An increasing number of individuals will be unable to retire comfortably amidst an international retirement savings crisis. Research suggests that behavioral factors contribute to inadequate retirement savings. We present a procedure that reframes the retirement savings decision, aimed at alleviating some of the negative effects of the behavioral…

This study investigates perceived financial needs and subjective financial well-being using data from a national survey of 2,567 households in Turkey. Financial needs are measured by consumer perceived ability to meet current living expenses in the short-term as well as their assessment for the retirement security in the long-term. We also…

As state leaders consider needed updates to the Commonwealth's school funding formula, they should remember just how well the approach taken by Tom Birmingham, former Massachusetts state Senate president, and co-author of the 1993 Education Reform Act worked. Beginning in 1993, Massachusetts' SAT scores rose for 13 consecutive years. The state's…

This paper examines the savings behavior of public school teachers who are enrolled in a hybrid pension plan that includes a defined contribution (DC) component. Few states have incorporated DC features into teacher pension systems and little is known about how providing teachers with greater control over deferred compensation might affect their…

This article investigates the factors influencing the motivation to continue working after retirement among a sample of Dutch teachers. Based on previous research, it was proposed that teachers will be motivated to work after their legal retirement age when organizational support, possibilities to change work roles and financial needs are high.…

The financial state of the nation's public pension funds--which provide the retirement incomes for all state employees but in most states are dominated by teachers, administrators, and other school employees--has gone from bad to worse, and is projected to continue to worsen in coming decades. A perfect storm of factors has combined in the past…

Greater attention has been focused on the role that employer-sponsored retirement plans and individual savings must play in ensuring retirement income security. Alternative tax retirement planning opportunities currently available to college personnel are explored. (MLW)

Empirical evidence of tax shelter usage is sparse. These data add weight to earlier concerns about whether tax incentives to save for retirement benefit upper-income groups more than middle- and lower-income groups and present the importance of different sources of income in providing retirement funds for this group. (Author/RC)

A bridge benefit plan designed to provide an adequate income at age 65 so that faculty and senior administrators at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, can choose to retire at an early age, while deferring receipt of their TIAA-CREF annuity benefits during the bridge period, is described. (MLW)

Projected implications of population aging are based on a definition of retirement age as 65. This article discusses the concept of "equivalent retirement ages" as a method for determining appropriate age for normal retirement and points out usefulness and limitations of raising normal retirement age as a policy instrument. (BF)

Explores relationship between recent policy reforms, targeting proposals, and a universal Social Security program. Explores principles that inform Social Security, concluding that treating benefits as taxable income and raising retirement age push at boundaries of universality without violating fundamental precepts of social insurance program. (BF)

In an effort to discover the impact of early retirement plans on school districts and early retirees, researchers sent questionnaires to 147 superintendents in districts that offer early retirement plans and to 51 early retirees from those districts. Responses were received from 98 administrators and 46 retirees. Fiscal needs were seen by…

A study was done of the savings patterns and financial resources of households receiving teacher's retirement insurance benefits. For the survey a mail questionnaire was sent in fall 1988 to a statistically drawn sample of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund annuitants. Over 900 questionnaires were completed…

The social security system in the United States is becoming increasingly unstable, as the amount of benefits paid to an ever larger number of retirees grows and the number of younger workers paying taxes to the system decreases. The problem will become especially acute in the years 2011 and after, as the members of the "baby boom"…

A serious problem for retired teachers is the decreasing buying power of their retirement benefit. Older teachers who have been retired for 10 years or more face serious economic problems because of low salaries in the past, weak benefit formulas, lost service credit by teachers who moved from one State to another during their teaching careers,…