Nevin's Data "Points"

I recently ran across a survey that claimed 7 in 10 DC plan sponsors were “taking steps” to solve the retirement income challenge… but that looks to have been “aspirational.” While the survey’s [i] intro cautioned that there was more to be done, that struck me as a remarkably high (and reassuring) finding, though it didn’t mesh with my sense of the world at present. Sure enough, turns out, there is apparently a retirement income “journey”—one that apparently has several stages—all of which were (apparently) classified as “steps.” Those included: 34% – INITIAL (my emphasis, their wording) stages of learning about retirement income approaches 14% – in the process of better understanding participants’ retirement income needs 8% – in the process of evaluating specific retirement income solutions/products 7% – implementing/implemented a retirement income solution/product Indeed, the survey goes on to comment that another 8% have evaluated these type solutions, and decided not ...

"A father is a man who expects his children to be as good as he meant to be.” – Carol Coats Like many, perhaps most, of you, as a parent I’ve tried to compensate for the ways in which I felt that my parents could have done . . . “better.”  My parents led mostly through example—and powerful as that can be, as a kid those messages are often too subtle to be noticed, much less appreciated. Indeed, my dad was a man of few words—spoken words, anyway. At 6’ 5” he was an imposing figure, all the more from the pulpit from which he did speak. He was a good speaker, but not a natural one. A minister, he worked hard at it, studied his subject matter, practiced his presentation relentlessly, each and every week. I always thought it amazing that such a quiet, introverted man would choose that career—but, and though it can’t have been easy, it was something he felt called to do at an early age. He had opinions, but didn’t impose them on others. Indeed, it was difficult (and some...

Back in the middle of the pandemic, my then 91-year-old mother was presented with two options—one a specialist recommended, the other favored by her trusted general practice physician. And of course, it was to be…her decision. This kind of thing happens all the time in the medical field where such things often seem as much art as science, with a myriad of factors to consider, not the least of which is the skill and experience of the medical professionals putting forth their recommendations. Not that it’s limited to life-and-death decisions. Indeed, it’s the kind of decision with which we’re often presented; when that annual auto inspection detects a hitherto undetected major repair need, when that leaky toilet repair uncovers some long-standing, but unobserved water damage, when that last minute call to fix a water heater or air conditioner reveals that it might—but might not—last the season. Those things routinely involve experts of one sort or another turning to us re...

I hadn’t been to the dentist in a long time. A VERY long time. Two weeks ago, and at the encouragement of my wife, I finally went back to the dentist. I hadn’t been since COVID, and that period provided a very good excuse for avoiding that visit. Turns out, I hadn’t been for quite a while before COVID—not so much intentionally, just life getting in the way. That’s not completely accurate, of course. On the best of visits, trips to the dentist had never been exactly “pleasant,” though I’ve been fortunate to be in the hands of friendly, patient and—gentle—staff over the years. That said, my last visit had involved what wound up being a unexpected and relatively involved procedure that, while it remedied a painful (and potentially dangerous) situation, left me with a certain, shall we say, “fear of finding out”… Now, avoiding the dentist didn’t prevent problems, of course. And many’s the day over the past several (gulp!) … years when I would tell myself that it would be b...