New report sheds light on retirement security and financial decision making

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TEXPERS STAFF REPORT

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a new report, Retirement Security and Financial Decision Making, that finds a growing number of retirees are not experiencing the expected gradual reduction in spending after they retire.

The report, published by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, finds that nearly half of Americans who retired between 1992 and 2014 were unable to keep the same spending level for five years following retirement. The Bureau’s findings indicate that certain financial decisions may enhance or diminish retirees’ ability to maintain the same level of spending, according to an email from NIRS announcing the webinar. For example, for homeowners, entering retirement without mortgage debt, for those with a pension, choosing a monthly annuity rather than in a lump-sum payout, are positively associated with retirees’ ability to maintain the same spending level for five years.

The study helps identify ways to protect retirees from overspending their savings in early retirement.

> REPORT:  Access a copy of the research brief.

Key Findings

• The study found that about half of people who retired between 1992 and 2014 had income, savings, and/or non-housing assets to maintain the same spending level for five consecutive years after retiring.  
• Bureau found that the ability to maintain the same spending level in the first five years in retirement was associated with large spending cuts in later years. 

The Consumer Protection Bureau is a federal agency responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector.

Retirement and Disability Research Consortium hosts free online conference on Aug. 6

Image by Goumbik from Pixabay.

STAFF REPORT

TEXPERS’ System Members still have time to register for a free online conference tomorrow that focuses on retirement and disability research. The sessions won’t earn TEXPERS members continuing education credits, but they may provide insight into how people are working, aging, and dying in the United States.

The 22^nd Annual Meeting of the Retirement and Disability Research Consortium is hosting a virtual event from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST on Thursday, Aug. 6. The video conference’s various session presenters and panelists will discuss topics including Social Security benefits and demographic trends, housing for the retired and disabled, economic impact on life expectancy, health risks impacting employment and finances, state and local labor markets, working conditions, and retirement finances.

The digital conference is free and open to the public. 

> REGISTER: Sign up here.

> AGENDA: Access conference schedule.

Economist Anne Case will discuss her book, “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism,” as the event’s keynote speaker from 11:40 to 12:20 p.m. EST. The book, which Case co-wrote with Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton, looks at falling life expectancy rates in the U.S. and suggests that flaws in capitalism are proving fatal for America’s working class. Published by Princeton University Press, the book offers solutions to rein in capitalism’s excesses and make it work for everyone. 

> AUDIO PREVIEW: Hear an excerpt from the book.

The Retirement and Disability Research Consortium was established by the U.S. Social Security Administration in 2018. The consortium provides support to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, which is hosting the event. The National Press Club, Washington, DC, is producing the online event.