Nevin's Data "Points"

   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...

The future is an uncertain thing, and planning for uncertainty inevitably involves making some assumptions. Here are six that, done improperly, can wreck your retirement. How Long You’ll Live The good news we are living longer – but that means that retirements can last longer, and medical costs can run higher. But while we’re living longer, studies indicate that we tend to underestimate how much longer we will live. The Social Security Administration notes that a man reaching age 65 today can expect to live, on average, until age 84.3, a woman turning age 65 today can expect to live, on average, until age 86.6. But those are just averages. About one out of every four 65-year-olds today will live past age 90, and 1 out of 10 will live past age 95. How Long You’ll Work Perhaps the most important assumption is when you plan to quit working; today most Americans are doing so at 62, though 65 seems to be the most common assumption – and while using 70 (or later) will surely bo...

"In inflation, everything gets more valuable except money." This week, the eyes of the stock market (and thus the eyes of those of us with 401(k) investments in that stock market) will turn to the meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee—that special subset of the Federal Reserve that determines short-term monetary policy for the nation. The Fed has long—and understandably—been on the alert for signs that inflation might rear its ugly head. Those of us who lived through the 1970s can remember all too well the relentless pressure of wages unable to keep up with prices—and can appreciate the vigilance of the Fed in seeking to keep inflation under control. In fact, for some time now, the Fed has moved preemptively to head off inflation, or so it claims. But anyone who has actually gone out and bought such basic household necessities as food or gasoline is well aware that the costs of living are climbing rapidly. We may well enjoy a sense of growing wealth as we watch hou...