March 2018

05Mar

How Persistent Low Expected Returns Alter Optimal Life Cycle Saving, Investment, and Retirement Behavior

By Vanya Horneff, Raimond Maurer & Olivia S. Mitchell This paper explores how an environment of persistent low returns influences saving, investing, and retirement behaviors, as compared to what in the past had been thought of as more “normal” financial conditions. Our calibrated lifecycle dynamic model with realistic tax, minimum distribution, and Social Security benefit rules produces results that agree with observed saving, work, and claiming age behavior of U.S. households. In particular, our model generates a large peak at...

March 5, 2018
Aging, Articles, Investing, Savings, , ,
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February 2018

19Feb

How Persistent Low Expected Returns Alter Optimal Life Cycle Saving, Investment, and Retirement Behavior

By Vanya Horneff, Raimond Maurer, Olivia S. Mitchell This paper explores how an environment of persistent low returns influences saving, investing, and retirement behaviors, as compared to what in the past had been thought of as more “normal” financial conditions. Our calibrated lifecycle dynamic model with realistic tax, minimum distribution, and Social Security benefit rules produces results that agree with observed saving, work, and claiming age behavior of U.S. households. In particular, our model generates a large peak at the...

February 19, 2018
Articles, Investing, Savings, , ,
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January 2018

22Jan

The Retirement Survival Guide: How to Make Smart Financial Decisions in Good Times and Bad

By Julie Jason Given today’s dire headlines, planning a secure retirement has become a more critical task than ever. This revised edition of Julie Jason’s award-winning guide—updated to reflect current laws and statistics—will help Americans seeking safety and stability in a time of economic change. In addition to showing those on the verge of retirement how to create their own “personal pension,” investment educator Jason deftly guides prospective retirees through the otherwise bewildering process of evaluating their needs, anticipating future...

January 22, 2018
Books, Investing, Pension design, Savings, , ,
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22Jan

The Devil You Know: A Survey Examining How Retail Investors Seek Out and Use Financial Information and Investment Advice

By Christine Sgarlata Chung (Albany Law School) Everyday, people across the United States make decisions that will affect their financial futures — e.g., borrowing money to buy a house, go to college, or start a business; investing in the stock market to save for retirement; using check cashing services or payday lenders rather than accounts at banks or credit unions for day-to-day banking needs, and the like. Traditional tenets of financial economics and investment theory assume that people make fully...

January 22, 2018
Articles, Investing, Labor Market, Savings, , , ,
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08Jan

Are Cryptocurrencies Real Financial Bubbles? Evidence from Quantitative Analyses

By Marco Bianchetti (Intesa Sanpaolo - Financial and Market Risk Management; University of Bologna), Camilla Ricci (Intesa Sanpaolo-Financial and Market Risk Management) & Marco Scaringi (Intesa Sanpaolo - Financial and Market Risk Management) The growth of peer-to-peer exchanges and the blockchain technology has led to a proliferation of cryptocurrencies and to a massive increase in the number of investors who actually negotiate digital money. Cryptocurrencies trade at prices which is mainly driven by investor sentiment, becoming a potential source of...

January 8, 2018
Articles, Investing, , ,
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08Jan

Addressing Financial Illiteracy Through Financial Innovation: The Case for Goal-Specific Bonds the Embed Inflation and Compounding

By Arun Muralidhar (AlphaEngine Global Investment Solutions; George Washington University) Financial illiteracy is widespread and leads to bad financial decisions (high debt, insufficient savings). Individuals cannot answer basic questions about inflation, compounding, and diversification. While financial literacy can be enhanced, are individuals teachable, and if so, what should they be taught and how lasting is the training? Prof. Merton suggests that some individuals can only be helped with innovation; Prof. Richard Thaler has argued for making the financial system more...

January 8, 2018
Articles, Investing, Labor Market, Savings, Slider-Left, ,
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December 2017

30Dec

Man Vs Money: Everyday Economics Explained

By Stewart Cowley Economics expert Stewart Cowley distils the complexities of modern-day money and our relationship with it, explaining how you can use economics to your advantage and that understanding economics can improve your life. Along the way you will discover how the statistics that govern our world are based on guesswork, why stock markets are like a wandering drunken man, what you need to live like a millionaire, and why cooking has made man the dominant species on the planet. Where...

December 30, 2017
Books, Investing,
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30Dec

The Household Savings Paradox

By Tobias Meyll (University of Giessen - Department of Financial Services), Thomas Pauls (Goethe University Frankfurt) & Andreas Walter (University of Giessen - Department of Financial Service) Using representative data from Germany, we reveal that more than 27.3% of the population not only restrains from participating in the stock market but also refuse to invest in contractual savings and retirement products. In fact, we find that these households rely on deposits only - an investment strategy usually related to negligible...

December 30, 2017
Articles, Investing, Labor Market, Pension design, , , ,
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30Dec

Reconsidering Revenue Sharing: Why Retirement Plan Sponsors Should Consider Breaking the Link between Investment and Plan Costs

By Marc Fandetti (P-Solve) Revenue sharing, the part (or “share”) of an investment manager’s expense that can be used to pay retirement plan costs, remains a common practice among defined contribution (DC) plan sponsors. This article looks at the reasons why revenue sharing arrangements should be reconsidered in light of increased legal scrutiny of the reasonableness of fees and the spirit of transparency motivating recently required disclosures to plan sponsors and participants. (more…)

December 30, 2017
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30Dec

How to Invest and Spend Wealth in Retirement? A Utility-Based Analysis

By Servaas van Bilsen (University of Amsterdam), A. Lans Bovenberg (Tilburg University - Center for Economic Research (CentER); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research)) & Roger J. A. Laeven (University of Amsterdam - Amsterdam School of Economics) This paper explores the optimal consumption and investment behavior of a retiree who derives utility from the ratio between consumption and an endogenous habit. By developing a non-trivial linearization to the budget...

December 30, 2017
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