Retirement Years Research Articles

Well-Being During the Transition from Work to Retirement

We investigate the consequences of retirement from work for the overall well-being of individuals aged 50 and above. Well-being is captured by two different concepts: life satisfaction and agency-freedom, i.e. the evaluation of a person’s ability to do the things s/he wants to do and be who s/he wants to be. We use three observation periods of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and include nine European countries. The sample counts 62,082 observations (38,344 individuals) of at least 50 years old. A fixed-effects estimation approach is used so that differences in (time-invariant) individual characteristics are taken into account. We control for changes in financial and health situations of the individual and the situations of the partner. When retiring, people do not immediately report (on average) a different level of life satisfaction, but after 2 years, life satisfaction decreases compared to the beginning of the retirement [identified as Atchley’s honeymoon effect (The sociology or retirement, Wiley, New York, 1976)]. If well-being is expressed as agency-freedom, well-being is immediately positively affected, and this effect does not change after 2 years of retirement. This paper also investigates several forms of heterogeneities in the transition from work to retirement. We consider partial, early and joint retirement, part-time employment and self-employment, and job quality. We find that there is no difference in overall well-being between being partially and fully retired, between being retired before or after the normal retirement age or between those who retire simultaneously with their partner and those who do not. However, for some older workers, such as those employed with a low-quality job, retirement can be a relief from their current employment status. In summary, a policy for longer working careers is, on average, not detrimental to well-being, but some specific groups need special treatment.

Assessing soil resilience across an agricultural land retirement chronosequence

Reestablishment of perennial vegetation can improve soil conditions on intensively cultivated lands, but the timeframe required to recover uncultivated soil quality is not well understood. This study aimed to measure the recovery of soil physical (bulk density, aggregate stability, and water infiltration rate), biological (total microbial biomass and soil respiration), and chemical (surface soil organic carbon [SOC]) parameters across a 30-year land retirement chronosequence. Soil parameters on lands retired under long- and short-term Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) enrollment periods were compared to undisturbed and actively cropped lands, and chronofunctions were utilized to estimate the time required to achieve uncultivated soil quality. Results showed that short-term enrollment was not sufficient to restore any parameters to uncultivated quality, although bulk density, water infiltration, soil respiration, and total organic carbon (C) levels generally trended toward the undisturbed condition. No significant differences between the uncultivated and 30-year CRP enrollment for aggregate stability and total microbial biomass suggests uncultivated soil quality was restored within 30 years of land retirement. Based on chronofunction analysis, an estimated period of 53 years would be necessary to return bulk density and soil respiration to undisturbed quality on retired land. Water infiltration and SOC had the longest predicted recovery time of 75 and 128 years, respectively. These results suggest soil properties recover at varying rates once retired into perennial grassland systems, and long-term land retirement is necessary to restore soil properties to precultivation condition and maintain high quality soils capable of providing key ecosystem services.

The Four Approaches to Managing Retirement Income Risk

Sequence-of-returns risk amplifies the impacts of investment volatility when taking distributions from a volatile investment portfolio in retirement. There are four techniques for managing this sequence risk: reduce the spending rate, adjust spending to portfolio performance, reduce portfolio volatility in the early retirement years, and draw from a buffer asset outside the portfolio to support spending when the portfolio is underperforming. We examine the peculiarities of sequence risk using an example with U.S. market returns which leads to wealth depletion after a thirty-year retirement. We show how minor spending adjustments can lead to dramatically different outcomes for remaining investment wealth at the end of the thirty-year retirement period. We provide examples for how each of these risk management techniques can be implemented in practice by integrating a wider range of tools to create the potential for greater retirement efficiency in terms of supporting the retirement financial goals with the available asset base. Examples include delaying Social Security, using annuities with lifetime spending protections, employing a rising equity glidepath in retirement, using a time segmentation or bucketing strategy, and creating a “buffer asset” with a reverse mortgage or whole life insurance.

The Effect of Pre-Post Differences in Walking, Health, and Weight on Retirees' Long-Term Quality of Life.

This research examined the effect of pre-post differences in walking duration, health, and weight on retirees' long-term quality of life (QoL). It used data from a 2018 randomized mail survey of 483 suburban New Jersey retirees. Ordinary least squares and three-stage least squares models were used. The analysis showed that changes in walking duration during the first 2 years of retirement are directly associated with health change, health change has an effect on long-term QoL, and weight variation of 10lb or more has an effect on health change and long-term QoL. Although QoL peaks for the sample of retirees at around age 75, people whose average walking duration increased, health improved, and weight did not increase substantially after retirement continued to experience high QoL for a longer time. The results show that people can achieve high long-term QoL by choosing an active lifestyle when transitioning to retirement.

Controlling the narrative: on Jane Fonda’s Third Act

ABSTRACTThis article centres on what Fonda herself has called the ‘Third Act’ f her career in her 2006 memoir My Life So Far. After 15 years in retirement, she came back to acting in 2005. I argue that the memoir is a key piece of her makeover, a return to public life and to acting that displays a striking continuity with the key traits that defined her career since the 1960s: sexuality, politics and family; each of which is always engaging with her acting. Each element is given a new twist in her Third Act and the different strategies to achieve such a makeover will be illustrated with examples from three works that were released in the six months between late 2017 and mid-2018, as well as the companion piece to My Life So Far, Susan Lacy’s documentary Jane Fonda in Five Acts, which opened in Cannes in May 2018. Like many roles in her Third Act years, the films and the TV series are full of echoes of her previous career and engage with her persona, sometimes boldly, sometimes movingly. The range of strategies used by Fonda points towards her drive to control the narrative and, ultimately, the meaning of her public persona.

PSA Testing? Over-Treatment? Active Surveillance? Biopsy value? No PSA for Elderly?

Prostate Cancer Patient Since 1992, Advocate, Activist, Volunteer Mentor since 1996 to men diagnosed with Prostate Cancer and their Caregivers locally and on-line Worldwide. Please recognize that I am not a Medical Doctor. Rather, I do consider myself a medical detective. I have been an avid student researching and studying prostate cancer as a survivor and continuing patient since 1992. I have dedicated my retirement years to continued deep research and study in order to serve as an advocate for prostate cancer awareness, and, from an activist patient’s viewpoint, as a mentor to voluntarily help patients, caregivers, and others interested develop an understanding of this insidious men’s disease, its treatment options, and the treatment of the side effects that often accompany treatment. There is absolutely no charge for my mentoring – I provide this free service as one who has been there and hoping to make their journey one with better understanding and knowledge than was available to me when I was diagnosed so many years ago. Importantly, readers of medical information I may provide are provided this “disclaimer” to make certain they understand that the comments or recommendations I make are not intended to be the procedure to blindly follow; rather, they are to be reviewed as MY OPINION, then used for further personal research, study, and subsequent discussion with the medical professional/ physician providing their prostate cancer care.

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.

What is Wrong and What is Next for Pension System in Turkey: A New Interest Free Model Proposed

Investing for retirement years due to the future income concerns is one of the main reasons for people to make savings. Pension funds have always been important tools that match the idea of future investments. Despite the rapid development and increase in size of the Turkish pension system in the last few years, major improvements and amendments in the current system is required for increasing the total size to OECD level, as well as attracting more participants by increasing the returns and providing alternative investment options. This study investigates the Turkish pension system and suggests a new model to solve the current problems of the system by structuring a sustainable model which may also be applied worldwide. A comprehensive pension system and comparative return analysis of different investment tools are conducted, and the new model is proposed based on creating new pool of new investment tools consists of asset-based capital market instruments that are issued for long-term specific investment projects financing. While the new model brings new perspective to pension system, it also helps solving the problems of both the current pension system and the financing of investment projects. In the study, policy recommendations and suggestions for major amendments to current pension system regulations are also made.

Сравнительный анализ пенсионных систем России и Италии

The problems arising from the transformation of the pension system are the most relevant in recent years. This article presents a retrospective analysis of pension systems in Russia and Italy. The statistical portrait of the number of pensioners, the dynamics of life expectancy and the number of years in retirement, the coefficient of pension load, the average pension in these countries were studied. Particular attention is paid to the advantages and disadvantages of the functioning of pension systems, the main directions of reform in recent years. The analyzed data allows to substantiate the relationship between statistical indicators explaining the prerequisites of the latest changes in the functioning of pension systems and the directions of their current improvement. The reasoned position regarding the design experience of the organization of the Italian pension system in relation to Russia will avoid a number of problems that can adversely affect not only each individual, but also the development of the whole country.

Athletes After Retirement: How are they Doing?

performance of current athletes by building confidence and contributing to favorable conditions of retired athletes. This study investigated the influences of the years of retirement and physical self-inventory on human sufferings experienced by the retired athletes. Based on the literature review, there were limited empirical studies on the conditions of former athletes after years of retirement, their glory, physical inventory, and sufferings, and the relationships among these characteristics. Using mixed research methods, this research studied the conditions of retired athletes in Metro Manila. The study confirmed that physical self-inventory influenced post-retirement human suffering. Post-retirement athletic identity, financial status and decisions to voluntary retire were observed to be the most prevalent experiences related to human suffering. However, retired athletes enjoy experiences with their educational status, other career benefits, health condition, control of lives, management of changes, and the warm support of their families and colleagues.

Combining Conventional Investing with a Lifetime Income Guarantee: A Blueprint for Retirement Security

Both retirees and their employers can benefit from combining conventional DC-type savings plans, designed to be spent down in the early part (say, the first 20 years) of retirement, with a DB-like or deferred life annuity component guaranteeing income for the rest of the retiree’s life in order to hedge the risk of living too long. Earlier authors proposed to do this using a riskless investment strategy, and we build on their work by asserting that the DC-type investment will (and should) include equities. Through simulation, we show that either a high-risk (equity-heavy) or low-risk (fixed-income-heavy) DC component plus a deferred annuity component dominates a conventional DC spend down, from the standpoint of generating sustainable retirement income in most states of the world. TOPICS:Retirement, portfolio construction, legal/regulatory/public policy

In Memoriam

In Memoriam

Reading Writing Right: Essays Presented in Honour of Prof Elna Mouton ed. by Jeremy Punt and Marius J. Nel

Reviewed by: Reading Writing Right: Essays Presented in Honour of Prof Elna Mouton ed. by Jeremy Punt and Marius J. Nel Annelie van der Bank Punt, Jeremy, and Marius J. Nel, eds. 2018. Reading Writing Right: Essays Presented in Honour of Prof Elna Mouton. Stellenbosch: African Sun Media. ISBN 978-1928480006. Pp. 289. R260. Reading Writing Right represents a collection of essays aimed to celebrate the academic contributions and research activity of Prof. Elna Mouton, who retired from Stellenbosch University's NT department in 2017. It says quite a lot about your legacy when a group of academics are so keen to produce a whole volume of essays (seventeen) to express their appreciation of your contribution to their own lives and to the world of theological education, within only one year of your retirement. I met Prof. Mouton for the first time at the 2018 annual meeting of the New Testament Society of Southern Africa and was immediately keen to read the volume of essays. The book is divided into three sections. The first section, titled "Right Reading," consists of seven chapters that are concerned with Mouton's insistence on the importance of reading responsibly and accepting responsibility in one's academic and "other" dimensions of being. The second section, titled "Reading Writings," consists of six chapters that focus on specific texts, providing a contextual interpretation of these from different perspectives. The third section, titled "Readings and Writings," consists of four chapters in which the focus is on Mouton's influence on their particular spheres of interest. According to Dirk J. Smit (32), Mouton's "right reading" is not to "strive for simple solutions and for harmony; she prefers to stay on the thresholds, she looks from all sides, she observes, listens, smells, tastes, feels, enjoys, celebrates, delights." Perhaps that is why Bernard C. Lategan (ch. 2) lauded her for escaping the narrow-mindedness found in a lopsided or one-sided type of reading, by remaining at the margins. In chapter 12, by Angelique Havenga, the reader can gain a glimpse of the well-roundedness of Mouton's notions about her lived spirituality, which is "very much tied up with our embodied lives on earth; and, in fact, has to do with how we see, interpret and understand the world around us" (204; italics original). In chapter 13, Marius J. Nel links the milestone event of Mouton's inaugural lecture, as the first female professor in NT studies at Stellenbosch University, to his interpretation of Matt 18:15–20, inspired by Mouton's [End Page 591] reshaping of "the pathos of New Testament Studies to be life-affirming for all" (229). Nico Koopman's essay (ch. 15) combines two notions that we tend to place at opposites, namely those of vulnerability and leadership. In a sense, the idea of retirement is often viewed with trepidation by many, yet as Denise M. Ackermann's essay (ch. 14) also affirms, "where there is a constructive response to vulnerability, anxiety and arrogance are overcome … life and leadership are exercised in humble assertiveness" (253). I did find some of the chapters somewhat difficult to connect to the primary aim of the book, which was to honour the contribution Mouton made to the academic world and especially that of NT Studies. However, one may also view these same chapters from the perspective that Mouton's particular openness to a multiplicity of approaches and angles provided inspiration for her peers, colleagues and students to be conscious of the creative possibilities in blurring the conventional boundaries of structured reading. All in all, I found the volume of essays insightful and would suggest that one should not underestimate the contribution of this well-polished book, edited by two of Mouton's colleagues at the time of her retirement. Annelie van der Bank University of South Africa annelie.vanderbank@gmail.com Copyright © 2019 The New Testament Society of Southern Africa (NTSSA)

Adequacy of Retirement Wealth in Malaysia: Spending Behaviour Analysis

This paper aims to measure the retirement wealth adequacy among population in Malaysia based on 7743 samples from Household Expenditure and Income Survey (HEIS) 2014. The determinants of retirement wealth adequacy are also examined using the OLS regression. The HEIS2014 contains information on household income and expenditure data, together with socio-economic and demographic characteristics of each household head such as age, education level and occupational group. The retirement wealth adequacy is projected using a wealth-need ratio, which is equal to the projected wealth (or income) accumulated in working years divided by the projected total needs (or consumptions) in retirement years. A wealth-need ratio of equal or larger than one indicates that an individual’s retirement wealth is adequate. Based on life cycle hypothesis which states that retirees should retire with a maintained lifestyle, a 70% replacement ratio is used in this study to project the total consumptions throughout retirement years. We also project the total consumptions by implementing different replacement ratios for different salary classes in Malaysia to take into account heterogeneity of consumptions among households. The results show that all households (or 100%) have wealth-need ratio of one or more if we use 70% replacement ratio. However, the percentage of households who have wealth-need ratio of equal or larger than one reduces to 88% when we use different replacement ratios for different income classes. The results from the wealth-need ratio indicates that the following demographic and socio-economic groups have higher percentage of adequate retirement wealth; age 30-35, single (not married), work in management field, degree education, live in region 4 (Pulau Pinang, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya), and work in private sectors.

25th Year Celebration: Top Procedures in Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy

To finish the 25th year anniversary of our journal, we along with our editorial board have selected 14 topics felt to be among the top important and interesting procedures in sports medicine and arthroscopy. We have asked well-known experts in their respective fields to write concise articles telling us where we were 25 years ago, where we are currently, and what the future may bring for these topics. Some of the articles contain additional material that can be found on our journal website: www.sportsmedarthro.com. Please also read our first editorial of this year in issue 26.1. We sincerely hope that our readers will continue to enjoy our journal and share in our 25-year celebration ending with the current issue. Tribute to our Co-Editor-In-Chief Kenneth E. DeHaven, MD Kenneth E. DeHaven, MD, is retiring at the end of this year, and Gregory C. Fanelli, MD, will move up to the position of Co-Editor-In-Chief. Alan Barber, MD, has been selected to be the next Associate Editor. Dr DeHaven joined our Journal in 1993. He contributed immensely to the Journal over the past 25 years. He will be sorely missed by the Editors, the Editorial Board members, and the staff of SMAR. Dr DeHaven attended Dartmouth College where he excelled in varsity football and was captain of the 1960 team. His medical training was at both Dartmouth and Northwestern. He spent 2 years in the Navy as a Lt. Commander. He then joined the faculty at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, working his way up to full professor. Among his many achievements, Dr DeHaven was president of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, the Arthroscopy Association of North America, the International Society of the Knee, and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Dr DeHaven has made important pioneering contributions to open and arthroscopic meniscal repair among his many fields of interest. In 2009, he began a side interest in servicing and repairing mechanical clocks. We will miss Dr DeHaven dearly and wish him and his wife Jean well in his forthcoming retirement years.

Pautas migratorias de los mayores en España

En una sociedad envejecida como la española, los comportamientos de las personas de edad cobran una creciente importancia. Este artículo centra su interés en los movimientos migratorios de las personas mayores, y en concreto, en la intensidad y calendario de los mismos. Tras los 55 años una sexta parte de los mayores realiza al menos un movimiento migratorio; y lo hace, o bien en el mismo año en que se jubila (o se jubila su cónyuge), o bien con posterioridad a los 75 años como estrategia para afrontar nuevas necesidades.

CHANGES IN COGNITION DURING RETIREMENT TRANSITION: THE WHITEHALL II COHORT STUDY

We tested the ‘use it or lose it’ hypothesis in a cohort of 3,433 civil servants who participated in the Whitehall II Study, including repeated measurements of cognitive functioning up to 14 years before and 14 years after retirement. Piecewise models, centred at the year of retirement, were used to compare trajectories of verbal memory, abstract reasoning, phonemic verbal fluency, and semantic verbal fluency before and after retirement. We found that all domains of cognition declined over time. Declines in verbal memory were 38% faster after retirement compared to before, after taking account of age-related decline. Higher employment grade was protective against verbal memory decline while people were still working, but this ‘protective effect’ was lost when individuals retired, resulting in a similar rate of decline post-retirement across employment grades. We did not find a significant impact of retirement on the other cognitive domains.

Optimal Longevity Risk Management in the Retirement Stage of the Life Cycle

The uncertainty in life expectancy plays a critical role in individual financial planning. Its impact is magnified during the retirement years (the wealth distribution stage of the life cycle), as new sources of income typically are not available to retired persons. Utilizing a multi-stage stochastic program, the authors model and solve the optimal asset allocation problem of a retired couple with uncertain life expectancy in the presence of a term life insurance policy. In the base case, they find optimal policies assuming no longevity risk (i.e., lifetime scenarios are uncertain although life expectancy is fixed on the retirement date). Next, they introduce longevity risk in the scenario generation stage through either a shift in the expected lifetimes or an unexpected cut in periodic retirement income. The authors find that the optimal asset allocation policy depends on the presence and the type of these risks, as well as the relative price of insurance and the size of any cut in pension benefits.

Joint Effect of Random Years of Longevity and Mean Reversion in Equity Returns on the Safe Withdrawal Rate in Retirement

Using historical data on inflation-adjusted total equity returns (price change plus dividend) from the SP and (2) mean reversion in equity returns. RRS models the number of years in retirement as a random factor based on the Social Security Administration’s 2015 Actuarial Life Table. The mean-reverting stock return model within RRS is statically calibrated to the 1926 to 2017 SP a 4% withdrawal rate is 99% successful. A simulation model that does not address these two key factors—and the author is not aware of single model that addresses both factors—shows that a 4% withdrawal rate results in a 90% success rate for a retirement lasting 30 years. At the 90% success level, about half of the increase from 4% to 6% comes from treating the length of the retirement as a random factor and other half comes from the mean-reverting model. Many scenarios are run to show how the success rate changes when RRS input assumptions are changed, e.g., age of retiree or stock/bond mix of retiree’s portfolio. Of particular importance is the assumption that future equity returns will repeat the historical record. If the future, long-run trend for equity returns is a 4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) instead of the 6.93% observed in the historical data, RRS shows that a withdrawal rate of 4% has a success rate of 95%. Regardless of the assumption about future equity returns, directly modeling uncertainty in the length of retirement and mean reversion in equity returns results in more accurate and higher estimates of the safe withdrawal rates compared to models that do not directly address these factors.

Quality Dollar Cost Averaging Investing Versus Quality Index Investing

Financial independence is defined as the ability to do anything at any time without financial restrictions. In an age of job insecurity and economic volatility, financial independence is difficult to acquire unless a person is financially independent of his/her employment organization. The purpose of this paper is to develop a strategy for generating an increasing income stream and capital appreciation during both the employee’s working years and retirement years by comparing dollar-cost averaging to an initial lump sum investment while reinvesting the dividends in both cases.