IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/cfswop/631.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Debt close to retirement and its implications for retirement well-being

Author

Listed:
  • Lusardi, Annamaria
  • Mitchell, Olivia S.
  • Oggero, Noemi

Abstract

We analyze debt and debt management of Americans nearing retirement age. We show that older people have numerous financial obligations that can lead to financial distress. Using data from the 2015 National Financial Capability Study and an extensive literature review, we show that lack of financial literacy, lack of information, and behavioral biases help explain the prevalence of debt later in life. Our evidence indicates that debt at older ages can negatively influence retirement well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Lusardi, Annamaria & Mitchell, Olivia S. & Oggero, Noemi, 2019. "Debt close to retirement and its implications for retirement well-being," CFS Working Paper Series 631, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:cfswop:631
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/205235/1/1680059351.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Irina A. Telyukova, 2013. "Household Need for Liquidity and the Credit Card Debt Puzzle," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 80(3), pages 1148-1177.
    2. Johan Almenberg & Annamaria Lusardi & Jenny Säve‐Söderbergh & Roine Vestman, 2021. "Attitudes towards Debt and Debt Behavior," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(3), pages 780-809, July.
    3. Gathergood, John & Weber, Jörg, 2017. "Financial literacy, present bias and alternative mortgage products," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 58-83.
    4. Theresa Kuchler & Michaela Pagel, 2018. "Sticking to Your Plan: The Role of Present Bias for Credit Card Paydown," NBER Working Papers 24881, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Lusardi, Annamaria & Tufano, Peter, 2015. "Debt literacy, financial experiences, and overindebtedness," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 332-368, October.
    6. Carol C. Bertaut & Michael Haliassos & Michael Reiter, 2009. "Credit Card Debt Puzzles and Debt Revolvers for Self Control," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 13(4), pages 657-692.
    7. John Gathergood, 2012. "Debt and Depression: Causal Links and Social Norm Effects," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 122(563), pages 1094-1114, September.
    8. Gathergood, John & Weber, Jörg, 2014. "Self-control, financial literacy & the co-holding puzzle," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PB), pages 455-469.
    9. Irina A. Telyukova, 2013. "Household Need for Liquidity and the Credit Card Debt Puzzle," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 80(3), pages 1148-1177.
    10. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell & Noemi Oggero, 2018. "The Changing Face of Debt and Financial Fragility at Older Ages," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 108, pages 407-411, May.
    11. Keys, Benjamin J. & Wang, Jialan, 2019. "Minimum payments and debt paydown in consumer credit cards," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(3), pages 528-548.
    12. Cristina Ottaviani & Daniela Vandone, 2010. "Impulsivity and household indebtedness," UNIMI - Research Papers in Economics, Business, and Statistics unimi-1105, Universitá degli Studi di Milano.
    13. João F. Cocco, 2013. "Evidence on the Benefits of Alternative Mortgage Products," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(4), pages 1663-1690, August.
    14. Annamaria Lusardi, 2011. "Americans' Financial Capability," NBER Working Papers 17103, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Youngwon Nam & Cäzilia Loibl, 2021. "Financial Capability and Financial Planning at the Verge of Retirement Age," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 133-150, March.
    2. Peter Kwame Kuutol & Josue Mbonigaba & Rufaro Garidzirai, 2024. "Financial Literacy and Financial Well-Being in Rural Households in Ghana: The Role of Financial Information Consumption," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-24, September.
    3. Zibei Chen & Karen A. Zurlo, 2022. "The Role of Secured and Unsecured Debt in Retirement Planning," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 667-677, December.

    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. Laureti, Carolina & Szafarz, Ariane, 2023. "Banking regulation and costless commitment contracts for time-inconsistent agents," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    2. Carolina Laureti, 2015. "The Debt Puzzle in Dhaka’s Slums: Do Poor People Co-hold for Liquidity Needs?," Working Papers CEB 15-021, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    3. Meta Brown & Andrew F. Haughwout & Donghoon Lee & Wilbert Van der Klaauw, 2011. "Do we know what we owe? A comparison of borrower- and lender-reported consumer debt," Staff Reports 523, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    4. Olafsson, Arna & Gathergood, John, 2020. "The Co-holding Puzzle: New Evidence from Transaction-Level Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 14799, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    6. Carolina Laureti, 2017. "Why do Poor People Co-hold Debt and Liquid Savings?," Working Papers CEB 17-007, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    7. Keys, Benjamin J. & Wang, Jialan, 2019. "Minimum payments and debt paydown in consumer credit cards," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(3), pages 528-548.
    8. Gathergood, John & Weber, Jörg, 2014. "Self-control, financial literacy & the co-holding puzzle," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PB), pages 455-469.
    9. Pulina, Giuseppe, 2024. "Credit card debt puzzle: Evidence from the euro area," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    10. Lunn, Pete & McGowan, Féidhlim & Howard, Noel, 2018. "Do some financial product features negatively affect consumer decisions? a review of evidence," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS78.
    11. Giuseppe Pulina, 2023. "Consumer debt in Luxembourg and the euro area: Evidence from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey," BCL working papers 175, Central Bank of Luxembourg.
    12. Nicole Hentschel, 2025. "Risk Attitudes do not explain Cash Holdings," Working Papers 25.04, Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee.
    13. Jiang, Jiajun & Lee, Yi-Tsung & Liu, Yu-Jane & Meng, Juanjuan, 2025. "Inattention and credit card repayment date," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    14. Hwan-sik Choi & Ron A Laschever, 2018. "The Credit Card Debt Puzzle and Noncognitive Ability [Wealth accumulation and the propensity to plan]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 22(6), pages 2109-2137.
    15. Carolyn St Aubyn, 2022. "Consumer choices with wealth preferences and separation of consumption and payment," BCAM Working Papers 2201, Birkbeck Centre for Applied Macroeconomics.
    16. Olga Gorbachev & María José Luengo-Prado, 2019. "The Credit Card Debt Puzzle: The Role of Preferences, Credit Access Risk, and Financial Literacy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(2), pages 294-309, May.
    17. Shuying Shen & Abdoul G. Sam & Eugene Jones, 2014. "Credit Card Indebtedness and Psychological Well-Being Over Time: Empirical Evidence from a Household Survey," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 431-456, October.
    18. Mankart, Jochen, 2014. "The (Un-) importance of Chapter 7 wealth exemption levels," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1-16.
    19. Alejandro Ponce & Enrique Seira & Guillermo Zamarripa, 2017. "Borrowing on the Wrong Credit Card? Evidence from Mexico," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(4), pages 1335-1361, April.
    20. Florian Exler & Michéle Tertilt, 2020. "Consumer Debt and default: A Macro Perspective," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2020_153v2, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:zbw:cfswop:631. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifkcfde.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.