The brief’s key findings are: *Americans need to save more on their own for retirement, but human nature suggests they will focus more on day-to-day financial needs. *Analysis of a recent survey confirms that a household’s level of financial satisfaction is tied more to short-term – rather...

Subjective financial assessments are used by social scientists as a measure of financial well-being and by households as the basis for action. Financial well-being, however, increasingly requires workers to build-up savings to meet hard-to-see future needs, specifically retirement, their...

The policy option of extending mandatory Social Security coverage to newly hired uncovered state and local workers is often included in packages to eliminate the program’s financing shortfall. The arguments for mandatory coverage go beyond financial considerations, though, as extending...

States have begun to respond to their pension challenge by enacting a mix of revenue increases and benefit cuts. These changes will, over time, improve the financial outlook for plans and help ease their impact on other budget priorities. But, to date, the specific nature and magnitude of these...

The conventional wisdom says that older workers are less likely to be displaced than younger workers. While true in the past, the conventional wisdom is no longer true today; the advantage that older workers had has disappeared. This loss of relative job security is troubling. Once displaced,...

Defined contribution plans are now the nation’s primary private retirement income program and repository of retirement savings. About two thirds of the assets held in such plans are invested in equities, as is the case in the defined benefit plans they largely replaced. Equities can...

With the economy sliding ever deeper into recession, questions arise about how older workers are faring and how their fate relative to younger workers compares to the past. The answer to these questions turns out to be a little complicated. Two forces are at work. On the one hand, labor force...

Employers have long had a significant impact on workers’ retirement prospects. Aside from Social Security, employer retirement income plans are the most important source of income for the great majority of retirees. How long workers can stay employed also largely depends on employer hiring and...

When to claim Social Security is one of the most important decisions Americans face when approaching retirement. Recently, several unconventional claiming strategies have come to light ('Free Loan,' 'Claim and Suspend,' and 'Claim Now, Claim More Later') that have the potential to pay higher...

Even before the sharp financial downturn, working longer had emerged as perhaps the most attractive response to the contraction of the nation’s retirement income system.1 Since the downturn, working longer increasingly seems to be the only way most work­ers approaching retirement can secure a...