Case 10.4 — Investing for Retirement
Executive Summary Retirement plans represent a unique opportunity to divert a portion of income into tax-deferred accounts. This report looks at hypothetical sample data from 194 couples with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of what characteristics affect this group’s tendency to invest or not invest in retirement plans. First, basic tests were performed on provided data to examine if the given characteristics were related to the amount invested in retirement plans. We found moderate relationships between several characteristics that warranted further examination. Various additional tests and graphical analysis were performed in order to ascertain the relationship between individual
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In particular, from graphical analysis it appears that number of children appears to have little to no relationship with percentage invested (Illustration 2, Appendix A3).
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Examination of the relationship between amount invested and salary, mortgage size, level of debt, and number of children revealed similar results (Appendix A4), with the exception of salary. The tests for this relationship indicated that the amount of variation may be not constant, and therefore not suitable for additional testing. This relationship was flagged for further examination in future analysis.
Finally, in order to check for all potential nonlinear relationships, 27 samples containing zero figures were removed and analyses were rerun. This revealed similar relationships and nonlinearity was not found. This line of inquiry was dropped.
3. A third series of tests were performed to determine a relationship between different combinations of characteristics and the percentage or amount of investment in retirement plans. Initial tests indicated that number of children was of low significance. Another test was run with salary, mortgage and debt alone (Appendix A5). The resulting model was of high significance, and accounted for 45% of the variation in percentage of income invested in retirement plans. The model found a positive relationship between percentage invested and salary, and a negative relationship between salary
Bain’s clients’ portfolios included equities (both common and preferred) as well as fixed income securities and small amounts of cash (typically “parked” on a short term basis before being allocated to fixed income or equities). Typical portfolios were approximately 60% equities and 40% fixed income, 70% domestic and 30% international. Approximately one third of equity investments were through mutual funds. Approximately 25% of client assets were included in tax sheltered Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs). As of 1991, Bain’s clients were primarily over age 70. As of 1995, his client base had evolved to become much younger, with a median age of around 50. his clients were dominated by professionals.
When it comes to the data and methods, this study used the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), which is a repeated survey that includes the information on household income and wealth holdings; the Federal Reserve conducts this survey every three years. To test the hypothesis there are
Pre-retirees with medical debt were expected to accumulate a lower amount of financial resources as compared to pre-retirees not burdened with medical debt. However, the payment of installment loans by the household is not a significant predictor of financial assets in the model. Moreover, the payment on the first line of credit was not a statistically significant predictor of financial assets for pre-retirees. Conversely, vehicle payments and consumer loan payments are statistically significant predictors negatively impacting financial assets. These types of debts consist of items that are consumed quickly or that consistently depreciate over a short period of time. With easy access to these forms of credit, a significant number of pre-retirees are servicing credit card debt and paying
The Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is a triennial cross-sectional survey of U.S. families. The study is sponsored by the Federal Reserve Board in collaboration with the Department of the Treasury. The survey data include information on family incomes, net worth, balance sheet components, credit use, pensions, income, and demographic characteristics (Bricker, et al., 2014). A strong attempt is made to select families from all economic levels. In addition, information is also included from related surveys of pension providers and the earlier surveys conducted by the Federal Reserve Board. Data from the Survey of Consumer Finances is utilized by the Federal Reserve and other branches of the government to conduct analysis. In addition, economic research centers utilize the SCF to conduct scholarly work (Board of Governors, 2014).
The Retirement Gamble portrays a realistic outlook of retirement plans and reveals the actual truth on it. This documentary revolves around various consumer problems in everyday life.Examples include newscasters interviewing regular people ranting on how most Americans can’t afford necessities in life. People also complain that they can’t save as much money and how the American Dream just isn’t compatible for some people. The video also opens up new ideas on what the country can do with their stock market. The interviewer brings up well notable people such as John Bogle, founder of Vanguard to support the idea of increasing index funds. This fine work of a document makes me realize that I need to prioritize my financial handling in the
The Krump's are in their mid 50's and have been planning for retirement since they were married. They both have 401(k)s with a 5% work match and currently have over $900,000 in their accounts. Shawn and Jane both work for the state and both have a pension fund. The couple plan on retiring around 62. They have a home in New York and a vacation home in Florida after retirement. While both homes are paid off they plan on living part of the time in New York and the other part of the time in Florida after retirement. Shawn and Jane both love to travel and plan on doing a lot of that after retirement. Shawn and Jane will have enough funds to be able to retire and never have to work again because of the good investments they had made. Along with
Yuh, Montalto, and Hanna (1998) investigated the determinants of the likelihood of having adequate retirement wealth for pre-retirment households. Households were included in the study if the respondent was
When attempting to save better to ensure you have a better quality of life in retirement age is not a venture you have to go it alone. The daunting task of navigating the options of retirement, getting out of debt, and preparing for unexpected events can seem impossible; employing a trustworthy retirement advisor greatly decreases the
The objective of the study is to evaluate the extent to which secured and unsecured debt impacts the standard of living and the accumulation of financial assets among pre-retirees. To investigate the claim that servicing debt will reduce the standard of living and impact the ability of pre-retirees to adequately accumulate assets for retirement, logistic regression analyses were conducted for pre-retirees servicing debt to estimate the strength of the relationship between the dependent variables and the independent variables. For the initial analysis, natural logs of independent variables within the econometric model were utilized, except for the indicator variables which were not transformed. The dependent variable net worth contained negative values. To handle the log transformation of the negative values, a negative log (neglog) transformation was
More than 75% of Americans population do not have enough saved to cover six months’ expenses, and this arises because of job loss or an unexpected life event. The number of Baby Boomers that leaving the workforce is growing and the aggregate saving rate is expected to fall even further, even if household saving behaviour remains the same.
Also, as compared to previous cohorts of pre-retirees, the 2013 cohort has accumulated a lower amount of wealth and was unable to reduce the change to mean income resulting from servicing debt in the same manner as previous cohorts. One cause for this occurrence resulted from the stagnation of growth to mean annual income for the 2013 cohort. Moreover, the results of the logistic regression analysis indicate second mortgages and education loans are the most impactful sources of debt reducing the standard of living, as measured by net worth, and hindering the accumulation of retirement
In this report I will be giving you a brief description of three possible retirement plans; and to compare and contrast each similarity and difference.
Couples who are 23 years old and they are married. Both of them are planning to retire at age 65. They both have the same median salary which is $88,000 each year. They save 10% of their income for retirement each year. The estimated benefits for both of them from the Social Security is $4,818 at full retirement age monthly. If they both save $2,900/monthly for 42 years, they would have saved $1,478,400 which would really help them to continue spending similarly to now for the next 24 years (till age 89).
A consumer’s product selection, whether it is an item or a service, is influenced by a number of competing factors. All of those factors can make the process easier, or more difficult, depending upon the consumer’s own decision making process. Social, political, psychological, cultural, and legal processes, to name a few, all influence the consumer’s decision making process. In the case of retirement investments, particularly variable annuities, that process is made even more difficult due to the complexity of the investment. Tax consequence must be considered. Inheritance and wealth preservation are
When we are young we tend to not think about the future and what we can do today to ensure we are able to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. Financial planning is extremely important to all of us whether we are wanting a new boat in the near future or a retirement home in Arizona. As a young adult entering the workforce straight out of high school or a recent college graduate, choices will be made as to the type of career you will follow, the location of employment, the employer and the starting wages – all of these will affect our financial future. Some decisions are made for us, such as what type of retirement program(s) are offered by our employer, will you enroll or do they offer them at all. Since the turn of the century it is no longer commonplace for someone to start their employment career and end it with the same employer. Therefore, when researching a future employer, understanding the retirement plans of a defined benefit or a defined contribution plan are enormously important to future financial security. The benefits and shortfalls differences