Nevin's Data "Points"

In recent weeks, I have been distressed to see a pair of reports by what are sometimes affectionately referred to as 401(k) “haters” — but that’s not what I find most troubling. One, by the Economic Policy Institute, is innocuously titled, “ The State of American Retirement ,” but it might be more honestly subtitled, “How 401(k)s have failed most American workers.” The other is a formalized (and slightly updated) version of Teresa Ghilarducci’s Guaranteed Retirement Account (GRA) proposal titled, “ A Comprehensive Plan to Confront the Retirement Crisis .” Both reports tread familiar, and misguided, ground. Misguided and misleading as these kinds of reports are, they’re not new or even original. I’d almost be inclined to simply ignore them. That is, until I see headlines like, “ The Plan That Could Render Your 401(k) Obsolete ,” or “ These Depressing Charts Show the Different Ways 401(k)s Fall Short ,” reported with a straight face by the personal finance press. The latter, which ju...

With increasing regularity, the financial services industry pumps out surveys that purport to capture America’s sense of confidence regarding its readiness for retirement, at least on a financial footing. Mostly, however, they seem to focus on the symptom, rather than dealing with the underlying cause(s). However well-intentioned, these all seem designed to highlight a persistent strong undercurrent of concern — one that, certainly when juxtaposed against the generally disappointing preparation levels reported by respondents, seems completely warranted. Confidence about retirement is one thing, of course, and preparation something else, though the two are logically intertwined. That said, for those looking to shore up confidence levels, data from the granddaddy of such surveys — the non-partisan Employee Benefit Research Institute’s (EBRI) Retirement Confidence Survey — provides a roadmap: Work for an employer that offers a retirement plan. Data indicates that workers — even wo...