How to Plan for Retirement When You Don’t Have Kids (2025)

Earmark funds for housing needs. The sooner childfree people start thinking about and planning for housing in retirement, the better, Loverde says. You could set aside savings for future home renovations so you can safely age in place, such as a ramp or walk-in shower, or to cover moving costs if you need to relocate (for example, to a place without stairs).

Continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs), also called life-plan communities, can “be a great place to age if you’re childfree,” Loverde says, because they offer different levels of care, from independent living to assisted living to nursing care, in one place. They typically require a large upfront payment, but Loverde says she is seeing younger people “starting to make deposits [at CCRCs] to secure their place.”

Save up for social needs. If you anticipate aging alone, think now about how you might stay connected with others. That could mean socking away funds for taking local classes, relying on rideshares to get around, and upgrading your technology so you can attend virtual gatherings.

Supersize retirement savings. Federal researchers estimate that parents spend more than $230,000 on average raising a child to age 18. Irwin recommends putting the money you’re not spending on kids into “making sure you’re fully funding your retirement” by maximizing contributions to retirement savings accounts.

For the 2025 tax year, people ages 50-plus can put up to $8,000 into an individual retirement account (IRA), and most workers in that group can contribute up to $31,000 to a workplace plan such as a 401(k), 403(b) or 457 account. Those ages 60 to 63 have an even higher contribution limit for workplace plans: up to $34,250.

Think about your legacy

Estate planning looks different for people without children. They may have more disposable income because they haven’t had to pay child-rearing costs, but they may also feel less urgency about what happens to their wealth when there are no obvious heirs.

“There’s this perception that an estate plan is meant to leave assets to children,” Irwin says. “While that’s true, it’s also true that it really just directs and gives you control of where your assets go.

”Being proactive in estate planning “is especially important for couples who do not have children,” Irwin adds, because absent a will, state intestacy laws will determine who inherits your assets.

“For a lot of people that doesn't make sense," Irwin says. “They say, ‘We want to maybe benefit our alma mater. We want to benefit charitable organizations that we’re passionate about. We want to benefit friends, or maybe nieces and nephews,' This is critical for them because the default almost certainly doesn’t reflect what they would like to have happen.”

Zigmont, whose financial planning practice focuses on childfree people, has an exercise he goes through with clients who have assets to leave but aren’t sure what to do with them. When a parent dies, he notes, the second line of their death notice often lists the people they leave behind. “We ask our clients, ‘What do you want that second line of your obituary to say?’ ” Zigmont says. Once they have an answer, he advises, “Shift your money toward that.”