Hello from SapphicSavvy!

Set 10, Quarter 2. Also, it's Election Day. This week: retirement accounts, ballots, the nightstand drawer, and the waiting period after a breakup.

Let's go.

🪺 Nest Eggs

52% of users are actively saving for retirement.

Y'all guessed 49%. Close!

Lesbian 53%, bisexual 57%, queer 47%.

You guessed for your own identity group:

• Lesbians guessed 50%. Real: 53%.

• Bisexual users guessed 49%. Real: 57%.

• Queer users guessed 47.3%. Real: 47.1%.

Queer users, hello again. A quarter of a point. Last week I declared your streak over. I was wrong and I'm happy about it.

Bi users are our top savers, and they undersold it by eight points. Keep that in mind for the Thread.

The bi number is more impressive than it looks. The Williams Institute found 29.4% of bisexual women in the U.S. live in poverty, compared with 17.9% of lesbian women and 17.8% of straight women. Our bi users are out-saving everyone anyway.

Late teens 16%, 20s 49%, 30s 56%, 40s+ 62%.

Each age group guessed for its identity group: late teens 42%, 20s 44%, 30s 50%, 40s+ 55%.

Look at those guesses. They climb with age, same as the real numbers. Nobody was guessing about their age group here. Everyone was guessing about their whole identity group. And everyone pictured that group looking a lot like their own friends. Hold that thought too.

The age staircase itself makes sense. You need a job, and then a job with a 401(k), and then money left over after rent. Our late teens who are already saving are ahead of schedule. Transamerica's 2025 report, based on a survey of more than 5,000 U.S. workers, put the median age Gen Z started saving at 20. Millennials started at 26. Boomers at 35.

For comparison, Transamerica found 76% of Gen Z workers and 85% of millennial workers are saving for retirement. Our 52% looks low next to that, but their survey only counted people with jobs. Ours counts students, people between jobs, and everyone else too. And saving isn't the same as feeling good about it. In the Federal Reserve's latest household survey, only 35% of non-retirees thought their retirement savings were on track. The Human Rights Campaign's 2026 community survey found 51.2% of LGBTQ+ adults say they're struggling or just getting by.

So if you're in the 48% right now: same. Back in Set 5 Quarter 4, over a quarter of you weren't up to date on preventative screenings either. Future-you stuff is hard to prioritize when present-you has rent due. If you've got a workplace plan with a match, even a tiny contribution counts. And if you're looking for a money podcast, there's one called Queer Money. It's hosted by two gay guys, so per last week's data it doesn't count toward your 1.25.

🗳 Sticker Season

When you answered last week, 33% of users had already voted in the midterms.

Y'all guessed 47%.

You guessed for your own age group:

• Late teens guessed 49%. Real: 42%.

• 20s guessed 45%. Real: 23%.

• 30s guessed 46%. Real: 27%.

• 40s+ guessed 51%. Real: 46%.

The youngest and oldest groups led. The middle lagged way behind.

The 40s+ make sense. Nationally, early voting skews old. On October 26, the University of Florida's Election Lab had counted about 28 million early votes. Among early voters whose age was on file, 50.4% were over 65 and just 4.5% were 18 to 25.

Then there are our late teens. 42% of them had already voted. For most of them this is probably their first election, and they still beat most of us to it. Late teens, I'm proud of you. Please teach the 20s.

20s, about you. 23% of you had voted early, and you guessed 45% for yourselves. Here's a weird coincidence: in 2022, Tufts' CIRCLE estimated that 27% of Americans ages 18 to 29 voted in the midterms at all. You're almost at that number and it's not even Election Day yet. So I'm not mad. I just want to see the sticker.

Lesbian 40%, bisexual 14%, queer 31%.

Each identity group guessed for its age group: lesbians 48%, bisexual users 45%, queer users 47%.

Bi users came in at 14%. I don't have a tidy theory for this one, and I don't want to make one up. This question measured when you voted, not whether you'll vote. A lot of people just like voting on the actual day. Bi users, if that's you, today's your day.

Nationally, early voting is having a big year. By October 30, Election Lab's count had passed 46 million. That's more early votes than the entire 2022 midterm (45.9 million), with days still to go. Even so, 46 million is less than a fifth of eligible voters. So one in three of you voting early is well ahead of the country. And LGBTQ+ voters said they'd show up. In HRC's 2026 survey, 87% of registered LGBTQ+ voters said they would definitely vote this year. Civil rights and equal protections topped their list of issues.

Why did we guess so high? Because voting is the one thing on this week's list that comes with a sticker. You post the sticker. Your friends post the sticker. Your feed fills up with stickers, and you see 47%. Nobody posts "I'm voting Tuesday."

If you're eligible and you haven't voted yet, today's the day. Your state or county election office's website has your polling place and hours.

🧰 Drawer Inventory

The typical user owns 4.9 sex toys.

Y'all guessed 3.5.

Lesbian 4.5, bisexual 4.9, queer 5.8.

You guessed for your own identity group:

• Lesbians guessed 3.5. Real: 4.5.

• Bisexual users guessed 3.4. Real: 4.9.

• Queer users guessed 3.8. Real: 5.8.

Every group lowballed itself. Queer users missed by two whole toys.

Remember last week? A toy shows up in 42% of the typical user's partnered encounters, and y'all guessed 50%. So we overestimated how often the toys come out, and underestimated how many are in the drawer. Somewhere out there is a lot of inventory waiting its turn.

Put the two weeks together and it gets fun. Lesbians had the highest toy use with partners last week (47%) and own the fewest toys this week. Bi users had the lowest partnered use (26%) and own more toys than lesbians. Lesbians have a small, hardworking collection. Bi users have a bigger collection, and from these numbers, a lot of it stays out of partnered sex. You can draw your own conclusions about the rest. Sapphics contain multitudes.

Queer users top the chart, which fits. Back in Set 4 Quarter 1, queer users were also the most likely to have used the same toys with multiple partners. A bigger collection makes sharing easier, I guess.

For comparison, an April 2024 Adam & Eve survey of 1,000+ American adults found 38% of women own a sex toy at all. (Adam & Eve sells sex toys, for the record.) Our typical user owns almost five. A 2024 Journal of Sex Research study of nearly 12,000 adults across six European countries found straight participants owned the fewest toys, and bisexual participants were the most likely to own any.

Late teens 2.0, 20s 5.3, 30s 6.0, 40s+ 4.4.

Each age group guessed for its identity group: late teens 2.8, 20s 3.5, 30s 3.9, 40s+ 3.5.

Same thing as the retirement guesses. The age groups' guesses rise and fall in the same shape as themreal numbers. Everyone pictured their identity group as people their age.

And the 30s are in first place. Again. Set 5 Quarter 2 said they owned the most toys, and they still do. That's a toy for every day of the work week, plus a spare. Over half of them have used the same toy with multiple partners (Set 4 Quarter 1), and they had the most toy time last week too. At this point I think the 30s are running a lending library.

The late teens have two. As our original correspondent said in Set 4 Quarter 1, "that shit's expensive." It's also hard to hide a growing collection from your roommate, or your mom. Give it a few years.

The 40s+ come in at 4.4. That's still a well-stocked drawer. And a 2026 Kinsey Institute study of more than 3,000 American women over 60 found that 56% of those who masturbate use sex toys at least once in a while. The drawer doesn't retire.

Last note: some of you answered 20. Respect. Please label everything.

⏳ The Waiting Period

The typical user thinks the ideal wait before dating again after a breakup is 4.9 months.

Y'all guessed 4.3.

You guessed for your own age group:

• Late teens guessed 3.3. Real: 4.5.

• 20s guessed 4.1. Real: 4.7.

• 30s guessed 4.4. Real: 4.8.

• 40s+ guessed 4.7. Real: 5.2.

Every age group thought its own peers would jump back in faster than they actually would. The late teens undersold themselves the most, by more than a month. Late teens, your friends are more patient than you think.

The wait goes up a little with each age group, but the whole range is less than a month. Pretty much everyone lands around five months.

Lesbian 5.1, bisexual 5.3, queer 4.1.

Each identity group guessed for its age group: lesbians 4.5, bisexual users 4.2, queer users 3.9.

Bi users want the longest wait. That's funny, because back in Set 5 Quarter 1, bi users got over their first sapphic heartbreak the fastest, in about 9 months. Maybe that's why. If you heal faster, you might be more willing to give it real time first. Queer users want the shortest wait at 4.1 months, and they guessed 3.9, so they knew.

The full range was wild. At least one lesbian in her 20s said the ideal wait is zero months. No waiting room. Straight from the breakup to the next date. At least one lesbian in the 40s+ group said 18 months. I'd love to see those two plan a dinner.

Now let's compare this to the archives, because the archives have opinions.

• Set 5 Quarter 1: It took the typical user about a year to get over her first sapphic heartbreak. (Users in their 30s took closer to 15 months.)

• This week: The ideal wait to date again is about 5 months.

So the community's official advice is to start dating again around seven months before you're actually over her. Very efficient of us.

• Set 6 Quarter 4: Our original correspondent prescribed "Breaking Up And Waiting 2 Months." The community wants more than double that dose.

• Set 8 Quarter 4: 34% of you had U-Hauled with someone you'd dated for three months or less.

Wait five months, date for three, rent the truck. From breakup to moving in with someone new in eight months. That math explains a lot of things about this community.

Outside data puts us right in line. A 2016 survey by Match of UK adults who'd had a breakup in the past five years found it took an average of five months to get back into dating. 12% were back within two weeks, and 17% waited more than six months. So that's one way sapphics are just like everyone else.

And if you're in the zero-months camp, research is kind of on your side. In a 2015 study, psychologists Claudia Brumbaugh and R. Chris Fraley found that people who started a new relationship sooner after a breakup reported higher well-being and self-esteem, and they didn't seem any more hung up on their ex. The rebound has a worse reputation than it deserves.

Still, Autostraddle's advice for dating after a queer breakup says it best: "Life is long; it's ok to need more time." Five months, zero months, eighteen months: whatever works for you.

🧵 The Thread

Here's how the guesses went this week:

• Retirement: guessed 49%, real 52%. A little low.

• Voted early: guessed 47%, real 33%. Too high.

• Toys: guessed 3.5, real 4.9. Too low.

• Ideal wait: guessed 4.3 months, real 4.9. Too low.

One over, three unders. That's the exact opposite of last week. But it's the same rule.

Last week I said we overcount what's loud and undercount what's quiet. This week, that rule went four for four. Voting comes with a sticker, and everyone posts it, so we guessed high. Retirement accounts are invisible. Nobody posts their 401(k) balance. Sex toys live in a drawer. And a breakup has two possible next chapters: the rebound, which gets soft-launched on Instagram within a week, and the five quiet months of not dating, which look like nothing at all. We see the rebounds, so we guessed short.

There was a second pattern this week too. When you guessed about your whole identity group, every age group's guesses rose and fell in the same shape as the real age data. Psychologists call this the false consensus effect. We assume everyone else is a little more like us than they really are. The 40s+ pictured a group full of savers. The late teens pictured the smallest collections. Everyone pictured their friends.

Running storylines:

• The bisexual users' overshoot streak is over. After four weeks of guessing too high about themselves, bi users guessed low on both identity questions this week: retirement (49% vs. 57%) and toys (3.4 vs. 4.9). Babes, you looked at your own data. Now you're underselling yourselves. Find the middle.

• The queer users are back. After last week's pet custody miss, they nailed retirement to within a quarter of a point. I spoke too soon.

• The 30s keep winning things. Most toys, again. They still lead the Set 5 Quarter 2 toy count.

• The 40s+ had the most organized week of anyone. Most likely to be saving (62%), most likely to have voted early (46%), and the most patient after a breakup (5.2 months). Love that for them.

• New storyline: the late teens. Only 16% of them are saving for retirement, and they own two toys on average. But 42% of them voted before Election Day. Priorities.

So here's the real typical sapphic of Set 10 Quarter 2. It's a coin flip whether she's saving for retirement. A week out, she probably hadn't voted yet, so there's a good chance she's in line today. She owns about five toys. And after a breakup, she'll give it about five months before she dates again.

Five toys, five months. It's a theme.

Two more Quarters in Heat 1. Go play.

XOXO SapphicSavvy

P.s. here's some additional reading if you're so inclined:

Nest Eggs:

https://www.transamericainstitute.org/research/publications/details/four-generations-persevering-against-headwinds-uncertainties-prepare-for-retirement

https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2026-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2025-executive-summary.htm

https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/us-lgbt-poverty-press-release

https://queermoney.libsyn.com/category/retirement

Sticker Season:

https://www.newsweek.com/map-states-early-voters-midterms-12619134

https://nolabels.org/the-latest/early-voting-breaks-the-midterm-record-what-46-million-ballots-tell-us-about-2026/

https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/new-data-lgbtq-voters-head-into-midterms-highly-motivated-concerned-about-civil-rights-and-feeling-financial-strain

https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/millions-youth-cast-ballots-decide-key-2022-races

Drawer Inventory:

https://prnewswire.com/news-releases/adamevecom-asks-how-many-americans-own-a-sex-toy-302121175.html

https://leshaw.com/sex-toys-who-owns-them-how-many-and-which-ones/

https://www.autostraddle.com/50-best-queer-sex-toys-473770/

https://menopause.org/wp-content/uploads/press-release/MENO-D-25-00214.pdf

The Waiting Period:

https://www.meetic-europe.com/press/uk/britains-got-ex-factor/

https://psychologytoday.com/us/blog/finding-love-the-scientific-take/202105/are-rebound-relationships-always-doomed

https://www.autostraddle.com/5-things-to-know-about-dating-again-after-your-gay-breakup/