November 2019

The Monetary Benefit of Delaying Retirement

As clients get older, they often start to feel obligated to retire. They love working, but they are 65 or older and all their friends are doing it. The traditional concept of retirement is called a “cliff retirement” because it is so abrupt. One day you are working full time, and the next you are recreating full time. However, there are many social and health benefits to delaying retirement and continuing to work. We all need meaning and significance...

October 2019

US. Only half of Gen Xers have a retirement account, and that’s a catastrophe in the making

Millennials may bear the brunt of bad press, but Gen X is arguably in worse financial shape. Insider recently teamed up with Morning Consult to survey 2,096 Americans about their financial health, debt, and earnings for its new series, "The State of Our Money." Of the total respondents, 566 were Gen X, defined as ages 39 to 54 this year. According to the survey, exactly half of Gen Xers don't have a retirement savings account. That's only slightly less...

UK. Two in five employers concerned by ageing workforce

After surveying employers with over 500,000 staff between them, the researchers found that 44% are worried about older employees that cannot afford to stop working. This has become particularly concerning after the default retirement age was scrapped in 2011, making it increasingly necessary for companies to provide pension support. However, most defined contribution (DC) pension schemes do not have adequate levels of contributions needed to maintain a similar standard of living for many employees. “The impact of an ageing...

South Africa. Prescribed assets would upset the rationale for pension funds

One of the main criticisms of prescribed assets is that forcing pension funds into these investments would hurt individual savers. Besides the market distortions that prescribed assets would create, everyone understands that they would deliver below market returns. Under South Africa’s previous dalliance with prescribed assets, this impact was primarily felt by employers. This is because pension funds back then were run in a different way – they were all based on defined benefits. This meant each member did...

September 2019

US. Financial Fails in Retirement Planning

Big or small, missteps with our money can harm our financial future. Here are some of the most common financial fails, and how to avoid them. 1. Failing to Save We used to think of retirement planning like a three-legged stool. Retirees could rely on a pension from their employer, Social Security from the government and their own retirement savings. Those three legs created a nice nest egg. Now, with pensions becoming a thing of the past and the...

Old-Age Poverty: The Household Perspective; A Microsimulation Approach of Pension Entitlements in Germany

By Sebastian Finkler Providing a decent living standard and preventing old-age poverty are the two major challenges of pension insurance schemes. Replacement rates below the poverty line despite many years of contribution represent a major challenge for public pension schemes with respect to the systems 'raison d’être'. The focus of the present paper turns away from individual perspective and considers household retirement incomes in the light of analysing old-age poverty and designing (minimum) pension policies. Using household survey and...

China’s workforce saving more for retirement amid concerns about state pension, survey finds

China should not be alarmed by a much slower economic growth rate in the coming years, perhaps as low as 5 or even 4 per cent, with the economy now large enough to still create sufficient jobs at these growth rates, according to three prominent Chinese economists who advise the government. The headline gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate slowed to 6.2 per cent in the second quarter this year, the lowest figure since quarterly records began in March...

Millennials share their retirement plans on Twitter — let’s just say it’s not good

Climate change. Wars. Overworking. Unnecessary meetings. And just flat out being broke. These are some of the reasons why millennials aren’t planning for much of a retirement. Twitter TWTR, -0.83% erupted with suggestions as to how this young generation could spend their old age, using the hashtag #millennialretirementplans, on Tuesday morning. More of the tweets were pessimistic, but some made light of their situations. A few said they’d continue to live in their parents’ basements, while another person...

Pension auto-enrolment at risk of being stalled, warns Irish Life

The Government’s plan to introduce mandatory private pensions for all workers above a certain income limit by 2022 is now in danger of being stalled, putting at risk the adequacy of worker’s future pension pots. With private pensions still inadequate – research from the Economic and Social Research Institute last week found that women are retiring with significantly smaller pension pots then men – Irish Life, in its pre-budget statement, says the introduction of auto-enrolment needs to be “expedited”....

US. Are Millennials Preparing For Retirement?

When we talk about retirement security, it’s usually older workers we have in mind. But what about millennials? People currently aged 23 to 39 now make up the largest portion of the U.S. labor force. The future of retirement is, literally, the future of millennials. On the fifth and final (for now!) episode of my podcast Reset Retirement, we explored what’s next for American retirement. For millennials, it’s a mixed bag. While their savings are less than ideal, thanks...