Pre-retirement Years Research Articles

Boomerang children and parental retirement outcomes

AbstractAs the share of U.S. adult children living with their parents increases, it is important to understand how children who “boomerang” back home impact their parents in their pre-retirement and post-retirement years. We use data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to examine the effects of boomerang children on their parents’ labor market expectations and choices, as well as on their wealth, health, and life satisfaction. Event study analysis suggests that boomerang children return home due to short-term instabilities, such as negative shocks to marriage, income, and employment. We find that boomerang children are associated with a small increase in their parents’ subjective probability of working after age 65, and with a temporary increase in their parents’ non-housing debt. However, in the aggregate, we find no clear evidence that boomerang children impact parents’ current or future labor market choices, overall wealth, health, or life satisfaction. (We do find some evidence of an increase in hours worked among parents in the bottom wealth decile). One possible explanation for the lack of aggregate impact is that boomerang children contribute to household expenses. We find that boomerang events are associated with an increase in financial transfers from children to parents, particularly among parents in the bottom half of the wealth distribution.

CARING FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES, WORKING, AND SAVING FOR RETIREMENT OVER THE LIFE COURSE

Abstract In the US, financial security in retirement depends on having savings and other assets accumulated during the pre-retirement years. Pension savings accrue over the working life, in defined-benefit or defined-contribution retirement plans. Mothers with children with disabilities experience different life-course work trajectories than mothers without children with disabilities, though data used in previous studies primarily examine a single point in time or a short span of years. This paper draws longitudinal data from the nationally-representative 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth for the years 1987 through 2018, using a life-course perspective and sequence analysis to identify long-term work patterns among women with children who do and do not have disabilities with an explicit focus on variations in occupational class and employment status. We found a distinctive pattern of long-term work history with five types: Full-time semi-professional to not working, Constantly not working, Semi-professional full time, Professional full time, and Not working to full time work. Results from regression analyses revealed variation in mothers’ household financial preparation for retirement at late mid-adulthood. Compared with mothers who held professional full-time jobs throughout their adulthood, mothers who started full time jobs in middle age and have children with disabilities were less likely to have pension plans. Mothers of children with disabilities who left the labor force in early middle age tended to have lower retirement savings. Policy interventions to address these mothers’ caregiving ability to stay engaged in the workforce and prepare for their retirement need to be explored.

The Effects of Gender and Marital Status on Accrued Debt in Retirement Planning

The effects of gender and marital status on accrued debt in retirement planning becomes an urgent concern because unmarried women face greater financial challenges in retirement than their counterparts. This study used data from the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS), designed by FINRA. We identified debt that influences retirement planning among a sample of pre-retirees, aged 51 to 61 years, and consider the associations of gender, marital status, debt, and retirement planning. Our results indicated that mortgage debt and credit card debt were negatively associated with retirement planning for women. Having a retirement account is positively associated with retirement planning and it also mediates the relationship between credit card debt and retirement planning. We urge women and financial planning executives to take time during the pre-retirement years to assess their various forms of debt and determine how it affects retirement planning objectives given current marital status.

Job quality trajectories among baby-boomers in Germany and their consequences for the motivation to work – results from the lidA cohort study

AbstractIn light of a large proportion of older workers leaving the German labour market in the near future, policy makers aim to extend working lives to ensure sustainability of the social security system. In this context, safe and healthy working conditions are considered a precondition for encouraging employment participation. To understand better the role of the work environment in pre-retirement years, we draw upon an established model of five job quality profiles for the German ageing workforce. We explored seven-year profile development and linked selected manual and non-manual job quality trajectories to the motivation to work (MTW) using data from the 2011, 2014 and 2018 assessments of the lidA cohort study (valid N = 2,863). We found that older workers shifted to physically less-demanding profiles. Individual profile stability was prevalent among one-third of the workers. In 2018, there was a higher MTW when job quality remained favourable or improved early, while later improvements were associated with lower MTW. Early deterioration of job quality was associated with lower MTW levels among workers with non-manual trajectories only. The results highlight the dynamic job quality situation of the older German workforce and the importance of adopting a person-centred perspective when investigating working conditions and its effects. They further underline the need to consider quality of work when designing and implementing strategies to extend working lives.

The age-old question: Thematic analysis of focus groups on physician experiences of aging in emergency medicine.

ObjectivesEmergency medicine has a demanding work environment. Characteristics influencing longevity among older physicians in emergency medicine have been the subject of ongoing discussion. The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) released a policy statement in 2009 suggesting accommodating emergency physicians in preretirement years. We engaged emergency physicians to determine awareness of the ACEP policy and issues faced in preretirement years.MethodsWe conducted a series of online focus group discussions with a purposive sample of emergency physicians, age ≥ 50 years. The discussion guide was developed from the ACEP policy statement and relevant literature. Groups were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed with a thematic coding system developed iteratively by the 4‐person team. Emerging themes were identified, organized, and presented with illustrative quotations.ResultsA total of 28 emergency physicians participated in 4 focus groups, with between 6 and 9 participants in each group. These physicians had between 17 and 35 years of clinical experience (median = 27), 6 were female (21%), and the majority (n = 26, 93%) worked in academic emergency medicine. Only 1 emergency physician was fully aware of the ACEP policy. Three principal content areas were identified: workload demands that change as physicians age, wellness and physician social equity, and senior emergency physician value. Interwoven across all of these was the focus on leadership and solutions to issues. Issues facing emergency physicians in their preretirement years were identified; commitment from emergency medicine site and national leadership and buy‐in from junior colleagues was emphasized. Generational conflicts in recognizing the contribution and needs of preretirement emergency physicians was a major barrier to solutions.ConclusionsWorkload demands, wellness and physician social equity, and concerns about value as a senior physician are major themes confronting preretirement emergency physicians. Generational divides, deficits in local and national leadership, and the health detriments of rotating schedules and night shifts are barriers to longevity in emergency medicine. Further research on the value of senior physicians and the impact of hospital and departmental financial models on adopting accommodations for senior emergency physicians is needed.

Changes in depressive symptoms from pre- to postretirement over a 20-year span: The role of self-perceptions of aging

BackgroundRetirement-related changes in depressive symptoms are not clear. This research examined short- and long-term changes in older adults’ depressive symptoms before, upon, and after retirement. It also tested if and how changes in depressive symptoms varied by different levels of negative self-perceptions of aging (nSPA) in men and women. MethodsWe analyzed longitudinal data from individuals who retired between 1994 and 2016 in the Health and Retirement Study (N = 9027). Using fixed-effect regression models, we examined changes in depressive symptoms from the 10-year preretirement phase through the 10-year postretirement phase. We also examined how changes in depressive symptoms during the retirement transition varied across four groups: low nSPA men, low nSPA women, high nSPA men, and high nSPA women. ResultsBoth male and female retirees experienced increased short- and long-term depressive symptoms after retirement. However, the pattern of change varied by nSPA and gender. For both low nSPA men and women, there were no significant changes in depressive symptoms across different retirement phases. Adults with high nSPA showed important changes in depressive symptoms, but there were gender differences—High nSPA men experienced increases in depressive symptoms mainly in preretirement years and during the year of retirement; high nSPA women experienced symptoms increase during the year of retirement and the years after retirement. LimitationsThe use of self-report measures may lead to recall bias. Studies are needed to understand mechanisms behind the protective role of low nSPA. ConclusionsThe findings attest to the health benefits of low nSPA during later-life stages.

Wealth Distribution and Retirement Preparation Among Early Savers

This paper develops a new combined wealth measure using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, by augmenting data on net worth with estimates of defined benefit (DB) pension wealth and expected Social Security wealth. We use this combined wealth concept to explore retirement preparation among groups of households in their pre-retirement years (40-49 and 50-59) and also to explore the concentration of wealth. We find evidence of moderate, but rising, shortfalls in retirement preparation. We also show that including DB pension and Social Security wealth results in markedly lower measures of wealth concentration. Trends toward higher concentration over time are also somewhat moderated.

The Level and Development of Unemployment before Disability Retirement: A Retrospective Study of Finnish Disability Retirees and Their Controls.

A weakening work ability may lead to a higher risk of gradual exclusion from working life, which may be manifested in increasing levels of unemployment. This study examined development of unemployment prior to disability retirement by educational level and occupational class in different diagnostic groups. The study population comprised 70% of Finnish residents aged 25–64 years who retired due to disability in 2011–2015 (n = 54,387). Growth curve models were used to analyze the level and development of pre-retirement unemployment among the retirees due to mental disorders, musculoskeletal diseases and all other somatic diseases and their gender- and age-matched controls drawn from the non-retired population. During six pre-retirement years, disability retirees had on average 39 annual excess unemployment days compared to their non-retiring controls. Excess unemployment was particularly high among those retiring due to mental disorders. On average, unemployment increased by 5.5 days per each year of approaching disability retirement, after controlling for aging and secular trends. The increase was largest among those who retired due to mental disorders. Excess unemployment was higher among the less educated and among manual workers, in particular among those retiring due to mental disorders or somatic diseases other than musculoskeletal diseases. Increased efforts to maintain and improve work ability among the unemployed is crucial in diminishing disability retirement at the population level. As the level of unemployment is elevated already several years before disability retirement, work ability problems among the unemployed should be tackled in the early stages.

Monitoring the health of transitioning professional footballers: protocol of an observational prospective cohort study

IntroductionTransitioning out of professional football is a challenging time in most players’ lives. During these preretirement and postretirement years, professional footballers may struggle with their mental, musculoskeletal, neurocognitive and cardiovascular...

THE ROLE OF SECURED AND UNSECURED DEBT IN RETIREMENT PLANNING AMONG PRE-RETIREES

The retirement landscape is transformed by the shifting of risk and responsibility to individuals, who are increasingly responsible for their retirement security. Many factors lead to indebted and overleveraged American households. Specifically, nearly 40% of Americans approaching retirement are heavily indebted. Understanding the role of secured and unsecured debt in retirement planning becomes an urgent concern because debt is highly related to well-being in retirement among a growing number of older Americans. We focus on pre-retirees because these individuals have time to earn an income and plan ahead before they commit to a fully retired lifestyle. Utilizing data from the 2015 National Financial Capability Study, we identified the secured and unsecured debt that influences retirement planning among a national sample of pre-retirees, aged 51 to 61 years. Regression and mediation analyses were used to examine the relationship between debt and retirement planning and to identify the mediating effect of having a retirement account on the relationship between unsecured and secured debt and retirement planning. Our results indicated that mortgage debt and credit card debt were negatively associated with retirement planning. Having a retirement account is positively associated with retirement planning and it also mediates the relationship between credit card debt, specifically, and retirement planning. In conclusion, we urge individuals and financial planning executives to take time during the pre-retirement years to assess various forms of debt and determine how it is affecting their retirement planning objectives. And policy-makers should address the challenges faced by indebted pre-retirees.

How Much Cohort Inequality Can be Explained by Socio-economic Status-based Mortality Differences?

Several studies have found mortality differences by income level — higher income individuals tend to live longer — and these differences have been growing over time. This differential mortality could affect measured cohort income inequality because the bottom of the income distribution will become relatively sparse as a cohort ages. This study examines the role played by differential mortality in the course of cohort income inequality as a cohort ages from the late preretirement years to old-age. The results show that differential mortality explains little of cohort income inequality and little of the changes in income inequality. Mortality bias does not appear to effect cohort inequality trends.

The Course of Income Inequality as a Cohort Ages into Old-Age

Several researchers have shown that income inequality of a cohort increases as the cohort ages. The various studies examining cohort income inequality use a variety of data, measures, and methods. Is the U.S. experience documented in other studies due (1) to cumulative advantages and disadvantages continuing to work through market income into retirement, (2) to the relative weakness of the U.S. Social Security program, or (3) to potential biases due to data, measures and/or methods? This study examines cohort income inequality using nationally representative longitudinal data and a variety of inequality measures to follow a large sample of individuals from their late pre-retirement years into their retirement years. The findings are: (1) the course of the Gini coefficient is flat as the cohort ages into retirement, (2) but the course of income inequality as this cohort ages into retirement depends on the inequality measure employed, and (3) the trend results suggest that what is going on in the bottom part of the distribution is different from what is going on in the upper part.

Boundaries of the Construct of Unemployment in the Preretirement Years: Exploring an Expanded Measurement of Lost-Work Opportunity.

There is uncertainty related to whether retirement negatively affects health-possibly due to complexity around retirement decisions. Lost-work opportunity through unemployment or forced retirement has been shown to negatively affect health. Lost-work opportunity can be captured in two measurement fields, either a reported experience of being forced into retirement or reported unemployment. However, 17% of individuals retiring due to the loss of work opportunity identified in qualitative interviewing (i.e., unemployment, temporary lay-offs, company buy-outs, forced relocations, etc.) do not report this unemployment or involuntary retirement in quantitative survey responses. We propose broadening the conceptualization of late-career unemployment to incorporate other lost work opportunity scenarios. Using the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a lost-work opportunity score (LOS) was computed from items indicating unemployment and forced or unplanned retirement. Correlations were computed between this LOS and all continuous variables in the RAND longitudinal compilation of the HRS to determine its convergent and discriminant validity. The LOS demonstrated a Chronbach's alpha of α = .82 and had convergent validity with constructs of employment (9 variables), finances (36 variables), and health (14 variables), as predicted by the literature on retirement timing. No other continuous variables in the HRS were identified with a moderate or strong correlation to LOS, demonstrating discriminant validity. Further research should explore whether a combination of variables in the HRS can improve the accuracy of measuring lost-work opportunity. Improved precision in measurement, through an expanded conceptualization of lost-work opportunity, may help explicate the retirement-related factors that affect health, to inform policy and support healthy aging decisions at a societal level.

Getting the Hours You Want in the Preretirement Years: Work Hour Preferences and Mismatch Among Older Canadian Workers

Getting the Hours You Want in the Preretirement Years: Work Hour Preferences and Mismatch Among Older Canadian Workers

The Course of Income Inequality As a Cohort Ages into Old-Age

Several researchers have shown that income inequality of a cohort increases as the cohort ages. The various studies examining cohort income inequality use a variety of data, measures, and methods. Is the U.S. experience documented in other studies due to potential biases due to data, measures and/or methods? This study examines cohort income inequality using nationally representative longitudinal data and a variety of inequality measures to follow a large sample of individuals from their late pre-retirement years into their retirement years. The findings are: (1) the course of the Gini coefficient is flat as the cohort ages into retirement, (2) but the course of income inequality as this cohort ages into retirement depends on the inequality measure employed, and (3) the trend results suggest that what is going on in the bottom part of the distribution is different from what is going on in the upper part.

Parental retirement timing: the role of unanticipated events in the lives of adult children

Although anecdotal evidence of older parents postponing retirement to financially support their grown children is common, the empirical evidence is scarce. In this paper, we use data from the 1992 to 2010 waves of the Health and Retirement Study to identify a broad set of pivotal events in the lives of adult children. First, we determine whether these events affect subsequent financial transfers from parents to children over multiple years. Next, we determine whether those events that result in subsequent transfers also shift parental retirement expectations. Finally, we quantify the impact of the unexpected children’s events on retirement realizations, moving beyond the correlational analyses in prior literature. Our findings show that a child’s move out of a parental home decreases both expectations and realizations of working after age 65. The magnitude of this effect is similar to that of an own health shock experienced during pre-retirement years.

Patterns of physician retirement and pre-retirement activity: a population-based cohort study.

Knowing when physicians retire and how they practise in the pre-retirement years is important information for health human resource planning. We identified patterns of retirement for physicians in British Columbia and the determinants of when and how physicians retire. For this population-based retrospective cohort study, we used administrative data to examine activity levels and to identify retirements among BC's practising physicians. We included all physicians who were at least 50 years of age as of March 2006 and who had received payments for clinical services in at least 1 year between 2005/06 and 2011/12. We defined retirement as a permanent drop in monthly payments to less than $1667/month ($20 000/yr). We examined the patterns and timing of retirement by age, sex, specialty and location using linear and logistic regression models. Of the 4572 physicians who met the inclusion criteria, 1717 (37.6%) retired during the study period. The average age at retirement was 65.1 (standard deviation 7.8) years. Controlling for other demographic and practice characteristics, we found that women and physicians working in rural areas retired earlier, by 4.1 (95% confidence interval [CI] -4.9 to -3.2) years and 2.3 (95% CI -3.4 to -1.1) years, respectively. We found no difference in retirement age by specialty. We identified 4 patterns of pre-retirement activity: slow decline, rapid decline, maintenance and increasing activity. About 40% of physicians (440/1107) reduced their activity levels by at least 10% in the 3 years preceding retirement. During the study period, physicians in BC - particularly women and those in rural areas - retired earlier than indicated by licensure and survey data. Many physicians reduced their practice activity in the pre-retirement years. These trends indicate that forecasts relying on licensure "head counts" are likely overestimating current and future physician supply.

PMH16 - Estimating the Economic Impact Due to Productivity Losses of Diabetes and Major Depressive Disorder in Singapore: Human Capital Versus Friction cost Approaches

To estimate and compare the costs associated with lost productivity due to type 2 diabetes (T2D) and major depressive disorder (MDD) in Singapore using the Human Capital (HC) and Friction Cost (FC) approaches. Annual short-term (absenteeism-related) and overall long-term (mortality-related) productivity losses were calculated for the estimated 139,389 patients with T2D and 63,551 patients with MDD of working age in Singapore. Short-term losses using the HC approach were calculated by multiplying mean additional days of absence per year per patient for T2D (1.3 days) or MDD (3.6 days) by the mean daily wage (S$149.77) and the total number of patients. The FC approach introduced an elasticity factor of 0.8 in calculating short-term losses. To calculate long-term productivity losses due to mortality, excess deaths were estimated by applying disease-specific mortality ratios to Singapore national mortality data for working age patients. For the HC approach, excess deaths were then multiplied by the average number of pre-retirement years of work lost (assumed retirement age of 69) and the mean annual wage (S$53,916.00). For the FC approach, a friction period of 6 months and a fixed cost of S$10,000 for hiring and training a new worker were assumed. Annual short-term productivity losses due to T2D were S$27.1m (HC approach) and S$21.7m (FC approach) and due to MDD were S$34.3m (HC) and S$27.4m (FC). Long-term productivity losses due to mortality were S$112.2m (HC) and S$8.8m (FC) due to T2D and S$85.8m (HC) and S$5.6m (FC) due to MDD. Productivity losses due to T2D and MDD constitute a substantial cost to the Singaporean economy. The calculation approach (HC vs FC) can have a substantial impact on the estimates. Incorporation of productivity losses into decision-making for healthcare interventions would need to carefully consider which approach is most appropriate for Singapore.

Work Role Residuals Among Fully Retired Individuals: Results of a 10-Year Panel Study.

From a role theoretical perspective, it can be expected that individuals differ in the extent to which they experience aspects of the work role after they have fully retired from it. This study presents a measure of these "postretirement work role residuals" and examines them in relation to structural preretirement factors, psychological preretirement factors, and the nature of the retirement transition. Heckman selection models were estimated based on three-wave panel data collected among 848 older Dutch individuals who were employed at Wave 1 and fully retired thereafter. Although for the majority of retirees prior work plays only a minor role in their current lives, also for a considerable share prior work is still important. Higher levels of postretirement work role residuals were observed among those who expected to miss work-related social status in retirement, who were less disengaged from work in preretirement years, and among those who retired involuntarily.

Women’s Retirement Intentions and Behavior: The Role of Childbearing and Marital Histories

Although from a life course perspective women’s retirement timing can be expected to be related to family events earlier in life, such as childbirth and divorce, empirical insights into these relationships are limited. Drawing on three-wave panel data, collected in 2001, 2006–2007, and 2011 among Dutch female older workers (n = 420) and if applicable their partners, this study examines retirement intentions and behavior in relation to past and proximal preretirement family experiences. The results show that women who postponed childbearing and still have children living at home during pre-retirement years have the intention to retire relatively late. For retirement behavior, this effect was not statistically significant. Ever divorced single women both intend to and actually retire later than continuously married women. Repartnering after a divorce seems to offset the negative divorce effect: retirement timing intentions and behavior of repartnered women did not differ from continuously married women. Also the pre-retirement financial, health, and work opportunity structure—factors that are often central in studies among men—did play an explanatory role. Women who have a less beneficial preretirement financial situation, a better health situation, and challenging work intend to and actually retire relatively late.