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Optimal Retirement Asset Decumulation Strategies: The Impact of Housing Wealth

Author

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  • Wei Sun
  • Robert Triest

    (Federal Reserve Bank of Boston)

  • Anthony Webb

    (Center for Retirement Research, Boston College)

Abstract

A considerable literature examines the optimal decumulation of financial wealth in retirement. We extend this line of research to incorporate housing, which comprises the majority of most households’ non-pension wealth. We use VARs to estimate the relationship between the returns on housing, stocks, and bonds, and use simulation techniques to investigate a variety of decumulation strategies incorporating reverse mortgages. Under a wide variety of assumptions, we find that the average household would be as much as 33 percent better off taking a reverse mortgage as a lifetime income relative to what appears to be the most common strategy of delaying until financial wealth is exhausted and then taking a line of credit. It would be as much as 62 percent better off relative to not taking a reverse mortgage at all. Housing wealth displaces bonds in optimal portfolios, making the low rate of participation in the stock market even more of a puzzle.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei Sun & Robert Triest & Anthony Webb, 2006. "Optimal Retirement Asset Decumulation Strategies: The Impact of Housing Wealth," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College wp2006-22, Center for Retirement Research, revised Nov 2006.
    • Handle: RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2006-22
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    Cited by:

    1. Jonathan Skinner, 2007. "Are You Sure You're Saving Enough for Retirement?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 59-80, Summer.
    2. Gregorio Impavido & Esperanza Lasagabaster & Manuel Garcia-Huitron, 2010. "New Policies for Mandatory Defined Contribution Pensions : Industrial Organization Models and Investment Products," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2462, December.
    3. Gregorio Impavido & Esperanza Lasagabaster & Manuel Garcia-Huitron, 2010. "New Policies for Mandatory Defined Contribution Pensions : Industrial Organization Models and Investment Products," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 2462, September.
    4. Blake David & Cairns Andrew & Dowd Kevin, 2008. "The Birth of the Life Market," Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-32, September.
    5. David Blake & Andrew Cairns & Guy Coughlan & Kevin Dowd & Richard MacMinn, 2013. "The New Life Market," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 80(3), pages 501-558, September.
    6. Mohammed Ishaq Mohammed & Noralfishah Sulaiman & Dahiru Adamu, 2018. "Dimensionality and Reliability of the Determinants of Reverse Mortgage Use Intention," Traektoriâ Nauki = Path of Science, Altezoro, s.r.o. & Dialog, vol. 4(2), pages 1013-1023, February.
    7. Blake, David & Cairns, Andrew & Dowd, Kevin, 2008. "Turning pension plans into pension planes: What investment strategy designers of defined contribution pension plans can learn from commercial aircraft designers," MPRA Paper 33749, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Jonathan Skinner, 2007. "Are You Sure You're Saving Enough for Retirement?," NBER Working Papers 12981, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    Keywords

    optimal; decumulation; retirement; housing; non-pension wealth; reverse mortgages;
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