March 8, 2012
Bosworth: Why It’s Hard to Save
In this video, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution talks about his latest book and offers a clear-sighted explanation for complex macro-economic forces that shape all Americans’ saving habits and financial security.
Starting in the early 1980s, stock markets boomed and housing prices increased year after year, and Americans “thought they were getting rich,” explains economist Barry Bosworth. “So they thought, ‘Let’s spend a little bit of it.’ “
Billions of dollars of wealth vanished in the 2008 financial market collapse, marking what may be the end of a golden era of wealth formation and undermining plans laid by workers and retirees, he said. Bosworth’s book was released last month: “A Decline in Saving: A Threat to America’s Prosperity.”
Full disclosure: The book incorporates research funded by the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) through the Retirement Research Consortium, which also funds this blog. The opinions and conclusions expressed are solely those of the blog’s author and do not represent the opinions or policy of SSA or any agency of the federal government.
March 1, 2012
Retirement Security Set by Life Decisions
Looking back on a lifetime of financial decisions from Squared Away on Vimeo.
In the second of two videos, retirees from the Savin Hill Apartments in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood spoke honestly about the decisions they made during their working lives that have affected their financial security in retirement. The residents come from all walks of life and from home towns ranging from Dabrowa Tarnowska, Poland, and Thomasville, Alabama, to around the corner in East Boston.
The first video can be viewed here.
Learn More
February 28, 2012
Getting by on Social Security
Retirement: Getting by on Social Security from Squared Away on Vimeo.
Before retiring, James Gomes said he often wasted his regular paychecks from General Electric. Arlene Starr wishes she’d saved – like her sister did. And immigrant Trung Quang Pham’s low income made it tough to set money aside.
They are residents of the Savin Hill Apartments in Boston, most of whom are “pretty much on fixed incomes,” said apartment manager Sandra Baker of CMJ Management Co.
They are not alone either. Millions of retirees rely on Social Security’s fixed monthly pensions, which average $1,181. The federal pension program provides the vast majority of retirement income for nearly one in four retired couples and nearly half of the elderly living alone. And new research for the first time determined that a large swath of the elderly leave this world with little or no assets left in savings and personal retirement accounts.
In the first of two videos, retirees in the Savin Hill Apartments generously agreed to discuss the issues they face for Squared Away. The second video – about their financial decisions and regrets over a lifetime – appears Thursday. …Learn More
January 31, 2012
Reports Explain Key Retirement Issue
The Society of Actuaries released a series of very readable reports dealing with specific issues, from how to handle a forced retirement to whether to withdraw savings incrementally.
“Around the time of retirement, there are so many decisions,” said Joseph Tomlinson, chairman of the working group that produced the new reports. The goal of the two-year project was to provide “friendly and unbiased” information, said Tomlinson, a Maine actuary and financial planner.
He said members of the professional organization also felt the public needed information that wasn’t from “someone trying to sell something – and we’re not.”
The online reports are free. Click here. …Learn More
January 17, 2012
Target Date Funds Deciphered
This blog’s mission is to explain financial behavior – why we do what we do. It is not to provide personal financial advice about what to do. The mere mention of a “Target Date Fund” was a conversation stopper for me.
No longer. The Center for Retirement Research, which sponsors Squared Away, explains them simply and clearly in a new booklet. The name is inscrutable but the concept isn’t. In fact, your employer’s target date fund, if it is well designed, should make investing easier, not more difficult.
Check out the booklet, “Why Target Date Funds?”, (along with brochures about how to decide when to claim Social Security and how to manage your money after retirement).Learn More
December 22, 2011
2011 Recap
I would like to thank everyone for reading Squared Away in its inaugural year. I’ve identified the three of the most popular blog posts that have run this year. They are:
My next blog post will be on Tuesday, January 3, 2012!Learn More
November 22, 2011
Game Highlights Tough Choices for Poor
In May, Squared Away’s very first post was about an eye-opening “game” in which players take on the role of someone who is poor. The player is assigned a job and a paycheck. Every financial decision ricochets through the monthly budget, often in unexpected ways. Lives, children, and work choices are affected – poverty even creates unique ethical decisions.
The game, Spent, is so powerful, because its creators interviewed clients of Urban Ministries of Durham in North Carolina, which operates a food pantry, clothing closet, and homeless shelter. A local advertising firm, McKinney, designed the game in conjunction with Urban Ministries.
Happy Thanksgiving.
To play Spent, click here.
To read more, click here.Learn More
About Squared Away
Learn more about our blog and its writer, Kimberly Blanton, a former Boston Globe reporter.
