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In the race to build wealth, Suze Orman says many couples are falling behind — not because they're failing to save, but because they're failing to savesmartly.
Orman writes in arecent blog postthat if you're lucky enough to have a workplace retirement plan with matching contributions, you should always aim to max that out.
However, that math gets "trickier" when you're married and both spouses' plans have different formulas.
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One of those plans offers the couple better bang for their buck — and failing to factor that in is costing them thousands of dollars in savings.
Citingresearchfrom the National Bureau of Economic Research, Orman says one in five couples could increase their annual retirement savings by $757 just by working together.
By age 65, this amounts to $14,000 per couple.
"That foregone money isn't because they saved less, it's because they didn't save smart," Orman writes.
"They could have boosted their retirement savings without contributing an extra dollar of their own money." Part of the problem may be how couples are looking at saving for retirement.
Orman has some straightforward advice for these couples: "If you and your spouse both have workplace retirement plans, don't think of them as separate accounts.
Think of them as part of one household retirement strategy." Lack of communication can lead to other suboptimal financial decision-making, according to the NBER study.
That can lead to not refinancing a fixed-rate mortgage when it's beneficial to do so, or co-holding low-interest liquid savings and high-interest credit card debt at the same time.
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