Nevin's Data "Points"

  Retirement surveys tend to read like actuarial obituaries — a long litany of percentages chronicling regret, anxiety, and insufficient preparation. Unless, of course, you look at the underlying data. The latest survey from Schroders [i] offers plenty of the former; inflation remains public enemy No. 1; healthcare costs continue to ambush expectations — and more than half of retirees apparently have no idea how long their money will last. But wait. Buried inside that grim arithmetic are some surprisingly encouraging signs — and you don’t have to look very far. For instance, yes, the survey says that 58% of retirees [ii] don’t know how long their savings will last. Which means … 42% actually do (or at least claim to). Given the complexity of retirement income planning — sequence risk, inflation assumptions, healthcare shocks, longevity projections, required minimum distributions, tax strategy, market volatility, and the occasional Congressional “enhancement” — it’s arguably rema...

Life has many lessons to teach us, some more painful than others — and some we’d just as soon be spared. Regardless, if you have a graduate — or if you ARE a graduate, here are some insights I’ve picked up along the way…   When it seems too good to be true, it’s generally neither good, nor true. Because you’re young(er), people are going to assume you know things you don’t — and assume you don’t know things you do. Everything you’ve heard about your elders isn’t true. But some of it is. Everything your elders think about you/your generation isn’t true. But some of it is. Never say you’ll never… (at least not out loud). If the only time your boss hears from you is when there’s trouble, don’t be surprised if they don’t look forward to your visits. The people who say “it’s not about the money” generally already have some. If you’re always the smartest person in the room, you’re probably in the wrong room. Before hitting “Reply All,” take a walk. A good reputation takes years to b...

   It’s been said that politics makes strange bedfellows — but it doesn’t get much stranger than President Trump and Teresa Ghilarducci. At least temporarily, they appear aligned on one of retirement policy’s most persistent challenges: how to reach workers who don’t have access to a retirement plan at work. President Trump’s April 30 executive order directs Treasury to develop a federal IRA savings framework aimed at uncovered workers — contract workers, part-timers, the self-employed, and employees of small businesses. And while the proposal is still light on details, it has drawn enthusiastic support from one of the nation’s most consistent critics of the employer-based retirement system: Professor Teresa Ghilarducci. The Trump initiative — hinted at in the State of the Union address — would synchronize with the expanded Saver’s Match included in the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. The Saver’s Match is one of the more consequential — if still underappreciated — changes in that leg...

  Mother’s Day tends to come packaged in the usual ways — cards, flowers, reservations, and a few familiar phrases about gratitude. There’s nothing wrong with any of that. But it also flattens something that, in real life, is anything but simple: the steady, unglamorous work that holds everything together long before anyone thinks to acknowledge it. A recent driving trip out West brought that into sharper focus for me. Now, my wife and I had been talking about making this particular trip for years. We had specific things we wanted to see, and a rough idea of their proximity to each other. And, thanks to a speaking engagement, we had a departure date, and a “jumping off” point.  Now, on paper, a road trip sounds straightforward enough — pack the car, set the route, go. In practice — and especially when you’re traveling with two dogs who are very much part of the family structure (and not very accustomed to travelling), it becomes something closer to project management. Timing, ...

   If you read only the headlines from the latest Employee Benefit Research Institute Retirement Confidence Survey, the takeaway feels familiar: confidence is slipping, worries are rising, and concern about retirement readiness is once again in focus. Seriously? Look, once you move past the year-over-year decline [i] and look at the levels themselves, the picture changes shape. Yes, confidence is down from recent highs. But retirees, in particular, remain broadly confident in their ability to live comfortably in retirement despite all the “noise” about inflation, Social Security, and volatile markets. Roughly three-quarters still say they feel secure about their financial footing in retirement. That is not a fragile number. It is a resilient one. ad space What stands out even more is how consistently the survey shows a gap between expectations and actual experience. Workers — still on the near side of retirement — are meaningfully less confident than those already in it. That...