The trajectory of wealth in retirement

The

trajectory of wealth in retirement

Love

David A.

Love, David A.

Author

Palumbo

Michael G.

Palumbo, Michael G.

Author

Smith

Paul A.

Smith, Paul A.

Author

text

working paper

Chestnut Hill, Mass. Center for Retirement Research at Boston College20082008monographic

Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Center for Retirement Research at Boston College

2008

monographic

Englisheng

English

eng

electronicapplication/pdfborn digital

electronic

application/pdf

born digital

As the baby boomers begin to retire, a great deal remains unknown about the evolution of wealth toward the end of life. In this paper, we develop a new measure of household resources that converts total financial, nonfinancial, and annuitized assets into an expected annual amount of wealth per person. We use this measure, which we call "annualized comprehensive wealth" to investigate spend-down behavior among older households in the Health and Retirement Study. Our analysis indicates that, in (real) dollar terms, the median household's wealth declines more slowly than its remaining life expectancy, so that real annualized wealth actually tends to rise with age over retirement. Comparing the estimated age profiles for annualized wealth with profiles simulated from several different life cycle models, we find that a model that takes into account uncertain longevity, uncertain medical expenses, and (for higher-income retirees) intended bequests lines up best with the HRS data.

David A. Love, Michael G. Palumbo, and Paul A. Smith.

CRR WP2008-7

CRR WP

2008-7

http://crr.bc.edu/images/stories/Working_Papers/wp_2008-7.pdf

MChBEnglisheng

MChB

Englisheng

English

eng