Do Newly Retired Workers in the United States Have Sufficient Resources to Maintain Well-Being?

Robert H. Haveman, Karen Holden, Barbara L. Wolfe () and Shane Sherlund

Economic Inquiry, 2006, vol. 44, issue 2, pages 249-264

Abstract: A current policy issue is the extent to which savings are sufficient to sustain economic well-being in retirement. We compare annuitized wealth at retirement to three preretirement consumption estimates. About one-half of new retirees have insufficient resources to enable the full maintenance of estimated preretirement consumption in retirement, and about 40% fail to meet the "0.7 of earnings" standard that is used in many studies. Using standards reflecting social (poverty) norms we find a less serious problem. About 5% (25%) of new retirees have insufficient resources to enable an above-poverty (near-poverty) level of living during retirement. (JEL J14, J26) Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.

JEL-codes: J14 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
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