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The theory of life-cycle saving and investing

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Author Info
Zvi Bodie
Jonathan Treussard
Paul Willen

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Abstract

How much should a family save for retirement and for the kids’ college education? How much insurance should they buy? How should they allocate their portfolio across different assets? What should a company choose as the default asset allocation for a mandatory retirement saving plan? We believe that the life-cycle model developed by economists over the last fifty years provides guidance for making such decisions. The theory teaches us to view financial assets as vehicles for transferring resources across different times and outcomes over the life cycle, and that perspective allows households and planners to think about their decisions in a logical and rigorous way. This paper lays out and illustrates the basic analytical framework from the theory in nonmathematical terms, with the aim of providing guidance to financial service providers, consumers, and policymakers.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in its series Public Policy Discussion Paper with number 07-3.

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Date of creation: 2007
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedbpp:07-3

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Keywords: Saving and investment

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  1. He, Hua & Pages, Henri F, 1993. "Labor Income, Borrowing Constraints, and Equilibrium Asset Prices," Economic Theory, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 663-96, October.
  2. John Y. Campbell & Joao F. Cocco, 2003. "Household Risk Management and Optimal Mortgage Choice," NBER Working Papers 9759, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Nicole El Karoui & Monique Jeanblanc-Picqué, 1998. "Optimization of consumption with labor income," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 2(4), pages 409-440. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Cox, John C. & Ross, Stephen A. & Rubinstein, Mark, 1979. "Option pricing: A simplified approach," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 229-263, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Bodie, Zvi & Merton, Robert C. & Samuelson, William F., 1992. "Labor supply flexibility and portfolio choice in a life cycle model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 16(3-4), pages 427-449. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Modigliani, Franco, 1986. "Life Cycle, Individual Thrift, and the Wealth of Nations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(3), pages 297-313, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Fischer, Stanley, 1975. "The Demand for Index Bonds," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(3), pages 509-34, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Jérôme B. Detemple & René Garcia & Marcel Rindisbacher, 2003. "A Monte Carlo Method for Optimal Portfolios," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(1), pages 401-446, 02. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Merton, Robert C, 1969. "Lifetime Portfolio Selection under Uncertainty: The Continuous-Time Case," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(3), pages 247-57, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Detemple, Jérôme & Garcia, René & Rindisbacher, Marcel, 2005. "Intertemporal asset allocation: A comparison of methods," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(11), pages 2821-2848, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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