How Important Is Asset Allocation To Americans’ Financial Retirement Security?

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Penn collection
Wharton Pension Research Council Working Papers
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
Economics
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Contributor
Abstract

Financial advice tends to focus on financial assets, but other levers may be more important for most households. This chapter proceeds in three stages. First we report a simple Excel spreadsheet exercise that provides a stylized example of the tradeoff between returns and time spent in the labor force. Next we use data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) on pre-retirees age 51-64 to see how the gap between retirement needs and retirement resources is affected by working longer, taking out a reverse mortgage, controlling spending, and shifting all assets to equities with no risk. Last we use a simple dynamic programming model to calculate a risk-adjusted measure of the value for the average household of moving from a typical conservative portfolio to an optimal portfolio. Our answer from all three exercises suggests that the focus on asset allocation is misplaced.

Advisor
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Publication date
2012-08-01
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Comments
The published version of this Working Paper may be found in the 2013 publication: The Market for Retirement Financial Advice (http://pensionresearchcouncil.wharton.upenn.edu/publications/books/the-market-for-retirement-financial-advice/).
Recommended citation
Collection