Verge Of Retirement Research Articles

Student loan debt in retirement: identifying the correlates and implications for policy, practice and research

PurposeResearch shows that having student loan debt in retirement is associated negatively with life satisfaction, suggesting that student debt is a bane of retiree well-being. The rationale for this study is to determine the factors related to owing student debt in retirement, given the adverse effects on the well-being of retired households.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilizes pooled cross-sectional data from the 2015 and 2018 U.S. National Financial Capability Study. The empirical analysis uses a sample of retired Americans aged 65 years and older (N = approximately 8,000) and estimates two-block logistic regression models to examine the effects of demographic, socioeconomic and behavioral factors on student loan indebtedness in retirement. A sensitivity analysis is performed for the subsample of retirees holding student debt for their children's education. Statistical interpretations use odds ratios.FindingsThe findings indicate that financial literacy, age, homeownership and high subjective financial knowledge are associated with a low likelihood of holding student loan debt in retirement. However, being Black, having postsecondary education, having difficulty covering expenses, having financially dependent children, having high-risk preferences and spending more than income increase the likelihood of holding student debt in retirement. The ensuing discussion will assist financial planners and educators identify practical ways to shape decisions regarding student loan debt in retirement.Research limitations/implicationsThe amount of student loan debt is unavailable in the dataset for analysis. One cannot infer causal relations from the study. The factors examined do not reflect the time the student loan was obtained.Originality/valueThe study focuses on the determinants of student loan indebtedness among retired Americans rather than young adults or older adults on the verge of retirement. The paper enhances the understanding of student loan holdings in the decumulation phase of the life cycle. Many US individuals have low retirement savings from which they draw a retirement income. The more the student debt burdens on retired Americans, the greater the likelihood of outliving their resources and experiencing poverty.

Austin Insomnia

Austin Insomnia Stephanie Dickinson Part 1 I see the dress I wore: blue and short-sleeved with fine white stripes, a white collar trimmed with eyelet lace, and on my feet, Babe slingbacks, pantyhose (the shade called coffee) instead of panties. The dress, a gift from a supervisor, whose daughter had outgrown it, must have been expensive; the tag announced itself, as did the midnight-blue lining, a slipperiness that felt like satin. The first time I put it on I noticed a rip in the seam under the right arm. I continued to wear the dress, always conscious of the hole when I lifted my right arm, my only working arm, since my left arm was paralyzed, after a shotgun accident. Still, I liked the feel of the dress, how it slipped around me, like 3 a.m. in the Dallas heat. I labored as a Wanger, i.e. a Wang word processor, sending out annuitant letters to former Mobil employees regarding their 401K plans. There were four other Wangers. Pauline from Taiwan, who now lived in a Dallas suburb that burglars had broken into, and when they cornered her daughter, Pauline had begged them to rape her instead, and they had; and Cleaster, silken-voiced, raised on a hog farm in Arkansas; Marc, a classical violinist from Tyler, Texas, whose father had run him off for being queer; and Lola, with her elegant frowning face, never letting a day go by that she didn't mention the hell of being bused to the integrated school in Lafayette, Louisiana, and white kids throwing rocks. The word processing pool was an oasis for beautiful people, for refugees, for the big hearted. All you needed was a valid social security number and you could skip the interview, slip in through a temporary agency, no references checked. The two things required of you—to work like a dog and eat lunch at your desk. On this August morning, the coffee cart was nearing and the 10:15 a.m. cowbell clanged to announce it. I sat in front of the WANG's green screen, a slow behemoth attached to a wide-track printer with its continuous roll of triplicate paper and a daisy wheel ready to rattle out endless annuitant letters. On my typing stand sat a brutal twelve-column spreadsheet, the same one that appeared on the green screen with its blinking ruler. Standing over me, Jack Buehler, an Annuitant Services manager on the verge of retirement, spoke in his loud twang, his dung-beetle brown eyes flashing; his breath like a sink drain, as if all the body's un fragrant juices had collected there. Now, Stephanie, I want to move the employer contribution from column 4 into column 6 and I'd prefer the totals displayed in ascending to descending order. [End Page 83] I required the WANG Users' Manual for the ascending order operation steps but couldn't reach for it with Jack perching on my shoulder, and there were some keyboard functions that required two hands. Do you think we can get going here? I'd like this spreadsheet printed before lunch, he asked, tugging at the bangs of his toupee that a dog might have mistaken for something edible. I had some feeling in my upper left arm and partial use of my bicep but the rest of the arm, when it wasn't on fire, tingled with the numbness of a foot falling asleep or a faraway bottle of seltzer water. The function I needed to perform to move the column required two hands. I would use my left elbow to hold down the Ctrl key and on the far side of the keyboard, that may as well have been the continental span between the West Coast and East Coast, I would press the Shift key with my index finger. I would not haul my elbow up and expose my clenched left hand to this man. ________ The cowbell had awoken the sundry annuitant advisors who peered out of their offices separated from the cubicles by glass, their desks grown over with paper foliage, leaning towers of duplicate forms from retirees clamoring for life insurance...

Debt and Financial Vulnerability on the Verge of Retirement

AbstractWe analyze older individuals’ debt and financial vulnerability using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS). In the HRS, we compare three groups of people age 56–61 in 1992, 2004, and 2010, to assess cross‐cohort changes in debt over time. Two waves of the NFCS (2012 and 2015) provide additional insights into debt management and older individuals’ capacity to shield themselves against shocks. We conclude that recent cohorts hold more debt and face more financial insecurity than in the past. This will render them particularly vulnerable to forecasted interest rate increases.

The Changing Face of Debt and Financial Fragility at Older Ages

We investigate changes in older individuals' financial fragility as they stand on the verge of retirement. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we compare how debt has changed for successive cohorts of people age 56–61. Our analysis shows that recent older Americans close to retirement hold more debt, and hence face greater financial insecurity, than earlier generations. This is primarily due to having bought more expensive homes with smaller down payments. We discuss possible policy implications.

Debt and Financial Vulnerability on the Verge of Retirement

We analyze older individuals’ debt and financial vulnerability using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS). Specifically, in the HRS we examine three different cohorts (individuals age 56–61) in 1992, 2004, and 2010 to evaluate cross-cohort changes in debt over time. We also use two waves of the NFCS (2012 and 2015) to gain additional insights into debt management and older individuals’ capacity to shield themselves against shocks. We show that recent cohorts have taken on more debt and face more financial insecurity, mostly due to having purchased more expensive homes with smaller down payments.

Debt and Financial Vulnerability on the Verge of Retirement

We analyze older individuals’ debt and financial vulnerability using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS). Specifically, in the HRS we examine three different cohorts (individuals age 56–61) in 1992, 2004, and 2010 to evaluate cross-cohort changes in debt over time. We also use two waves of the NFCS (2012 and 2015) to gain additional insights into debt management and older individuals’ capacity to shield themselves against shocks. We show that recent cohorts have taken on more debt and face more financial insecurity, mostly due to having purchased more expensive homes with smaller down payments.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF AKHLAQ LEADERSHIP INELEMENTARY ISLAMIC EXCELLENT SCHOOLS IN MALANG INDONESIA

Islamic principals practice various leadership styles, ranging from trait to transformational leadership styles. The shifts from one style to another have demonstrated some weaknesses of each style and led to the societal rejection of certain styles in response to environmental changes. This study aimed at introducing a new akhlaq leadership style involving four schools and four leaders at Malang Elementary Islamic excellent school. Data were collected using interview, observation, and documentation. Data were analyzed using qualitative analyze descriptive. The results show that there is significant difference in akhlaq leadership practices according to understanding, appreciation, and experience. However, there exists significant relationship between akhlaq leadership and principal’s working experience. For the principal’s leadership practice priority, the researcher has found that community development is the most commonly practiced akhlaq leadership dimension by the principals. It is followed by the demonstration of fairness, sincerity, respect and serving other dimensions. The major implication is that experienced principals frequently practiced akhlaq leadership compared to less experienced principals, and those who are on the verge of retirement. Hence, the selection of principals should be based their achievement, not seniority in the education service.

Pension Wealth and Maternal Employment: Evidence from a Reform of the German Child Care Pension Benefit

This paper uses administrative data to investigate how a change in pension wealth affects a mother’s employment decision after child birth. I exploit the extension of the child care pension benefit in 1992 as a natural experiment in a regression discontinuity design to estimate short- and medium-run employment effects. In comparison to most family benefits, the child care pension benefit is accumulated upon child birth but only becomes effective on the verge of retirement. Hence, the employment response depends on how a mother discounts future pension benefits. The results suggest that the change in pension wealth does not affect maternal employment, which is not in line with a forward looking rational behavior. Therefore, the child care pension benefit increases maternal old-age income without causing negative employment reactions.

Unveiling Koovagam

Unveiling Koovagam

Innovative education strategies implemented for large numbers of undergraduate nursing students: The Case of one South African university nursing department

The nurse education and training landscape in South Africa has changed in different ways over the past century, with the result that education and training of nurses does not necessarily translate into an adequate supply of professional nurses for the health care service. Today there is a shortage in this category. Factors which contribute to this shortage include nurses moving from the public to the private sector due to perceived better conditions of service, migration, burden of disease, reduction in bed occupancy and an ageing nurse population. Many professional nurses are now reaching retirement, and it is imperative that the training and supply of young professional nurses for the country be reconsidered in the light of this. According to Pillay, the majority of nurses’ training begins in the public sector and their knowledge is grounded on this experience. When sufficient experience is gained, they seek out better opportunities in the private sector and migrate to the more developed countries. This loss of experience from the public sector impacts negatively on the capacity to mentor new graduates, which in turn results in the young, professional, trained nurses seeking better opportunities with organizations where they can develop further. The net result of this is that the public sector is left with overworked, older staff who are on the verge of retirement.

Quality and Inequality of Jobs Created in MENA Region: The Case of Labor Market in Jordan

Using micro-level data sets, the current study constructs a Job Quality Index (JQI) for Jordanian wage and salaryworkers. Due to the unavailability of data for some years, the study covers only the period 2000–07. FactorAnalysis is utilized to compile the index based on the following four dimensions: adequate earnings;underemployment and overemployment (which together represent adequate working hours); and social security.The main findings of the study are as follows:(1) The JQI appears to have improved in 2007 compared to the mid-2000s, reaching similar levels of thoseprevailing in 2000. (2) There exists a persistent gender gap in favor of male workers, whose jobs arecharacterized by a higher JQI. This finding does not change even when taking into account other interveningvariables, particularly a worker’s age. Good jobs as a percentage of total jobs held by females appear to declinein 2007, unlike males, whose share of good jobs has grown in the same year. Therefore, no sign of convergencein job quality between males and females is detected. (3) JQI varies across education levels, however, lessobviously. Workers with basic education and lower are found to obtain considerably poorer jobs and jobsgenerally characterized with lower JQIs. (4) The JQI differs across age groups. New entrants to the labor marketand workers on the verge of retirement are more likely to have lower job quality in comparison with otherworkers belonging to age groups in the middle of their work lives. (5) The quality of jobs in agriculturalactivities is found to be on average lower than other activities. On the other hand, real estate activities tend tohave higher job quality ratings than other sectors, especially in 2007.

Financial Literacy, Retirement Planning, and Household Wealth

There is ample empirical evidence documenting widespread financial illiteracy and limited pension knowledge. At the same time, the distribution of wealth is widely dispersed and many workers arrive on the verge of retirement with few or no personal assets. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between financial literacy and household net worth, relying on comprehensive measures of financial knowledge designed for a special module of the DNB (De Nederlandsche Bank) Household Survey. Our findings provide evidence of a strong positive association between financial literacy and net worth, even after controlling for many determinants of wealth. Moreover, we discuss two channels through which financial literacy might facilitate wealth accumulation. First, financial knowledge increases the likelihood of investing in the stock market, allowing individuals to benefit from the equity premium. Second, financial literacy is positively related to retirement planning, and the development of a savings plan has been shown to boost wealth. Overall, financial literacy, both directly and indirectly, is found to have a strong link to household wealth.

Financial Literacy, Retirement Planning, and Household Wealth

There is ample empirical evidence documenting widespread financial illiteracy and limited pension knowledge. At the same time, the distribution of wealth is widely dispersed and many workers arrive on the verge of retirement with few or no personal assets. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between financial literacy and household net worth, relying on comprehensive measures of financial knowledge designed for a special module of the DNB (De Nederlandsche Bank) Household Survey. Our findings provide evidence of a strong positive association between financial literacy and net worth, even after controlling for many determinants of wealth. Moreover, we discuss two channels through which financial literacy might facilitate wealth accumulation. First, financial knowledge increases the likelihood of investing in the stock market, allowing individuals to benefit from the equity premium. Second, financial literacy is positively related to retirement planning, and the development of a savings plan has been shown to boost wealth. Overall, financial literacy, both directly and indirectly, is found to have a strong link to household wealth.

What Will Happen to Retirement Income for 401(k) Participants After the Market Decline?

This paper uses administrative data from millions of 401(k) participants dating back to 1996 as well as several simulation models to determine 401(k) plans' susceptibility to several alleged limitations as well as its potential for significant retirement wealth accumulation for employees working for employers who have chosen to sponsor these plans. What will happen to 401(k) participants after the 2008 market decline will be largely determined by the extent to which the features of automatic enrollment, automatic escalation of contributions, and automatic investment are allowed to play out. Simulation results suggest that the first two features will significantly improve retirement wealth for the lowest-income quartiles going forward, and the third feature (primarily target-date funds) suggest that a large percentage of those on the verge of retirement would benefit significantly by a reduction of equity concentrations to a more age-appropriate level.

Kafka's trial revisited

Professor K was on the verge of retirement after a long and blameless career in medicine. He had received many honours, his research publications and textbooks were widely read throughout Europe; and professionally he had always acted in the best interests of his patients. In April 2004, he received a letter from the Council of Medical Governance (CMG) that proceedings were to take place against him for professional misconduct. At first he thought this must be a hoax; in a long professional career one cannot help but make some enemies. And some colleagues do have a weird sense of humour. To be certain he rang the chief clerk of the CMG who told him that indeed a letter would follow from them detailing all the charges. From this time Professor K’s sleep became erratic, and this became much worse when he received another letter 2 years later from the CMG listing 33 charges of professional misconduct ranging from the misuse of words in his reports to performing callous experiments on his patients. Having been a caring and conscientious doctor, he was appalled that such an action would be taken against him and he immediately tried to find out who had instigated the charges. They did not come from his Hospital, his patients or their relatives. According to the law, it was one of those cases that are started automatically by the crime itself. The authorities have to …

The Art & Craft of Learning to Regulate: An Interview-Based Exploration at Health Canada

Health Canada asked Carleton University's Regulatory Governance Initiative to explore how knowledge transfer in the regulatory community at Health Canada works and to capture the views and wisdom of senior mentors, particularly those who had recently left or who were on the verge of retirement. This study is focused on how they have learned the art and craft if and on their views of how the teaching of regulation can best be accomplished. Recent recruits were asked about their experiences and expectations. The comparison of the looking back with the looking forward perspective provides a broad view. This exploration was based on one-on-one interviews with the aim of fostering an understanding of the issues through dialogue.

Baby Boomer Issue(s)

Baby Boomer Issue(s) Grace Bauer Maybe it was all the recent news stories about the very first baby boomers on the verge of retirement—and the warnings about the financial havoc this was bound to wreak upon Social Security and the national economy, which was already in pretty dire straits. Or the headlines, one after the other over the last few years, announcing that cultural icons ranging from Ginsberg’s Howl to Motown Records to the peace sign—even the ever youthful Barbie—had hit the half-century mark. Maybe it was the ads for Barneys NY in a December 2008 New York Times Magazine, wishing the world a “Hippie Holiday”—complete with DayGlo-colored images of those fifty-year-old peace signs and a declaration that the store was “having a COUNTER-CULTURE moment” “remembering 1968 forty years on.” Or the advance reviews in the Arts & Leisure section for the reopening of Hair on Broadway. Maybe it was because the daily reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were sounding vaguely like the reports on Vietnam more than thirty years ago (which is maybe why they are restaging Hair). Maybe it was the recent election of Barack Obama, which reminded at least some people of the election of JFK—not since then had they seen so much youthful exuberance and idealism so unabashed it even led to “an open apology to boomers everywhere” from Gen X’er Heather Havrilesky on salon.com, where she said “We’re sorry for rolling our eyes at you all these years”—though she couldn’t resist mentioning those of us who might be wearing socks with sandals or smelling like we’d “been on the bus with Wavy Gravy for the last three decades.” Maybe it was just that, to paraphrase a boomer-era song, “something’s in the air”—which is maybe just my own personal sense of “time’s winged chariot” (disguised, perhaps, as Wavy Gravy’s bus or a compact SUV) drawing nearer. But when Hilda Raz asked me once again to stand in as acting editor of Prairie Schooner while she enjoyed a semester of well-earned leave, and asked further if I might want to do some kind of special issue, I [End Page 5] immediately said “Baby Boomers!” A bit self-serving, no doubt, since I’m a writer who was born in the midst of that boom, but I wanted to see what such a gathering might look like, and so I set out to see. Perhaps no generation has been written about as much as the so-called baby boomers—those born between 1946 and 1964, give or take a year or so on either end. They—okay, we—have been scrutinized, analyzed, catered to and criticized, romanticized, ridiculed, and reviled. No one may ever call us “the greatest generation” but that we are “a generation” is commonly accepted as fact. Of course, the eighteen-year span of the post-war boom in babies should tell us this “generation” is a far less monolithic mass than the generic term suggests. By 1964, when the last of the boomers were just being born, the oldest of them were getting ready to head off into adulthood—jobs or college. Or for some, Vietnam. By 1981, when the last of the boomers were coming of age, the older boomers were realizing they had to trust people over thirty, because they were themselves. Those on either end of the boom grew up in vastly different decades. We experienced different political and social climates, watched different tv shows (some of the oldest boomers might actually remember the monumental occasion of their family first getting a tv), listened to different music, read different books. As Malcolm Jones points out in his article “Our Books, Ourselves” in a March 2007 issue of Newsweek, “Older boomers were more likely to own a copy of On The Road. The youngest were more likely to go with Bright Lights, Big City.” The 60s and the 80s may have both been decades of excess but certainly of a very different kind. But like it or not, we are lumped together as boomers, and there...

Gay Aging

The oldest of the baby boomers (boomers) were age 63 in 2009 and on the verge of retirement. This cohort has had a history of making societal changes throughout its life cycle, and it is unlikely that retirement, as we know it, will remain unscathed. This article highlights two events—the Stonewall Inn riots and two prominent professional associations removing homosexuality from their list of personality disorders—and how they occurred early enough in the gay boomers life cycle to change their attitudes, behaviors, and lifestyles. This article introduces the reader to a broad array of facts, research findings, and issues that inform the topic of gay aging. A summary of the discrimination and legal concerns affecting the gay community are also highlighted. Two influential community programs are identified: Services and Advocacy for Gay Elders (SAGE) and the American Society on Aging's LGBT Aging Issues Network (LAIN). Gerontological educators need to be sensitive to the needs, desires, and resources of the coming cohort of gay boomers, who are more likely to advocate for responsive services, organizations, and policies than the current cohort of gay older adults.

Modern Language Association Honored Scholar of Early American Literature, 2008: Philip F. Gura

Earlier this year, when I learned that the MLA Division of Ameri can Literature to 1800 would be honoring Philip R Gura with its Distin guished Scholar Award, the news at first seemed entirely fitting but also oddly premature and even misplaced?at least to the uninitiated. Ordi narily, one would expect that a major award of this kind might be deliv ered with a kind of backward view: into the hands of a scholar who, just on the verge of retirement, receives the honor at the conclusion of a long career after having contributed brilliantly to the profession. But instead, this year's award honors a perennially resourceful and productive re searcher whose energies show no signs of flagging, who even now is pre paring yet another new book for publication, this latest volume a history of the American Antiquarian Society, the learned society whose resources have been so vital to his own research over the decades. The remarkable

Cross-Cohort Differences in Health on the Verge of Retirement

Baby Boomers have left a unique imprint on US culture and society in the last 60 years, and it might be anticipated that they will also put their own stamp on retirement, the last phase of the life cycle. Yet because Boomers have not all fully retired, we cannot yet judge how they will fare as retirees. Instead, we focus on how this group compares with prior groups on the verge of retirement, that is, at ages 51-56. Accordingly, this chapter evaluates the stock of health which Early Boomers bring to retirement and compare these to the circumstances of two prior cohorts at the same point in their life cycles. Using three sets of responses from the Health and Retirement Study, we find some interesting patterns. Overall, the raw evidence indicates that Boomers on the verge of retirement are in poorer health their counterparts 12 years ago. Using a summary health index designed for this study, we find that those born 1948 to 1953 share health risks with the War Baby cohort. This suggests that most of the health decline instead began before the late 1940's. A more complex set of health conclusions emerges from the specific self-reported health measures. Boomers indicate they have relatively more difficulty with a range of everyday physical tasks, but they also report having more pain, more chronic conditions, more drinking and psychiatric problems, than their HRS earlier counterparts. This trend portends poorly for the future health of Boomers as they age and incur increasing costs associated with health care and medications. Using our health index, only those at the 75th percentile or higher are likely to be characterized as having good or better health.