IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedgfe/96-1.html

Saving and financial planning: some findings from a focus group

Author

Listed:
  • Arthur B. Kennickell
  • Martha Starr-McCluer
  • Annika E. Sunden

Abstract

This paper summarizes the results of a focus group on saving and financial planning. The group consisted of eight individuals with relatively high income and wealth. The savings behavior of such people is of interest partly due to their large contribution to total personal saving. The participants expressed concerns about how their circumstances will change as they age, and about uncertainties in income and health. While these concerns are consistent with theories emphasizing life-cycle and precautionary motives, the idea that saving involves self-control was also mentioned repeatedly.

Suggested Citation

  • Arthur B. Kennickell & Martha Starr-McCluer & Annika E. Sunden, 1996. "Saving and financial planning: some findings from a focus group," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 96-1, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:96-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/1996/199601/199601abs.html
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/1996/199601/199601pap.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George M. CONSTANTINIDES & Jonathan E. INGERSOLL Jr., 2005. "Optimal Bond Trading With Personal Taxes," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Sudipto Bhattacharya & George M Constantinides (ed.), Theory Of Valuation, chapter 6, pages 165-206, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. David I. Laibson & Andrea Repetto & Jeremy Tobacman, 1998. "Self-Control and Saving for Retirement," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 29(1), pages 91-196.
    3. Auerbach, Alan J. & Kotlikoff, Laurence J., 1991. "The adequacy of life insurance purchases," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 215-241, June.
    4. Lawrance, Emily C, 1991. "Poverty and the Rate of Time Preference: Evidence from Panel Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(1), pages 54-77, February.
    5. B. Douglas Bernheim, 1987. "Social Security Benefits: An Empirical Study of Expectations and Realizations," NBER Working Papers 2257, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. repec:bla:revinw:v:37:y:1991:i:4:p:409-32 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Shefrin, Hersh M & Thaler, Richard H, 1988. "The Behavioral Life-Cycle Hypothesis," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 26(4), pages 609-643, October.
    8. Lease, Ronald C & Lewellen, Wilbur G & Schlarbaum, Gary G, 1974. "The Individual Investor: Attributes and Attitudes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 29(2), pages 413-433, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Martha A. Starr, 2014. "Qualitative And Mixed-Methods Research In Economics: Surprising Growth, Promising Future," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 238-264, April.
    2. R. Glenn Hubbard & Jonathan S. Skinner, 1996. "Assessing the Effectiveness of Saving Incentives," Books, American Enterprise Institute, number 53540, September.
    3. Carol C. Bertaut, 1996. "Stockholding behavior of U.S. households: evidence from the 1983-89 Survey of Consumer Finances," International Finance Discussion Papers 558, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    4. Margaret Clancy & Michal Grinstein-Weiss & Mark Schreiner, 2001. "Financial Education and Savings Outcomes in Individual Development Accounts," HEW 0108001, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 27 Dec 2001.
    5. Sondra Beverly & Amanda Moore & Mark Schreiner, 2001. "A Framework of Asset-Accumulation Stages and Strategies," Development and Comp Systems 0109004, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Binswanger, Johannes, 2011. "Dynamic decision making with feasibility goals: A procedural-rationality approach," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 78(3), pages 219-228, May.
    2. Binswanger, Johannes, 2012. "Life cycle saving: Insights from the perspective of bounded rationality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 605-623.
    3. Wang, Mei & Rieger, Marc Oliver & Hens, Thorsten, 2016. "How time preferences differ: Evidence from 53 countries," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 115-135.
    4. Beverly, Sondra G. & Sherraden, Michael, 1999. "Institutional determinants of saving: implications for low-income households and public policy," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 457-473.
    5. David Laibson & Andrea Repetto & Jeremy Tobacman, 2005. "Estimating Discount Functions with Consumption Choices over the Lifecycle," Levine's Bibliography 784828000000000643, UCLA Department of Economics.
    6. Daniel McFadden, 2010. "Comment on "The Impact of Employer Matching on Savings Plan Participation under Automatic Enrollment"," NBER Chapters, in: Research Findings in the Economics of Aging, pages 327-335, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Binswanger, J., 2010. "Towards Understanding Life Cycle Savings of Boundedly Rational Agents : A Model with Feasibility Goals (Revision of DP 2008-14)," Discussion Paper 2010-138, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    8. Henry, O. & Messinis, G. & Olekalns, N., 1999. "Rational Habit Modification: the Role of Credit," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 729, The University of Melbourne.
    9. Tomomi Tanaka & Colin F. Camerer & Quang Nguyen, 2006. "Preferences, Poverty and Politics: Experimental and Survey Data from Vietnam," Levine's Bibliography 321307000000000054, UCLA Department of Economics.
    10. Persichina, Marco, 2016. "Present Bias in Renewable Resources Management Reduces Agent’s Welfare," MPRA Paper 86697, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 30 Nov 2017.
    11. Messinis, George & Henry, Olan & Olekalns, Nilss, 2002. "Rational habit modification in consumption," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 665-678, August.
    12. Arie Kapteyn & Federica Teppa, 2003. "Hypothetical Intertemporal Consumption Choices," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(486), pages 140-152, March.
    13. Tomomi Tanaka & Colin F. Camerer & Quang Nguyen, 2010. "Risk and Time Preferences: Linking Experimental and Household Survey Data from Vietnam," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(1), pages 557-571, March.
    14. Giovanni Mastrobuoni & Matthew Weinberg, 2009. "Heterogeneity in Intra-monthly Consumption Patterns, Self-Control, and Savings at Retirement," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 163-189, August.
    15. Binswanger, Johannes, 2010. "Understanding the heterogeneity of savings and asset allocation: A behavioral-economics perspective," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 296-317, November.
    16. Bing Han & David Hirshleifer & Johan Walden, 2023. "Visibility Bias in the Transmission of Consumption Beliefs and Undersaving," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(3), pages 1647-1704, June.
    17. Douglas W. Elmendorf, "undated". "The Effect of Interest-Rate Changes on Household Saving and Consumption: A Survey," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1996-27, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), revised 10 Dec 2019.
    18. Anderson, C. Leigh & Nevitte, Neil, 2006. "Teach your children well: Values of thrift and saving," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 247-261, April.
    19. Vincent Somville & Lore Vandewalle, 2018. "Saving by Default: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Rural India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 39-66, July.
    20. Tomomi Tanaka & Colin F Camerer & Quang Nguyen, 2006. "Poverty, politics, and preferences: Field Experiments and survey data from Vietnam," Levine's Bibliography 122247000000001099, UCLA Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:96-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ryan Wolfslayer ; Keisha Fournillier (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbgvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.