Falling Short PDF Download

Author: Charles D. Ellis
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190218916
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
The United States faces a serious retirement challenge. Many of today's workers will lack the resources to retire at traditional ages and maintain their standard of living in retirement. Solving the problem is a major challenge in today's environment in which risk and responsibility have shifted from government and employers to individuals. For this reason, Charles D. Ellis, Alicia H. Munnell, and Andrew D. Eschtruth have written this concise guide for anyone concerned about their own - and the nation's - retirement security. Falling Short is grounded in sound research yet written in a highly accessible style. The authors provide a vivid picture of the retirement crisis in America. They offer the necessary context for understanding the nature and size of the retirement income shortfall, which is caused by both increasing income needs-due to longer lifespans and rising health costs-and decreasing support from Social Security and employer-sponsored pension plans. The solutions are to work longer and save more by building on the existing retirement system. To work longer, individuals should plan to stay in the labor force until age 70 if possible. To save more, policymakers should shore up Social Security's long-term finances; make all 401(k) plans fully automatic, with workers allowed to opt out; and ensure that everyone has access to a retirement savings plan. Individuals should also recognize that their house is a source of saving, which they can tap in retirement through downsizing or a reverse mortgage.

Author: Gregory Brandon Salsbury
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
This book is dramatic wake-up call for a generation of overspent and under-saved Americans who face the very real possibility of outliving their money. Yesterdays retirees were supported by guaranteed income sources. Today, baby boomers are looking at a very different picture, one where they are increasingly responsible for generating their retirement income from personal savings while facing a longer life expectancy and astounding leaps in expenses. Key Selling Points: explores the seven key challenges that stand between baby boomers and a successful retirement; helps baby boomers recognize and address the key challenges to retirement; guides baby boomers to better plan for the income they will need so they can achieve the retirement they deserve.

Author: James W. Russell
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807012564
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
How 401(k)s have gutted retirement security, from charging exorbitant hidden fees to failing to replace the income of traditional pensions Named one of PW's Top 10 for Business & Economics A retirement crisis is looming. In 2008, as the 401(k) fallout rippled across the country, horrified holders watched 25 percent of their funds evaporate overnight. Average 401(k) balances for those approaching retirement are too small to generate more than $4,000 in annual retirement income, and experts predict that nearly half of middle-class workers will be poor or near poor in retirement. But long before the recession, signs were mounting that few people would ever be able to accumulate enough wealth on their own to ensure financial security later in life. This hasn’t always been the case. Each generation of workers since the nineteenth century has had more retirement security than the previous generation. That is, until 1981, when shaky 401(k) plans began replacing traditional pensions. For the last thirty years, we’ve been advised that the best way to build one’s nest egg is to heavily invest in 401(k)-type programs, even though such plans were originally designed to be a supplement to rather than the basis for retirement. This financial experiment, promoted by neoliberals and aggressively peddled by Wall Street, has now come full circle, with tens of millions of Americans discovering that they would have been better off under traditional pension plans long since replaced. As James W. Russell explains, this do-it-yourself retirement system—in which individuals with modest incomes are expected to invest large sums of capital in order to reap the same rewards as high-end money managers—isn’t working. Social Insecurity tells the story of a massive and international retirement robbery—a substantial transfer of wealth from everyday workers to Wall Street financiers via tremendously costly hidden fees. Russell traces what amounts to a perfect swindle, from its ideological origins at Milton Friedman’s infamous Chicago School to its implementation in Chile under Pinochet’s dictatorship and its adoption in America through Reaganomics. Enraging yet hopeful, Russell offers concrete ideas on how individuals and society can arrest this downward spiral.

Author: Robert P. Kurshan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783030767105
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book is for people who want to know what to do with the money they save: so that it's there when they need it - to buy a home, pay for college, etc. - but also grows enough so they don't outlive it. The investment industry is fixated on the importance of maintaining a "balance" of stocks and bonds, shifting to more bonds as one ages. This book challenges this belief by arguing that what's actually important is to have just enough bonds and cash to support spending needs from a stable source, and to replenish these through the sale of stocks at propitious times when the stock market is not depressed. It features simple mathematical calculations, an explanation of basic financial objects like stocks, bonds, ladders, CDs, ETFs, or annuities, a discussion of how to evaluate financial risk, examinations of insurance, fraud deterrence, dollar cost averaging, benefits of a mortgage, risks of a pension, and general advice about healthcare. Although the book is written to be accessible to those with little or no prior knowledge of finance, the studies and conclusions presented here benefit a multitude of financial investors.

Author: Teresa Ghilarducci
Publisher: Columbia Business School Publi
ISBN: 9780231185646
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
In Rescuing Retirement, Teresa Ghilarducci and Tony James offer a comprehensive yet simple plan to help workers save for retirement, increase retirement savings by earning higher returns, and guarantee lifelong income for everyone. It offers a practical guide to the future of secure retirement.

Author: Barbara L. Pagano
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538155761
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Circumvent the tired and conventional approaches of finding purpose, passion, or happiness to discover a path of fulfillment after 60 by pursuing desires, mastering risk-taking, and expanding horizons with confidence. The crisis of unfulfilled lives unfolds gradually, often with acquiesced boredom and a flimsy search for purpose. Our relevancy comes into question, or we succumb to the idea that the future will be one of slow-moving ambition and then an even slower glide into comfort as the flush of freedom fades. We can change this outcome if we want to. We should want to. The 60-Something Crisis: How to Live an Extraordinary Life in Retirement (a 2023 Nautilus Book Award winner) is the first book to circumvent the tired and conventional approaches of finding purpose, passion, or happiness, or using reinvention to discover a path of fulfillment after 60. It presents a clear, practical framework through four portals—geography of place, yield, kinship, and freedom—to navigate and support future well-being and happiness. Readers will learn how to pursue desires, not roadmaps, to increase self-confidence and master risk-taking, and will discover the power and potential of investing in themselves at this time of life. Barbara L. Pagano provides the foundation for taking on or taking back late-stage growth and shifts the conversation from “What’s next?” to “What do I need to know, what do I need to do now, and how soon can I get started?” This book is more than happy talk. Pre-retirees on the brink of a major life transition or retirees who want more from life will find themselves pulled toward a higher target of well-being that endures. Mature adults, now novices in an unfamiliar, uncharted landscape, will welcome a smart, well-written, practical, and poignant guide to hustle them forward, anchored in an award-winning author’s deeply personal experience, well-researched content, and over 200 interviews with retirees and pre-retires. The 60-Something Crisis offers a powerful message for the last third of life.

Author: Katherine S. Newman
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
ISBN: 1250119464
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
A sharp examination of the looming financial catastrophe of retirement in America. As millions of Baby Boomers reach their golden years, the state of retirement in America is little short of a disaster. Nearly half the households with people aged 55 and older have no retirement savings at all. The real estate crash wiped out much of the home equity that millions were counting on to support their retirement. And the typical Social Security check covers less than 40% of pre-retirement wages—a number projected to drop to under 28% within two decades. Old-age poverty, a problem we thought was solved by the New Deal, is poised for a resurgence. With dramatic statistics and vivid portraits, acclaimed sociologist Katherine S. Newman shows that the American retirement crisis touches us all, cutting across class lines and generational divides. White-collar managers have seen retirement benefits vanish; Teamsters have had their pensions cut in half; bankrupt cities like Detroit have walked away from their commitments to municipal workers. And for Generation X, the prospects are even worse: a fifth of them expect to never be able to retire. Only the vaunted “one percent” can face retirement without fear. Other countries are confronting similar demographic challenges, yet they have not abandoned their social contract with seniors. Downhill From Here makes it clear that America, too, can—and must—do better.

Author: William G. Gale
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815739354
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
Pensions and retirement saving plans have helped millions of households build financial security. But tens of millions of people have been left behind, without access to these wealth accumulation vehicles. For many others, the plans they have do not ensure financial security in retirement. The problems that underlie these failures can be addressed. This book proposes concrete, practical ways to make dependable retirement income accessible for all Americans—not just those with means. Individual accounts have eclipsed traditional pensions as the primary vehicle for retirement saving in the United States—a shift that underlies many sources of retirement insecurity. The 401(k) plan and similar accounts have increased financial security for many people but have done nothing for millions more. Many of those who do have such plans are burdened with the need to make numerous saving, investment, and withdrawal decisions that stress their financial acumen. Financial advice that is unbiased, unconflicted, and affordable is often difficult to find. Managing wealth in retirement—especially the need to convert retirement savings into steady income—poses significant challenges that current financial instruments and practices do not adequately address. Economic downturns like the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic increase financial insecurity and make addressing these issues more urgent. Written by noted experts in the field, Wealth After Work offers practical solutions that address these concerns. The proposals show how policymakers can help all Americans gain access to retirement savings accounts, obtain better information about their savings choices, and better manage their wealth in retirement. By proposing solutions that build on, rather than replace the existing system, the book provides a nuanced, practical guide to reform that would benefit all Americans.

Author: Teresa Ghilarducci
Publisher: Workman Publishing
ISBN: 0761186131
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
Here is a single-sit read than can change the course of your retirement. Written by Dr. Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor, a retirement and savings specialist, and a trustee to two retiree health-care trusts worth over $54 billion, How to Retire with Enough Money cuts through the confusion, misinformation, and bad policy-making that keeps us spending or saving poorly. It begins with acknowledging what a person or household actually needs to have saved—the rule of thumb is eight to ten times your annual salary before retirement—and how much to expect from Social Security. And then it delivers the basic principles that will make the money grow, including a dozen good ideas to get current expenses under control. Why to “get rid of your guy”—those for-fee (or hidden-fee) financial planners that suck up valuable assets. Why it’s always better to pay off a loan or a mortgage. There are no gimmicks, no magical thinking—just an easy-to-follow program that works.

Author: Robert L. Reynolds
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
ISBN: 1260116085
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
The practical, nonpartisan guide to making our retirement savings systems work for America’s people, our economy, and the nation at large At a time of fierce political divisiveness, From Here to Security is a refreshingly balanced, non-ideological guide to solving what may be our nation’s most pressing policy challenge: achieving retirement security for all. A pioneer of the 401(k) system, Robert L. Reynolds eschews radical calls for throwing out the 401(k) entirely and creating a new government-run savings system. Our best course, he shows, is to build on what we have: a flexible, dynamic private-public system of Social Security and more robust workplace savings. From Here to Security provides a clear, powerful new approach to solving America’s retirement challenge – based on facts, data, and Reynolds’ decades of experience. While fear-mongers claim that the U.S. retirement system is on the verge of collapse; Reynolds shows why our system is actually the envy of the world. But From Here to Security is no status quo book. Reynolds lays out an action agenda to dramatically improve our retirement systems – public and private – lift our savings rate, improve people’s retirement prospects, spur faster growth – and reboot America’s national morale.