gap

Among all caregivers, 34 percent said they have less than $10,000 in savings and investments. Among non-caregivers, the figure was 25 percent. That is nine percentage points apart, which is a gap you can see without squinting.

Under $10,000 in savings does not mean nothing else, such as a home. But a thin liquid cushion matters most when something unexpected lands, and caregiving is full of unexpected.

Think about what sits behind it. Caregiving rarely arrives with a schedule. It might mean cutting hours, turning down a promotion, paying for transport or covering something a parent can no longer afford. The survey does not tell us which of these drove the gap, and it would be a guess to say. What it does show is the pattern.

The debt gap

Among caregivers, 69 percent said debt is a problem for them. Among non-caregivers, 57 percent said the same. Again, caregivers sit higher.

Then there is the money going out the door. Among caregiving workers, 34 percent give financial support to the person they care for, and 20 percent took on new or additional debt because of caregiving. Among caregiving retirees, 20 percent give financial support and 15 percent took on new debt. Retirees have less room to rebuild once savings are spent, so those smaller percentages still carry weight.

Confidence depends on where your income sits

The most interesting result is about confidence. The survey asked people whether they feel confident they will have enough money to last through retirement, and looked at the share who were not confident, by household income.

For people with incomes under $35,000, 75 percent of caregivers were not confident, against 55 percent of non-caregivers. That is a 20-point gap. For incomes of $75,000 or more, 32 percent of caregivers were not confident, against 23 percent of non-caregivers. In the middle band, from $35,000 to $74,999, there was no difference at all.

The page does not explain the middle band, so do not read much into it. What the rest suggests is that caregiving weighs on confidence at both ends, though more heavily where income is thin.

The retirement that did not match the dream

Caregiving retirees were also asked about their day-to-day lifestyle. Half of them, 50 percent, said their retirement lifestyle is not what they had envisioned. Among retirees who are not caregivers, 33 percent said so. Caregiving retirees were also more likely to say various expenses are higher than they expected, and more likely to rate their lifestyle as merely fair.

These are people who stepped in because someone needed them, often without a plan for what it would cost. Few of them would call that a mistake. Many would simply say they wish they had seen the bill coming.

That is a human number as much as a financial one. A retirement spent on someone else's needs can be deeply meaningful. It can also be a different retirement from the one you pencilled in over coffee at fifty-five.

What this survey cannot tell you

It cannot say that caregiving causes lower savings. People who have less money to begin with may be likelier to become caregivers, because paid care is out of reach, and the survey cannot untangle that. It does not tell us how many hours anyone gave, how long they cared for or how much they spent. It measures how people say they feel and what they say they have, not audited balances. And it describes Americans, so rules, benefits and care systems elsewhere will differ.

So read it as a mirror, not a map. It shows a pattern worth knowing about. Your own plan still has to come from your own numbers.

A small, kind exercise

If you are caring for someone now, or might be one day, try a short exercise. Take one sheet of paper and write two columns. In the first, list what you already spend on or for the person you care for, even small things like fuel and phone calls. In the second, list what you would do if the load doubled: whose help you could ask, what you would trim and what you would not touch.

Most people find the first column is larger than they guessed. Care is often paid for in small, unrecorded amounts, and the first step is simply seeing them. This is general information, not financial advice, and your own situation may call for a conversation with someone who can see your whole picture.

Actionable takeaways for L-Plate Retirees:

• Count the cost of care you already give. Write down what you spend each month on the person you look after, including fuel, meals, phone calls and small bills. The survey suggests caregivers often carry costs they never add up, and a figure on paper is easier to plan around than a vague worry. Do it for three months and you will have a real average instead of a guess.

• Know which group you belong to. The survey's numbers shift between caregivers, caregiving workers and caregiving retirees. Work out which one describes you before you compare yourself with a percentage, and remember it is a rough reading from a single survey.

• Protect a small cash cushion first. With 34 percent of caregivers holding under $10,000 in savings and investments, a small buffer for sudden care costs may matter before any bigger goal. Even a modest amount set aside monthly gives you a first line of defence that does not rely on borrowing. Keep it reachable but out of everyday spending.

• Be wary of new debt as a way to fund care. One in five caregiving workers and 15 percent of caregiving retirees took on new or additional debt. Before borrowing, list the other options on your two-column page, such as help from relatives or trimming other spending.

• Talk about money with the family early. Caregiving often falls on one person by default. A calm conversation about who contributes what, in time and money, can ease the load before it becomes a strain on both finances and relationships. Even an agreement to review the arrangement every six months helps, because needs change and so do budgets.

• Plan for the retirement you actually get. Half of caregiving retirees said their lifestyle is not what they envisioned. Revisit your plan once a year and allow room for caregiving to change your budget, your time or both. A plan with a little slack in it survives surprises better than a tight one.

Your Turn:
If your costs of caring for a loved one were written down in one column today, would the total surprise you?
The survey found the confidence gap was widest at lower incomes and absent in the middle. Where do you think your own household sits, and why?
If caregiving arrived in your life next year, what is the first thing in your budget you would protect, and what could you bend?

👉 Hit reply and share your thoughts – your answers could inspire fellow readers in future issues.

☕ If this issue helped you see how caregiving can show up in the numbers long before retirement does, consider supporting L-Plate Retiree on Ko-fi. Your support keeps these plain-English looks at the money side of real life coming.

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