Retirement Financial Planing and Life Satisfaction

Retirement has been considered as a major transition in one’s life. Financial security in retirement is a major concern for many Americans. Evidence has shown that being financially prepared for retirement could has a significant, positive impact on one’s life satisfaction. Employing data from the 2012 and 2018 National Financial Capability Study (N=1023), this study analyzes the relationship between participants’ retirement planning in 2012 and their financial satisfaction in 2018. An Ordinary Least Squares regression is used in the current study. This study found relatively low retirement preparedness levels (retirement planning, retirement saving, retirement plan: employer-based or individually held, investment) among the participants in 2012. Based on the descriptive results, adults closest to retirement (ages 55 to 64) are more likely to be planning compared to the other groups, as are adults who were married, highly educated, males, and white. According to the liner regression results, this study found that adults who had a retirement savings goal, had a retirement plan (employer-based or individually held), made regular contributions to retirement plans, and owned investments in 2012 are more likely to be satisfied with their personal financial condition in 2018. As expected, individuals with higher incomes, larger net worth, and those who are older are significantly more likely to be financial satisfied. However, even after controlling for these variables, results show that planning does indeed impact the level of financial satisfaction. Our findings highlight the importance of policies and programs to support Americans with retirement planning.

Does Delayed Retirement Crowd Out Workforce Welfare? Evidence in China

Does delayed retirement crowd out the welfare of the workforce? To answer this question, a dynamic optimization framework is established to simulate the impact of delayed retirement on the welfare of the working population over time. Simulations are conducted based on practical and feasible parameters. Delayed retirement was found to improve the welfare of the working population rather than crowding it out. Furthermore, the results are robust against changes in parameters and modes of supporting elderly individuals. In terms of policymaking, it is suggested that such facts be shared with the public and that a delayed retirement plan be introduced as soon as possible to manage the pension and retirement wave caused by post-1960s baby boomers. However, to ensure that the delayed retirement plan does not lead to a reduction in the welfare of the working population, increases in fertility costs and the pension replacement rate should be appropriately controlled.

Glide paths for a retirement plan with deferred annuities

We construct investment glide paths for a retirement plan using both traditional asset classes and deferred annuities (DAs). The glide paths are approximated by averaging the asset proportions of stochastic optimal investment solutions. The objective function consists of power utility in terms of secured retirement income from purchased DAs, as well as a bequest that can be withdrawn before retirement. Compared with conventional glide paths and investment strategies, our DA-enhanced glide paths provide the investor with higher welfare gains, more efficient investment portfolios and more responsive retirement income patterns and bequest levels to different fee structures and personal preferences.

A Study of Life Internal Rate of Return

Life insurance, not included as a part of the legal obligation in some countries, is one of the investment approaches that might not stand high in the public favor for some people since this is a type of investments that the investor cannot know beforehand the exact return, and the returns completely depend on uncertainty of the policy specification in some circumstances. Similar to the other kinds of investment, investors in life insurance products have been seeking a tool for investment evaluation. However, currently there are no accurate tools that can provide the value of the investment in a life insurance product sensitive to the uncertainty. Internal rate of return is the basic tool that buyers or bankers may apply in order to find the rate of return of this type of investment. The investment decision tool is one of the most important keys that investors have utilized upon making their decisions on investments. Therefore, in this research, we propose a new mathematical model with applications for investment decision, being an extension of the internal rate of return by taking into account the life probability, considering different types of life insurance policies, and other factors specified on life insurance investments such as the premium, the death benefit, the maturity value, the sum insured, the lapse rate, the surrender value, the annuity certain, and the lapse rate with different genders and ages. This newly proposed model is named as the "Life Internal Rate of Return" or Life-IRR model. By using the sample data for both males and females aged 30 years old with expected benefit of 100,000 baht for different types of life insurance policies which are endowment plan, whole life plan and retirement plan, the results show that, for males, the highest life rate of returns is that obtained from the retirement plan (3.633692%), and the lowest life internal rates of returns is that obtained from the endowment plan (2.384443%), while the whole life plan offers moderate life rate of returns of 2.427941%. For females, the highest life rate of returns is that obtained from the retirement plan (3.335189%), and the lowest life internal rates of returns is that obtained from the whole life plan (2.104658%), while the endowment plan offers moderate life rate of returns of 2.308062%. The sensitivity analyses of the life internal rates of return perform the natural characteristics of life insurance.

The Optimum Age of Retirement Index: The Case of Malaysia

This paper proposes a list of crucial factors that can be considered as a template for universal retirement plan. Malaysia is used as the base of our modeling. Nine crucial factors that are identified to have direct or indirect effect on the retirement plan among the three largest races in Malaysia, namely the Malay, Indians and Chinese are examined. The main objective of this research is to propose a new approach to evaluate the optimum age retirement for Malaysians in general. Hence, this new index is entitled "The Optimum Age Retirement Index (OAR-Index)". Based on the findings, the study proposed that Malaysia would be well served to increase the retirement age of the country's workforce and proposes a number of recommendations and policies to complement the retirement-age extension.