Dog People vs Cat People: Who Has a Better Retirement?

Is it ruff or purr-fect to have a pet in retirement? This might be no surprise to dogs (and cats just don't care), but dog owners report a "paws-itively" better outlook on life than cat owners.

David Blanchett, PhD, CFA®, CFP®'s avatar
By Reviewed by
Published In Features
An older man sits on a bench outside with his dog next to him and his cat on his lap.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Could owning a pet affect the way you view life during retirement?

Turns out Fido or Whiskers may have a bigger influence on your post-work happiness than you thought.

Full disclosure: I'm a retirement researcher by profession, and I'm also an animal lover. My wife is a veterinarian, and we're proud pet parents to three dogs, two guinea pigs and a tortoise.

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In other words, I don't need to do any research beyond my own home to know the profound impact a pet can make at any stage of life.

Still, I was delighted that Prudential included a few questions about pet ownership in the Global Retirement Pulse Survey it did last summer. And it's really not much of a stretch — the cost of owning a pet should absolutely be a factor in building a comprehensive retirement income plan.

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Some things we learned aren't particularly surprising: Pet ownership declines notably by age, people who owned pets before are likely to want a pet during retirement, and most people don't fully consider all the costs of owning a pet after they're done working.

Cats vs dogs

Now for the fun part, and I realize I may have buried the bone — I mean, buried the lede. I wanted to see whether pet ownership — specifically cats and dogs — is related to changes in life outlook. So, we asked whether someone's outlook on life has gotten better with age.

Drum roll, please: Go give your dog a treat! People who own dogs report having better life outlooks than those with cats. And people who have cats actually reported life outlooks that were worse than people without pets (I mentioned this to a few cats I know, and perhaps not surprisingly, they just don't care).

I was curious if other factors like wealth could be driving this, so I ran some additional calculations, and it turns out I wasn't barking up the wrong tree. See the results below.

So, I can't offer any guarantees from our research. But if you think owning a dog in retirement will bring a lasting smile to your face, who am I to disagree?

Probability of Pet Ownership graphic

(Image credit: Courtesy of David Blanchett)

Graphic about appeal of owning a pet.

(Image credit: Courtesy of David Blanchett)

Outlook improved with age graphic

(Image credit: Courtesy of David Blanchett)

For over 20 years Prudential has been studying broader economic trends impacting Americans in its Pulse survey. The latest, the Global Retirement Pulse Survey, expands the geographic footprint and includes responses from the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, and Japan (for this analysis I just focus on just the U.S. respondents). The survey was conducted online by Brunswick Group between August 8-22, 2025 and there were 1,000 U.S. respondents. Note, the survey only included "mass affluent" adults, who are defined as age 30+ with at least $100,000 in investable assets.

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Disclaimer

This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

David Blanchett, PhD, CFA®, CFP®
David Blanchett, PhD, CFA®, CFP®
Head of Retirement Research, PGIM

David Blanchett, PhD, CFA®, CFP®, is Managing Director and Head of Retirement Research for PGIM DC Solutions. PGIM is the global investment management business of Prudential Financial, Inc. In this role he develops research and innovative solutions to help improve retirement outcomes for investors with a focus on defined contribution plans. Prior to joining PGIM he was the Head of Retirement Research for Morningstar Investment Management. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Wealth Management at The American College of Financial Services and Research Fellow for the Alliance for Lifetime Income.