Do Newly Retired Workers in the United States Have Sufficient Resources to Maintain Well-Being?
A current policy issue is the extent to which savings are sufficient to sustain economic well-being in retirement. We compare annualized wealth at retirement to three preretirement consumption estimates. About one-half of new retirees have insufficient resources to enable the full maintenance of est...
| Published in: | Economic Inquiry Vol. 44; no. 2; pp. 249 - 265 |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
April 2006
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| Summary: | A current policy issue is the extent to which savings are sufficient to sustain economic well-being in retirement. We compare annualized wealth at retirement to three preretirement consumption estimates. About one-half of new retirees have insufficient resources to enable the full maintenance of estimated preretirement consumption in retirement, and about 40% fail to meet the “0.7 of earnings” standard that is used in many studies. Using standards reflecting social (poverty) norms we find a less serious problem. About 5% (25%) of new retirees have insufficient resources to enable an above-poverty (near-poverty) level of living during retirement. (JEL J14, J26) Reprinted by permission of the publisher. |
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