The Bill Comes Due Twice

Caregivers do the planning. EBRI's 2026 survey found them contributing, budgeting, and calculating at roughly the same rates as everyone else, which quietly disposes of the idea that the shortfall is a discipline problem.

The interesting number is where the gap opens widest. Among caregivers earning $75,000 or more, 32 percent are not confident they will have enough money in retirement, against 23 percent of non-caregivers. Among those earning under $35,000, it is 75 percent against 55 percent. The care costs the same hours either way. The damage scales inversely to income.

Sixty-four percent of working caregivers say the caregiving is hurting their mental health. That figure will get quoted. The financial one deserves the same attention, because it is the part that outlasts the caregiving: the years are recoverable, the compounding is not.

For eight years the argument that caregiving is an economic event has rested on estimates. Now it has an issue-brief number.