| | Benefits & Administration | | Fewer Seniors Delaying Retirement | | Motivated by an improving economy, 53% of senior
workers (ages 60 and older) are delaying retirement, a post-recession low, down
from 58% in 2014 and 66% in 2010. “As household financial situations continue
to rebound from the recession, economic confidence among senior workers is
significantly improving,” says Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer
for CareerBuilder. However, retirement is still far off or even unlikely for
many senior workers, according to the company’s annual retirement survey.Read more > | | Who Has a Realistic View of Retirement Readiness? | | A study, “Do U.S. Households Perceive Their
Retirement Preparedness Realistically?” analyzed the deviation between
households’ actual preparedness for retirement and their assessment of
retirement readiness, focusing on what factors make some unrealistically
optimistic despite being inadequately prepared. Researchers KyoungTae Kim, from
the University of Alabama Department of Consumer Sciences, and Sherman D.
Hanna, from Ohio State University, found households with a defined benefit (DB)
pension plan are more likely to be unrealistic than similar households without
one.Read more > | | Retirement Readiness Not Just About Money | | Jay Vadiveloo, professor of mathematics and
director of the Goldenson Center for Actuarial Research at the University of
Connecticut, set out to measure several factors that affect one’s preparedness
for retirement, in an attempt to provide “a more holistic measure.” The
standard way of measuring individuals’ ability to retire compares their current
net assets with the projected value of those assets at some point in the
future. The problem, according to Vadiveloo, is that those projections are
hugely dependent on the performance of financial markets. “These retirement
indices are directly correlated with the current state of the economy and tend
to portray a negative image of retirement readiness during adverse economic
times, which could be misleading,” he says.Read more > | | | Economic Events | | THE ECONOMIC WEEK AHEAD: Today, the
National Association of Realtors will report about existing home sales for
January. Tomorrow, The Conference
Board will issue its Consumer Confidence Index for February. Wednesday, the Census Bureau will
report about new home sales for January. Thursday,
the Labor Department will issue its initial claims report, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics will reveal the consumer price index (CPI) for January, and the
Census Bureau will report about durable goods orders for January. |
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