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Are You Sure You're Saving Enough for Retirement?

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Author Info
Jonathan Skinner

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Abstract

Many observers believe current aging baby boomers are woefully unprepared for retirement. Others raise the prospect that Americans are saving too much for retirement. This paper attempts to reconcile these contrasting views using a simple life cycle model and a more sophisticated retirement program, ESPlanner, with special reference to retirement prospects for economists. I find most households with post-graduate degrees fall short of the wealth needed to smooth spending through retirement. Of course, there are ways to economize during retirement: stepping up household production (cooking at home rather than eating out), selling one's house, or maintaining the modest individual consumption levels from when children still roamed the house. But ultimately, I argue these laudable strategies to reduce retirement expenses will be dwarfed by rapidly growing out-of-pocket medical expenses. The combination of eroding retiree health benefits and the risk of catastrophic future out-of-pocket health spending suggests that even conventional retirement planning recommendations could be too low.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 12981.

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Date of creation: Mar 2007
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12981

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends and Forecasts
J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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    Other versions:
  7. Steven F. Venti & David A. Wise, 2004. "Aging and Housing Equity: Another Look," NBER Chapters, in: Perspectives on the Economics of Aging, pages 127-180 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
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  8. John Karl Scholz & Ananth Seshadri & Surachai Khitatrakun, 2006. "Are Americans Saving "Optimally" for Retirement?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(4), pages 607-643, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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    Other versions:
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  18. Jonathan Skinner & Stephen P. Zeldes, 2002. "The Importance of Bequests and Life-Cycle Saving in Capital Accumulation: A New Answer," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 274-278, May. [Downloadable!]
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    Other versions:
  21. Katharine L. Bradbury & Helen F. Ladd, 1987. "City Taxes and Property Tax Bases," NBER Working Papers 2197, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  23. JohnKarl Scholz & Ananth Seshadri, 2007. "Children and Household Wealth," Working Papers wp158, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center. [Downloadable!]
  24. John Ameriks & Andrew Caplin & John Leahy, 2002. "Retirement Consumption: Insights from a Survey," NBER Working Papers 8735, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  25. Shlomo Benartzi & Richard Thaler, 2007. "Heuristics and Biases in Retirement Savings Behavior," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 81-104, Summer.
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Alicia H. Munnell & Anthony Webb & Francesca Golub-Sass, 2007. "Is There Really a Retirement Savings Crisis? An NRRI Analysis," Issues in Brief ib2007-7-11, Center for Retirement Research, revised Aug 2007. [Downloadable!]
  2. Dalen, H.P. van & Henkens, K. & Hershey, D.A., 2008. "Are Pension Savings sufficient? Perceptions and Expectations of American and Dutch Workers," Discussion Paper 2008-58, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  3. Binswanger, J. & Schunk, D., 2008. "What is an Adequate Standard of Living During Retirement?," Discussion Paper 2008-82, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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