Global Retirement Concerns: Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom

Global research from The Hartford shows the number one financial concern in retirement is keeping up with daily expenses for food, shelter, and other basic needs such as health care. Among the three countries Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom, the Japanese expressed the most extreme financial concerns about retirement and the British, the least.

Affluent Concerns

Affluent retirees surveyed in the wake of recent sharp market declines expressed significantly lower levels of financial comfort, greater concern about further major market declines, and higher interest in guaranteed income streams for retirement than they did just last August, immediately prior to the precipitous market sell-off, according to the MFS Investment Management’s Retirement Research on Affluent Retirees.

The survey also found higher levels of satisfaction, comfort, and optimism among affluent retirees who had a detailed retirement savings and income plan than those respondents who did not. Those who retired involuntarily and who had debt when they retired were far more likely to respond that they found retirement less satisfying than they had expected.

Fifty-Four Percent Are Not Retiring

Sun Life Financial Inc. has conducted a survey that shows workers are planning to work past their planned retirement age.

The survey completed in December shows 54% of workers will delay retirement by at least a year because the economy has sapped their finances. Nearly one-fourth said they'll need to work more than five years.

Fifty-Eight Percent Are Retiring

A recent survey of respondents between ages fifty-five and sixty-five found 58% of them were not delaying retirement despite current economic transitions. Sponsored by Schwab Investment Services, the survey did find more people looking for help in making the transition.

Forty-Six Million Are Expected to Retire

Japan Tackles Obesity

Japan, with a population widely recognized as one of the leanest and healthiest in the world, is tackling its own obesity epidemic. A law enacted in 2008 aims to reduce the number of obese people by 10% by 2012 and 25% by 2015. Employers whose employees fail to meet specific targets will face financial penalties. The 56 million Japanese between the ages of forty and seventy-four must meet specific waistline standards, 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women to help save their employers from government fines.

The Importance of Being IRA

An Investment Company Institute study, "The Role of IRAs in U.S. Households' Saving for Retirement, 2008," has found that IRAs have played an increasingly important role in Americans' retirement savings. Forty-seven million, or 41%, of U.S. households reported owning IRAs in May 2008.

The study also finds that rollovers from employer-sponsored retirement plans have fueled the growth in IRAs, and more than half of households owning traditional IRAs have rollover assets in them.

Army Rescues Alaska Militia

The Secretary of the Army has authorized emergency funds to supplement a reduction in retirement pay for veterans of a largely Native militia formed to guard the territory of Alaska during World War II.

The reduction was a result of a new interpretation of a Federal law that recognized the Alaska Territorial Guard's service as Federal active duty. A new interpretation of the law says service in the five-year guard no longer counts toward the military's 20-year minimum for retirement pay.

Army Secretary Pete Geren will use an emergency fund to cover the retirement benefits for twenty-six former members of the largely Native guard. The funds will cover two months' pay while Congress works to fix the law to allow service in the unit to count as active duty for calculating retirement benefits.

Early Retirement in Michigan Schools

The Michigan Education Association strongly supports a proposed school employee retirement stimulus plan that would help cover a $400 million hole in school funding next year and save schools $1.7 billion over the next decade.

The plan would encourage teachers and other school employees already eligible to retire to do so in the near future. The retirements will save Michigan schools money in salaries and benefits that state government feels can be invested in other educational resources.

Early Retirement in Moreno Valley, California

The city of Moreno Valley, California, will offer its employees an incentive to retire early as a means of cutting expenses and avoiding layoffs. Workers must be at least fifty years old.