Suze Orman says couples are losing as much as $14,000 in 'free money' by failing to save smart as a team

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 save smartly.

Orman writes in a recent blog post that 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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For example, Orman says, one plan offers them a dollar-for-dollar match on the first 3% they save, while the other spouse's plan gets a 50-cent match on every dollar they contribute up to 6% of their salary. 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.

Citing research from 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."

What you can do about it

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.

Leaving money on the table isn't necessarily about inertia. Rather, "many couples have not considered that there might be gains to coordination," the researchers write.

The simple solution, it turns out, is just sitting down and running the math together — then coordinating your savings from there.