Posts

A Retiring Mind(set)

Image
  I’ve written previously – albeit just a couple of times – about my decision to “retire.” Not that I don’t have stories to share, and perhaps even insights to impart. [i]   I’ve mostly held off because (a) people keep telling me I “suck” at retirement, and (b) I have come to believe that every retirement experience is unique.  That said, of late, I have become aware of just how many folks write and counsel about retirement – who are actually well short of that milestone. I’m not saying that guidance is irrelevant – I’m just saying that I have found that the reality is… different. My good friend and podcasting partner Fred Reish (who hasn’t yet crossed over into retirement, it bears noting) came up with the idea of doing a podcast where we talk to retirement industry people about their retirement(s). We’ve now done  three of those interviews  – and I hope that you’ll come check them out.  In the most  recent episode , [ii]  Fred thought it would be good to turn the tables, so to speak
Post a Comment
Read more

A Retirement Crisis of Complicity

Image
   A recent headline asks: “ Why Aren’t We Talking About America’s Retirement Crisis?”   Really? It seems to me that that’s ALL we’re talking about! Even more ironically, that headline appeared in an op-ed crafted by none other than Teresa Ghilarducci (and her new co-author, Christopher Cook) who, so far as I can discern, talks (and writes books) about little other than the so-called “crisis.” And this specific op-ed, as hers often do, got picked up in syndication (see  this link for details ).   But then, this week I stumbled across a LinkedIn post from Andrew Biggs, which matter-of-factly stated, “After a period of trying-in-good-faith, I've concluded I have to be more, um, forthright in calling out, shall we say, misinformation regarding Americans' retirement income security.” Said another way, it appears that Mr. Biggs has come to the conclusion –  as I have  – that polite commentary and even-handed discussions are insufficient to put to bed what continue to be extreme misc
Post a Comment
Read more

What If There Was No ERISA?

Image
New research puts a new twist on “A Wonderful Life” – answering the question, what if there hadn’t been an ERISA? ERISA is, of course, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 which  just turned 50 . The  analysis [i]  – put together by Morningstar Retirement’s Director of Retirement Studies Jack VanDerhei and Associate Director of Retirement Studies Spencer Look – first looks at the current “status quo” retirement readiness impact (more specifically, retirement readiness shortfalls). It then looks at the potential result if there had been no ERISA – or, perhaps more precisely if there had been no individual account retirement plans (defined contribution and IRAs), though allowance was made for the probability of saving to an IRA.  Now, anyone with a realistic assessment/awareness of the  limited availability of traditional pension plans  in the private sector (before AND after ERISA’s passage) can hardly be surprised to find that the absence of individual accounts would hav
Post a Comment
Read more

(Let’s) Never Forget

Image
  It’s hard to believe that today there are people in the workforce who weren’t even alive on Sept. 11, 2001. In fact, it’s been labeled a defining event for Millennials – a date marker between those who were alive on that date and those (Generation Z) who weren’t. That said, the passage of time has surely dimmed the memory even for many who did live through it. More’s the pity. Odds are if you were “here” on that most awful of days, you’ll remember exactly where you were. I was travelling from one coast to the other – heading to speak at a conference early on that bright Tuesday morning in 2001. In fact, I was in the middle of that cross-country flight, literally running from one terminal to another in Dallas, Texas when my cellphone rang. I was annoyed – the hour was early, my flight in had been late, and the timing between that and my connection was uncomfortably short – particularly for a flight that was in another terminal.  The call was from my wife – I assumed she was simply che
Post a Comment
Read more

ERISA—Still ‘Nifty’ at 50

Image
I’ve long relished telling “newbies” to the retirement space that ERISA was the   second   big executive act of then-newly enshrined President Gerald R. Ford—less than one month after he took office.  In fairness—and I’m not exactly a kid—I was barely out of high school when that event occurred.  I’ve never had a benefits program (retirement OR healthcare, and us retirement geeks tend to forget that ERISA also has sway over workplace health plans) that wasn’t operating under its auspices—and so, talking about what ERISA has done/changed requires going back before my personal experience. And yet, despite the disparaging acronym “Every Ridiculous Idea Since Adam,” what ERISA has accomplished—and what has emerged in its aftermath—seems truly remarkable to me.  ERISA is, of course, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974—and on Labor Day 2024, that legislation will be 50 years young. Not that ERISA created either the concept or the reality of pensions and retirement plans; in f
Post a Comment
Read more