Uncovering what matters: Family life course aspects and personal wealth in late working age

Capturing the complexity of family life courses as predictors of later-life outcomes like wealth is challenging. Addressing this, we used German data and combined feature selection, sequence analysis tools, and regression techniques. This approach extends prior research that either (a) assessed a few selective but potentially irrelevant summary indicators, or (b) examined the relevance of entire life course clusters without identifying which specific aspects matter within and between clusters. We explored (I) which family life course aspects—encompassing the order, duration, and timing of states and transitions—are key wealth predictors for Western Germans aged 50 to 59. Additionally, we analysed (II) the strength and direction of associations between relevant aspects and wealth, and (III) whether these associations differ by gender. We identified 23 diverse features as relevant predictors, with two—the time spent never-married, both without and with children—deemed most relevant. Most features were negatively associated with wealth and characterised predominantly by single parenthood, marital separation or early marital transitions with or without fertility transitions. The prevalence and significance of associations between these features and wealth differed partly across genders. Results highlight the importance of previously concealed family life course features for wealth inequalities in late working age.