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Did you really save so little for your retirement? An analysis of retirement savings and unconventional retirement accounts

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  • Mauro Mastrogiacomo
  • Rob Alessie

Abstract

We use a confirmatory factor analysis to study the relation between the importance of a broad spectrum of saving motives, such as saving for retirement, and saving behavior. Survey data show that many respondents save for retirement in unconventional retirement accounts, such as investments in real estate. We show that finding the retirement motive important does not directly translate in additional retirement savings. We show that the annuity stream generated by conventional and unconventional accounts from age 65 onwards is small and that most savings are residual and are not being put aside for a specific motive. Also self-employed retirement savings are low, even though this group has generally no occupational pension.

Suggested Citation

  • Mauro Mastrogiacomo & Rob Alessie, 2011. "Did you really save so little for your retirement? An analysis of retirement savings and unconventional retirement accounts," CPB Discussion Paper 200, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpb:discus:200
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. van Santen, Peter, 2016. "Uncertain pension income and household saving," Working Paper Series 330, Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden).
    2. Peter van Santen, 2019. "Uncertain Pension Income and Household Saving," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(4), pages 908-929, December.
    3. Francesco Caloia & Mauro Mastrogiacomo & Irene Simonetti, 2023. "Shocks to Occupational Pensions and Household Savings," Working Papers 775, DNB.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth

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