Retirement Planning : Contributions from the Field of Behavioral Finance and Economics

An important challenge facing employees and societies is saving and investing sufficient funds for a comfortable retirement. Research shows that human financial decision-making behavior is not always rational and that public trust in the economy can be lost. Surprisingly, neither better disclosure of financial services and products nor education has had little discernible effect in motivating individuals to effectively plan and save for transitioning out of the workforce. The fields of cognitive psychology and neuroscience identify many behavioral obstacles individuals face in taking the needed steps to save and invest more for the future. A host of behavioral issues influence an individual's decision making about retirement including biases, heuristics, framing, hyperbolic discounting, self-awareness, and self-control. The emerging works on trust also add to our understanding of the retirement planning system. Exploring these findings and strategies for mitigating financial decision-making errors can make a substantive contribution to achieving a more secure retirement