Towards Sustainable Retirement Planning of Wageworkers in Thailand: A Qualitative Approach in Behavioral Segmentation and Financial Pain Point Identification

Thailand recently reached “aged” society status, signifying that over twenty percent of the population is over sixty. Considering that Thailand has a low literacy rate, a fractured pension system, and no regulations that could provide sufficient income to cover basic needs after retirement, there will be economic repercussions if the situation is not handled soon. The government and financial institutions have been encouraging Thai citizens to prepare retirement plans but lack understanding of the root causes of being unprepared for retirement. The objectives of this qualitative research were to explore the behavior, knowledge, and preparedness towards retirement in governmental and private wageworkers. Moreover, the study aims to identify the pain points of being unprepared for retirement and deliver the optimal solutions and sustainable retirement plans suitable for each segment. This article employed a sample of 46 wageworkers in Khon Kaen, Thailand with ages ranging from 20 to 59 years old. Qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews and qualitative content analysis were conducted with the respondents asking about their income, expenses, pains, and problems towards saving for retirement, their desired outcome after they retire, and how they would achieve it. The framework used for the in-depth qualitative interview was by utilizing the customer, problem, and solution zoom tool. The research contributions were to facilitate Thai citizens being ready for retirement stages and overcome post-retirement risks sustainably. The results revealed that the sample could be divided into four segments by their characteristics. Two low-income segments share the same traits and behaviors that can prove that financial literacy plays an essential role in retirement readiness. Lower-income wage workers do not have their money put in place to prepare for retirement. Additionally, this article discussed the study’s implications for wageworkers, employers, and the Thai government. This article recommended that Thai citizens should accumulate wealth in various ways, including investment in financial assets and earning additional income from a second job. Employers should provide suitable retirement contribution schemes. The government should launch a policy enabling above-60-year-old seniors to continue working.

Hand-in-hand in the golden years: Cognitive interdependence, partner involvement in retirement planning, and the transition into retirement

This research examined the influence of cognitive interdependence—a mental state reflecting a collective representation of the self-in-relationship—on the anticipation for and experiences with the transition into retirement. Among soon-to-be retirees (Study 1), greater cognitive interdependence was associated with seeing partners as more instrumental to one’s goals both pre- and post-retirement, anticipating greater goal alignment post-retirement, and having directly involved partners in retirement planning to a greater extent than those relatively lower in cognitive interdependence. Among recent retirees (Study 2), retrospective cognitive interdependence was associated with post-retirement goal alignment and goal instrumentality, and the extent to which they believed they had directly involved their partners in retirement planning. However, it was post-retirement goal alignment that was associated with greater ease of retirement and subjective well-being. Finally, soon-to-be retirees relatively high in cognitive interdependence responded to concerns about their retirement (i.e., goal discordance and high retirement ambivalence) by wanting to involve their partners in their retirement plans to a greater extent (Study 3). These studies highlight the importance of romantic partners across the lifespan, and how partners might influence retirement planning, the transition to retirement, and well-being among recent retirees.

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.

From Stand-Alone Pensions to Alternative Retirement Plans: Examining State and Local Governments

Defined benefit (DB) pension plans are the dominant retirement program for state and local governments in the United States. However, in the last 15 years, some have given new employees a choice of alternatives to stand-alone DB pension plans such as cash balance (CB), defined contribution (DC), and hybrid retirement plans. This article examines this shift through survival analysis using panel data of 190 state and local pension plans across the United States. From 2001 to 2019, we modeled five change factors found in the pension reform literature, namely, financial constraints, interest group influence, plan membership, and liability, along with other state factors. Our analysis shows that all five of these factors impacted the shift to alternative retirement plans from stand-alone DB plans. Notable findings are that well-funded pensions were more likely to shift to alternative retirement plans, and interest groups such as police, fire, and teachers were more likely to keep stand-alone plans.

Teacher pension enhancements and staffing in an urban school district

Many states enhanced benefits in teacher retirement plans during the 1990s. This paper examines the school staffing effects of one such enhancement in a major urban school district with mostly high poverty schools. Pension rule changes in 1999 for St. Louis public school teachers resulted in large increases in pension wealth for active teachers, as well as a powerful increase in ‘push’ incentives for earlier retirement. Simple descriptive statistics on retirement patterns before and after the enhancements suggest much earlier retirement resulted. Shorter teaching spells imply a steady state with more teacher turnover and a larger share of novice teachers in classrooms. To better understand the long-run effects of these changes and alternative policies, the authors estimate a structural model of teacher retirement. Simulations of retirement behavior for representative senior teachers point to shorter completed teaching spells and earlier retirement age as a result of the enhancements. By contrast, moving from the post-1999 to a DC-type plan would extend the teaching career of a representative senior teacher by roughly two years.

Retinal Stem Cell ‘Retirement Plans’: Growth, Regulation and Species Adaptations in the Retinal Ciliary Marginal Zone

The vertebrate retina develops from a specified group of precursor cells that adopt distinct identities and generate lineages of either the neural retina, retinal pigmented epithelium, or ciliary body. In some species, including teleost fish and amphibians, proliferative cells with stem-cell-like properties capable of continuously supplying new retinal cells post-embryonically have been characterized and extensively studied. This region, termed the ciliary or circumferential marginal zone (CMZ), possibly represents a conserved retinal stem cell niche. In this review, we highlight the research characterizing similar CMZ-like regions, or stem-like cells located at the peripheral margin, across multiple different species. We discuss the proliferative parameters, multipotency and growth mechanisms of these cells to understand how they behave in vivo and how different molecular factors and signalling networks converge at the CMZ niche to regulate their activity. The evidence suggests that the mature retina may have a conserved propensity for homeostatic growth and plasticity and that dysfunction in the regulation of CMZ activity may partially account for dystrophic eye growth diseases such as myopia and hyperopia. A better understanding of the properties of CMZ cells will enable important insight into how an endogenous generative tissue compartment can adapt to altered retinal physiology and potentially even restore vision loss caused by retinal degenerative conditions.

The Impact of Tax Incentive Structure On Taxpayers’ Retirement Savings Decisions

We investigate whether and how the structure of retirement savings incentives influences their relative attractiveness to taxpayers, independent of their effect on after-tax returns. To that end, we examine taxpayers’ preferences between defined contribution retirement plans with back-loaded (i.e., Roth) and front-loaded (i.e., traditional) tax incentives. In three experiments, we find limited evidence that individuals appropriately weight temporal tax rate changes, the primary factor differentiating after-tax returns across incentive structures, in their plan preferences. In contrast, we find consistent evidence that the incentive structure’s relation to taxpayers’ broader attitudes and preferences significantly impacts plan preferences. Overall, we find evidence that generally held attitudes and preferences lead to a systematic preference for back-loaded retirement plans even in situations in which taxpayers know that a back-loaded plan is economically dominated by a front-loaded plan. The results have implications for policymakers and others considering how best to encourage retirement savings.