By John Anderer

Retirement is the prize at the end of the work marathon. Any financial advisor or accountant will tell you it’s a good idea to start saving for retirement as early as possible, and the average working adult spends decades adding money, little by little, to his or her retirement fund. When the time comes, that money will be spent on leisure, fun, and everything else we can’t do while working full time.

Now, you’re not supposed to touch any of the money in your retirement account until the time is right, but countless people end up dipping into their savings long before retiring. An interesting new study from The University of Michigan and the University of Delaware looked into the top reasons why people make early withdrawals from their retirement funds and concluded that divorce is the most frequent motivator. Besides divorce, mortgage payments are another super common reason for early withdrawals.

More specifically, the research team found that Americans are most likely to withdraw savings before retirement during divorce proceedings or immediately following the loss of a job.

Decades ago, most Americans’ retirement funds were tied up in employer-funded pensions, but as of 2015, the majority of working adults have retirement funds known as “defined contribution” accounts, such as IRAs or 401(k)s. These defined contribution accounts are much more flexible, and allow withdrawals at any time.

“These plans, now the dominant form of U.S. pensions, also provide pre-retirement liquidity features,” explains Frank Stafford, professor of economics and research professor at U-M’s Institute for Social Research, in a university release. “Increasingly, retirement savings are being used to finance current consumption, notably during periods of income decline. Further, most employers allow participants to discontinue their contributions to realize a greater current cash flow.”

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