Testing the Effectiveness of a Future Selves Intervention for Increasing Retirement Saving: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Mexico

One psychological barrier impeding saving behavior is the inability to fully empathize with one’s future self. Future self interventions have improved savings by helping people overcome this obstacle. Despite the promise of such interventions, previous research has focused predominantly on hypothetical contexts and western settings where the target sample has been predominantly undergraduate. Do interventions that encourage people to more concretely consider their future selves during retirement still have a positive effect on behavior in consequential, real-world savings decisions? Using a field experiment in Mexico (N = 7,603), where less than 1% make a voluntary savings contribution annually, we developed a low-cost, easy-to-implement intervention to test whether concrete thinking about one’s future life improves recurring retirement savings signups relative to a status quo, control group. We find that future self decision aids significantly improved the likelihood of signing up for an automatic recurring savings plan by nearly four times compared to the control.

DIGITALIZATION OF CREATIVE MARKETS: EFFORTS TO DEVELOP FAMILY ECONOMIC RESILIENCE IN LAMPUNG

This study aims to analyze the digitalization of the creative market on the economic growth of the family and to see the role of the family in the economic resilience of the community. This research uses a qualitative method with a case study approach that is field research. Sources of data from creative markets in two districts, namely Metro City and East Lampung. The results of the study indicate that the creative market is able to encourage family economic growth towards a more established direction, and build family relationships in economic resilience. The digitalization of the creative market has also been proven to be able to improve the family’s economy, such as meeting secondary and tertiary needs, education savings and retirement savings, fulfilling education costs, and fulfilling kitchen utensils. Another indication of the progress of the family economy is also marked by the development of fundamental aspects that support the creative economy, such as creativity, innovation, and invention. These three aspects can then affect creative business opportunities that are more wide open, more diverse livelihoods, easier to find additional income, souvenirs typical of tourist areas, and the title of a tourist city.

Role of tax incentives for increase in personal pensions saving

Personal pensions increase their role in the retirement savings in the European Union. The design of the personal pensions is of great importance for the success of the saving. In the European Union there is no common legislation on the taxation of pensions. In recent years, the personal responsibility of savers for making decisions to save for retirement has increased. The limited ability of public pension systems to guarantee an adequate and sustainable income after working age necessitates the search for opportunities to fill this "pension gap". That is why the market for long-term savings products is central to achieving adequate income replacement and maintaining the standard of living of the elderly. This is one of the reasons for the greater role of the tax treatment of the savings products. The paper is analyzing the role of tax incentives for the increase of the saving in personal pension products. The study is searching answer which are the most important steps for efficient tax policy of retirement savings products. The new product on the European Union market, the pan-European personal pension product, sheds extra light on the topic of the importance and the efficiency of the tax treatment of saving in personal pension products. The research finds out that favourable tax treatment for saving in personal pension products is a must but it has to be major part of the overall social welfare and tax policy of the member states.

Less is not more: 401(k) plan information and retirement planning choices

This paper presents the results of a choice experiment that is designed to examine whether changing how plan information is presented affects planned retirement-savings behavior. The main hypothesis is that providing plan information in a more concise format with helpful recommendations, rather than providing lengthy and detailed information, will alter retirement-planning choices. The specific choices examined include: whether to enroll, how much to contribute, and how to structure (broadly) the asset allocation. The choice experiment is conducted on three different samples: (i) a Qualtrics panel of new employees, (ii) a Qualtrics panel of job seekers, and (iii) a sample of business-school students. Our results suggest that, controlling for demographic and other factors, our main hypothesis was not supported by the data in any of the samples. Thus, the data cast some doubt on the notion that simplifying and condensing the retirement-plan information presented to employees will result in vastly different retirement-planning choices.

Mental Time Travel and Retirement Savings

We portray the valuation of retirement savings in terms of a mental time travel journey in which a proposed contribution to a pension plan is projected forward to the plan member’s retirement date and this projected value is then discounted back to today, thereby giving a present or personal value. We set this within a broader framework of pension planning, which seeks to smooth consumption over the lifecycle. We explain how two psychological biases—exponential growth bias and present bias—can lead to a difference between the initial value of a pension contribution and its present value, such a difference reflecting an asymmetry between projection and discounting, and how such a difference might lead to inadequate retirement savings and hence to a lower than desired standard of living in retirement. We consider how the two biases might be mitigated.

Zakat Tabungan Pensiun dalam Perspektif Fikih Islam

This research aims to find out the zakat obligations that must be paid by a pensioner related to the retirement savings he receives at retirement. This research used a qualitative descriptive research (non-statistical), which focused on the study of manuscripts and texts. The results of this study explain that retirement savings are legally equated with receivables that are no longer expected to be paid (already hard to pay), which are not subject to obligatory zakat, because pension savings cannot be disbursed at any time by the beneficiary except at a specified time, so even The savings are already sufficient in terms of nisab and haulnya prospective beneficiaries are not yet obliged to pay zakat. Beneficiaries may issue their zakat immediately after receiving the benefits if the nisab has been fulfilled in a tatawwu '(not mandatory) manner, even though the haul has not been sufficient.

Can Rural Migrant Workers Afford to Retire in China? A Study of Chinese Migrant Worker’s Retirement Savings

This paper makes connections between social policies of retirement, migrant worker’s migration experience, and migrant workers’ retirement savings. Using insight from the political economy of aging and stress theory, this paper links the macro levels of understanding with the micro levels of work and aging experiences for migrant workers. Using binary logistic regression with a sample of 699 Chinese migrant workers from three emigration provinces (Anhui, Henan, Sichuan), this paper explores four specific aspects of migrant worker’s migration experience in relation to their retirement savings: financial status; length of employment; social support, and levels of hopefulness. Findings reveal that migrant workers with better financial status, social support, and higher level of hopefulness towards future are more likely to have retirement savings as compared to their counterparts. Discussions linking the macro and micro levels of social policies were provided. Policy implications were discussed.

What Are We Worried About? Mid-life Couples’ Financial Concerns About Their Retirement

Retirement is an expected stage of life that couples plan for far in advance. Despite knowing that years of life without regular income are anticipated, some underprepare, leading to financial uncertainty in later years. In this study we explore financial concerns for retirement expressed by a sample of 335 midlife (Mage=44) couples that participated in the Flourishing Families study. We also examined predictors of those concerns across a 1-year period. Results suggested that both husbands and wives worried about insufficient income, excess spending, and heavy debt in retirement. Minor concerns included being worried about paying for their children’s education, net worth, and general expenses. Lower income was predictive of both husbands and wives being worried about having insufficient income in retirement. Higher income was predictive of husbands having concerns about excess spending. Although having retirement benefits was not predictive of any worries, having retirement savings was associated with wives having a greater likelihood of reporting worries about heavy debt and net worth in retirement. Better financial communication was associated with fewer husbands reporting concerns about excess spending and fewer wives reporting concerns about heavy debt. Having concerns about a spouse not being financially responsible were associated with more husbands reporting worries about excess spending and heavy debt in retirement. When wives reported higher social connection with a child, they also were more likely to report worries about expenses. Findings suggest that saving for retirement, communicating well about finances, and being financially responsible are associated with fewer financial concerns in retirement.