“I’m having the time of my life,” Mike Whalen beams, when I meet him at his restaurant in Ambergris Caye, Belize. “I’m still learning as I go, but what better place to do it than a tropical island? I live and work on ‘Coconut Drive’! How could I possibly have a single, solitary regret?” In July 2020, at the age of 51, Mike had reached a dire crossroads. He’d worked at AT&T in Oklahoma City for years, but after cutbacks...
By An Chen, Stefan Schelling & Nils Sørensen Ensuring a desired standard of living in retirement has been strongly challenged by increasing life expectancy, and simultaneously by the current and possibly long-lasting low interest environment. In contrast to literature in this field which claims annuitization of wealth being a vital part of retirement planning, many people manage their retirement savings and withdrawal policy during the retirement period independently. To this end, several easily applicable self-managed withdrawal rules are commonly recommended...
By Yu Gao, George Loewenstein & Xianghong Wang We study the effects of annuitization compared to spending down a lump-sum on consumption and subjective wellbeing. Analyzing longitudinal data on UK retirees before and after the pension reform that provided greater freedom to draw down savings, we find that annuitization increased retirees’ consumption and life satisfaction. To further examine the behavioral channel of these effects, we conducted a field experiment with college students, giving them a flow or lump-sum payment. As...
By Cristina D. Checherita-Westphal, João Domingues Semeano, Elena Ahonen, Pierrick Stinglhamber, Stefan Van Parys, Johannes Clemens, Katri Urke, Orsolya Soosaar, Maria Vergou, Maria Flevotomou, David Staunton, Jorge Martínez-Pagés, Aris Avgousti, Gintare Zelionkaite, Olivier Delobbe, Florian Henne, Baiba Brusbārde, John Farrugia, Juergen Attard, Fabrizio Renzi, Marco Savegnago, Doris Prammer, Lukas Reiss, Gerard Eijsink, Jip Italianer, Maria Manuel Campos, Andreja Strojan Kastelec, Barbora Palášthyová, Vratislav Pisca & Jarkko Kivistö. If the responses of wages – both private and public – and of...
Pensioners and retired government employees have continued protests in more than a dozen Iranian cities for a second day as they seek a hike in pensions to offset rising prices amid the country's growing economic woes. Reports from eyewitnesses from 16 cities, including Mashhad, Shushtar, Ilam, Yazd, Qazvin, Karaj, Bandar Abbas, Kermanshah, Abadan, and Isfahan, showed protesters on June 7 demanding more money, saying their pensions aren't enough to live on. In the city of Ilam, retirees spread an empty tablecloth...
Around 85 per cent of workers, equal to 16 million people, are not saving at levels likely to deliver an acceptable standard of living in retirement, new research has found, prompting calls for the development of a 'Living Pension Standard'. A report from the Living Wage Foundation and the Resolution Foundation raised concerns over the current levels of saving, explaining that while auto enrolment (AE) improved rates of saving, meeting the Living Pension benchmark requires more than the AE minimum. The...
Each month, Seeley, a retired teacher, gets $925 from Social Security and a $287 disbursement from an individual retirement account. To make ends meet, she’s taken out a reverse mortgage on her Portland, Maine, home that yields $400 monthly. So far, Seeley has been able to live on this income—about $19,300 a year—by carefully monitoring her spending and drawing on limited savings. But should her excellent health worsen or she need assistance at home, Seeley doesn’t know how she’d pay...
By Sonia Buchholtz, Jan Gaska & Marek Góra Low saving rates combined with low effective retirement age herald old-age poverty. This paper examines the preferred strategies of future Polish pensioners in order to sustain the standard of living in the future. A two-step approach is used: as a first-best strategy, we explore determinants of supplementary saving with binary logistic models; as a second-best strategy, we examine alternative options with principal component analysis. Future retirees rarely accumulate long-term savings, do not use...
The top ten highest paid pensioners in Ghana receive between GH¢142,567.90 to GH¢42,187.83 every month whilst the lowest on the scheme receive between GH$300 and above, the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has revealed. The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT or the Trust) is a statutory public institution charged under the National Pensions Act, 2008 (Act 766 as amended by Act 883) with the administration of Ghana's Basic National Social Security Scheme. Its mandate is to cater...
Parliament finally approved the minimum pension to reach BGN 467 (EUR 240) as of July 1st. From this date, the maximum pension rises to BGN 2,000 (EUR 1,026). From October 1, the ceiling will rise once again - this time to BGN 3,400, which is the amount of the maximum insurance income. After parliament finally approved an increase in the minimum and maximum pensions from July 1st, Social Policy Minister Georgi Gokov confirmed that payments for the increase are still likely...
