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PSY 180 - Psychology of Aging - Textbook

Title

 

What Financial Risks do Retirees Face in Late Life?

What Financial Risks do Retirees Face in Late Life? by Matthew S. Rutledge and Geoffrey T. Sanzenbacher © 2019, by Trustees of Boston College, Center for Retirement Research. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that the authors are identified and full credit, including copyright notice, is given to Trustees of Boston College, Center for Retirement Research.


Basic Terms

  • late-life financial risks
  • physical and mental health problems
  • out-of-pocket medical costs
  • 401(k)
  • activities of daily living
  • cognitive decline
  • fraud
  • defined contribution plan
  • defined benefit plan
  • the risk of widowhood

 

(Learning Objectives, Key Points, and Basic Terms content by Professor Stacey Cooper is licensed under CC BY 4.0.)


"This brief reviews research by the U.S. Social Security Administration’s Retirement Research Consortium and others on the nature and extent of late-life financial risks. The brief is organized as follows. The first section explains how demographic and economic changes are leading to a larger population susceptible to these risks. The second section explores the nature of the three risks outlined above. The final section concludes that out-of-pocket medical expenses, financial mistakes, and widowhood tend to severely impact the finances of only a minority of older Americans today, but that those threats may be more widespread in the future."