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	<title>Business &#38; Money &#187; Dan Kadlec &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Business &#38; Money &#187; Dan Kadlec &#124; TIME.com</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com</link>
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		<title>Weak Financial Literacy Scores Threaten a Global Education Movement</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/17/weak-financial-literacy-scores-threaten-a-global-education-movement/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/17/weak-financial-literacy-scores-threaten-a-global-education-movement/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 19:28:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Borrowing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Budgeting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=80072</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The global movement to teach kids about money in school has produced little hard evidence that the effort is paying off. That doesn’t mean it’s all been a waste of time, or that we’ll never get the results we want. But it certainly gives doubters ammunition. In a series of financial literacy tests dating to 1997, the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy has found that young people’s understanding of personal finance has remained consistently sub-par. Given the energy put into financial education over the past decade, this is disheartening news. Meanwhile, the FINRA 2009 National Financial Capability study found that only 30% of the population can do a simple 2% calculation and has even a basic understanding of inflation and risk diversification. The 2012 wave of that study will be released soon and reportedly shows no improvement. (MORE: 4 Easy Steps to Raising Money-Smart Kids) Weak financial literacy scores have galvanized dozens of nations, thousands of nonprofits, and countless educators and policymakers in the attempt to raise the financial I.Q. of people around the world. But test scores that show no improvement are now galvanizing the opposition, which believes no amount of instruction will lead to broad improvement in the way individuals manage their money. This lack of evidence presents a huge challenge to the financial education movement if it is ever to amount to more than a bunch of disjointed initiatives funded in large part by highly conflicted banks and other financial institutions. Unfortunately, proving long-term behavior change in a fairly new area of study can be difficult. In my view, the effort is worthwhile. It simply makes no sense that people cannot learn to be better money managers. We have to keep trying and keep looking for a method that works. Young people are starting to understand that personal financial management is a skill they’ll need for a lifetime. We should give it to them. In recent testimony before a Senate subcommittee on Children and Families, Annamaria Lusardi, director of the Global Center for Financial Literacy at<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=80072&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Financial Education</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/planning/financial-education/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>Car? House? Sorry: Graduates of 2013 Are Each $35,200 in Debt</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/17/car-house-sorry-graduates-of-2013-are-each-35200-in-debt/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/17/car-house-sorry-graduates-of-2013-are-each-35200-in-debt/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 12:00:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Careers & Workplace]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Educational Financing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=80188</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The typical college graduate will leave campus this month owing nearly as much money as they stand to earn in their first year of full-time employment, new research shows. At a personal level, graduates toting up their private and government student loans, credit card balances, and personal debt will find the sum shocking. On average, they owe $35,200 and half say they are surprised by how much debt they have accumulated, according to a Fidelity Investments Cost-Conscious College Graduates Study. At a broader level, this debt has far-reaching implications for the economy as young people with starting pay of $44,455 spend much of it servicing debt—not buying cars and homes or beginning to save for retirement or emergencies. Some 70% of college grads have loans; many won’t pay them off for a decade. (MORE: The Myth of the Four-Year College Degree) The upshot is that young people are getting a late start building wealth. People in their late 20s to late 30s have 21% less inflation-adjusted wealth than those in the same age range 25 years ago, according to the Urban Institute. That’s partly due to the housing bust, which socked young people who had bought near the top. But student debt is a big factor. “Student loans are the second largest source of debt for today’s Americans in their late-20s to late-30s,” writes Caroline Ratcliffe of the Urban Institute in her blog. “By way of comparison, student loans were a relatively small component of debt for their counterparts in the 1980s.” Mortgages remain the largest debt source. Ratcliffe shared this view with the Federal Financial Literacy and Education Commission on May 14 as part of the Commission’s inquiry into student debt issues. She said that educating high school kids about college debt should be a priority, and added: “But teaching financial literacy at younger ages is also critical. The earlier in life a person begins to build wealth, the more time those assets have to compound and become more valuable. So the key is to teach more people to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=80188&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Educational Financing</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/planning/educational-financing/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/rear-view-of-students-wearing-graduation-caps.jpeg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Rear view of students wearing graduation caps</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>Viewpoint: &#8216;Chained&#8217; CPI for Social Security Calculations Robs Retirees</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/14/how-chained-cpi-for-social-security-calculations-robs-retirees/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/14/how-chained-cpi-for-social-security-calculations-robs-retirees/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 17:00:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economics & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Economy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79869</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Financially speaking, we keep asking more of retirees. First, we ask folks who have saved for a lifetime to live on less while banks and indebted consumers use low interest rates to heal. Then we ask them to endure another whack at Social Security benefits while the government tries to rein in spending. This isn’t especially new. We’re half a decade into historically low rates, which have made it all but impossible for many retirees to secure a livable income stream through traditional vehicles like bonds, bank CDs, and fixed annuities. But that’s kind of the point: A lot of seniors have sold assets to make ends meet. After five years, they are running out of things to sell. Instead of relief, they get a bloody nose. Last month, the White House budget proposed tweaks to the cost-of-living formula used to determine annual Social Security benefits increases. Rest assured: This tweak would not make benefits more generous. (MORE: The New Retirement: Forget Being Rich, All We Want Is Peace of Mind) The President wants to use a “chained” consumer-price index, which accounts for how most people actually live. When beef prices go up, for example, many people buy cheaper chicken instead &#8212; so they don’t actually feel the full cost of the rising beef. Currently the CPI is running at 1.5%; chained CPI at 1.4%. The problem is that while such a small difference may sound meaningless in the short term, when benefits increases are held back like this year after year, it has a reverse compounding effect. After 10 years, the average Social Security benefit would be about 3% less; after 30 years it would be 8.4% less. Instead of receiving, say, $20,000 a year, you’d be getting $18,320. If that still doesn’t sound so bad, consider that even the current more generous CPI formula may systematically understate the inflation rate for seniors. The reason is that cheaper substitutes for many of their expenditures simply are not available, especially in the areas of healthcare and housing, which are big parts of a<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79869&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retirement</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/retirement-2/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>The New Retirement: Forget Being Rich, All We Want Is Peace of Mind</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/13/the-new-retirement-forget-being-rich-all-we-want-is-peace-of-mind/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/13/the-new-retirement-forget-being-rich-all-we-want-is-peace-of-mind/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 17:19:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Budgeting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Economy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79469</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We may never tire of discussing lessons from the Great Recession, which hit two groups especially hard: teens who saw parents lose a home or job, and boomers who saw their savings depleted at precisely the wrong moment in life. The kids’ scars are mostly emotional. Financially, they had little to lose; indeed they stand to benefit from the more frugal approach to living that the recession has inspired in many. It’s a different story for boomers who are newly retired or rapidly nearing that stage of life. They saw their assets shrink just as they needed them to grow and they may have had to sell at depressed prices, ensuring they&#8217;d miss the rebound. Compounding their financial loss, interest rates are so low that boomers (and elders) are now finding it difficult to secure a decent monthly income stream. This experience goes a long ways toward explaining boomers’ new priorities. By a margin of 7 to 1, adults past the age of 45 say their focus today is on peace of mind — not wealth accumulation, according to a new retirement study from Merrill Lynch and Age Wave. (MORE: Sizing Up the Big Question: How Much Money Do You Need to Retire?) Long gone is the prerecession attitude of taking risks and building the biggest portfolio possible. Today’s new retirees and preretirees crave the peace of mind that comes from having enough money safely tucked away to provide a sufficient and dependable income stream. In the survey, guaranteed income and protecting assets were four times more important than achieving high-risk returns. This is why sales of fixed annuities are exploding and guaranteed lifetime income products are the new subject du jour. Today’s retirees don’t need a stockpile to count so much as predictable income so that they can spend time with family and on experiences and pursue new, if modest, passions. “Having more money can buttress peace of mind,” David Tyrie, head of personal wealth and retirement for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, says in an e-mail. “But there are<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79469&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Financial Planning</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/planning/financial-planning/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>BlackRock&#8217;s Fink: Put it All in Stocks</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/10/blackrocks-fink-put-it-all-in-stocks/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/10/blackrocks-fink-put-it-all-in-stocks/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 May 2013 18:16:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[401(k) Savings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Economy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79692</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Laurence Fink is in the business of taking measured risks. That’s what investing is all about and, well, he happens to be the CEO the world’s largest investment firm: BlackRock, which has $4 trillion under management. So it may be that he was perfectly comfortable standing before a packed classroom at New York University’s Stern School of Business on May 7 and opening his remarks with a risky line: “I want to talk about the subject of old age,” Fink began. Old age? Most of these kids haven’t left home yet. They still believe they’re immortal. But in a sign of how times have changed, the students didn’t nod off or even roll their eyes. The long term, at least as it relates to money, seems to have entered Millennials’ collective conscious. They wanted more. (MORE: Mandatory Savings Accounts Are Coming Your Way) Fink gave it to them, starting with some well-worn but nonetheless effective statistics on longevity. A third of babies born in 2011 will live to age 100. If you make it to 65, odds are you’ll live to 85. One in 10 who are now 65 will make to 95. His point: Many of us are going to live a long time, and that is “a very expensive blessing” that will rewrite the rulebook on saving and investing. You need to start now, he implored to a bunch of kids yet to earn their first full-time salary. Not convinced that kids—or anyone else, for that matter—really get it, Fink called for a new mandatory savings program as part of an overhaul of the nation’s retirement thinking. “The current system is broken,” he said. “We need a comprehensive approach that includes some form of mandatory savings in addition to Social Security.” (MORE: A New Idea to Fix the Retirement-Savings Crisis) But he offered more than a policy initiative to his young audience, which through the questions that were asked demonstrated a genuine thirst for financial advice. In some ways, Fink broke the financial planning mold. His main points: Invest everything<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79692&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Financial Planning</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/planning/financial-planning/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>Mandatory Savings Accounts Are Coming Your Way</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/09/mandatory-savings-accounts-are-coming-your-way/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/09/mandatory-savings-accounts-are-coming-your-way/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 May 2013 16:34:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[401(k) Savings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79567</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The retirement savings crisis in America has brought us to this point: It’s a near certainty that mandatory savings accounts are in the future of anyone with a full- or part-time job. The world’s largest investment firm BlackRock, with $4 trillion under management and a lot of weight to throw around, is the latest to sound the call. “We need a comprehensive solution to retirement savings that includes some form of mandatory retirement savings,” CEO Laurence Fink said this week. He added that his firm has been agitating “quite noisily” for retirement overhaul and that going forward “we’ll be louder as a firm.” Fink’s call for mandatory savings accounts is in sync with other prominent thinkers in the retirement savings field. Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, is on record favoring these accounts. She says they should be designed to provide 20% of pre-retirement income. Munnell’s colleague at the Center, Julie Agnew, in a study credits mandatory savings accounts in Australia for that country’s “high individual saving rates and broad coverage at reasonably low cost to the government.” U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is looking at legislation this year that would make saving for retirement more widely available through a so-called USA Retirement fund, though it would not necessarily be mandatory. Billionaire Peter Peterson floated the idea of mandatory accounts several years ago. (MORE: A New Idea to Fix the Retirement-Savings Crisis) The Australian system increasingly is being held up as a model for the U.S. In Australia, employers must contribute 9% of pay (rising to 12% in 2020) to every full- or-part-time worker between the ages of 18 and 70. This makes the accounts a little like a traditional pension in that the employer is funding them. But the accounts are owned and managed by individuals, as with a 401(k). The Australian “superannuation” accounts were put in place just 20 years ago and have all but solved that country’s retirement savings<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79567&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retirement</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/retirement-2/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>A Big Push for Mandatory Personal Finance Classes in School</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/07/a-big-push-for-mandatory-personal-finance-classes-in-school/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/07/a-big-push-for-mandatory-personal-finance-classes-in-school/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 May 2013 18:06:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economics & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79356</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With nations like Australia and the U.K. having voted to make financial education mandatory in their school systems, the U.S. is moving aggressively to re-assert leadership on this important front in the global fight against financial illiteracy. Last week, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unveiled Transforming the Financial Lives of a Generation of Young Americans, a white paper with specific recommendations for advancing financial education in grades K-12. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department has just gone live with moneyasyoulearn.org, a website offering teachers ready-made personal finance lessons that fit neatly into existing math and English courses. Schools in the U.S. are governed at the state level. It is unlikely we’ll ever have a federal mandate for K-12 financial education like that in the U.K. or Australia. But most states have agreed to a common core initiative that dictates certain educational standards across state lines and which will be in force next year. Treasury’s new website will help teachers build personal finance lessons into courses they must redesign anyway. (MORE: 7 &#8216;Smart&#8217; Credit Tips That Aren&#8217;t) The bigger development, though, is the CFPB officially weighing in. This is a powerful federal watchdog that sprang from the financial crisis. Its wide-ranging mission is to protect the financial interests of individuals. Since inception, the CFPB has been focused on things like simplified financial statements and mortgages. Now turning to kids and money, the agency’s thoughts will carry a lot of weight. “Young people today and future generations should not have to repeat the financial mistakes made by earlier generations,” director Richard Cordray writes in the paper. “This is why the CFPB is supporting a plan to bring financial education into K-12 classrooms.” The agency’s five recommendations: Introduce key financial concepts as early as kindergarten and require a stand-alone personal finance course for graduation from high school. Include personal finance questions in standardized tests. Provide practical, hands-on learning opportunities as they relate to personal money management. Offer teachers incentives and training to lead a personal finance class. Provide parents with the tools to discuss<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79356&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://business.time.com/2013/05/07/a-big-push-for-mandatory-personal-finance-classes-in-school/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Financial Education</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/planning/financial-education/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>How to Stay Engaged After Retirement</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/06/how-to-stay-engaged-after-retirement/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/06/how-to-stay-engaged-after-retirement/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2013 12:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Decision Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78329</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Not many people are able to retire before age 60 anymore, and that’s just as well. Health breakthroughs the last few decades have given us a longevity bonus that previous generations could never envision. Working until later in life is a natural development. Still, we will retire one day and likely with many good years remaining in our future. How to spend those years is the subject of my two most recent books, co-authored with Ken Dychtwald. I’m reminded of the lessons in The Power Years and A New Purpose whenever I hear of people reinventing themselves at mid-life. (MORE: CFPB Finally Fixes the &#8216;Anti-Housewife&#8217; Rule) So it was with a recent news story about chess champion Garry Kasparov, who unlike other champions in his field has not been content to fade away. Kasparov just turned 50. He’s been out of competitive chess for eight years but is as busy as ever. He’s a passionate activist for change in Russia. He campaigns against President Vladimir Putin and recently was named the Morris B. Abram Human Rights award winner. He’s also a global activist seeking to have chess classes installed as part of school curricula. The chess effort, especially, caught my eye. Kasparov and a growing list of educators believe that learning to play chess helps children develop the ability to think logically, plan, and use mathematics in a practical way. These critical skills are closely linked to making better money decisions as adults, a key area of instruction that generally is missing from our classrooms. Could we teach chess as a backdoor way to promote financial education? The European Union has endorsed Kasparov’s ideas and is encouraging schools to introduce a chess class using his teaching software. Kasparov may end up having an impact far beyond the chess world. There’s nothing unusual about high achieving individuals staying committed to a cause and giving back in some fashion after retiring. Former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton may have accomplished more good in their life after leaving office than they did<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78329&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retirement</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/retirement-2/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>4 Easy Steps to Raising Money-Smart Kids</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/03/4-easy-steps-to-raising-money-smart-kids/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/03/4-easy-steps-to-raising-money-smart-kids/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2013 09:45:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Borrowing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Budgeting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Credit Cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79091</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Human beings may be destined to do everything the hard way. Consider teaching kids about money. Parents can do this quite simply, following a few guidelines. Yet few make any real effort, and we ask schoolteachers to fill the gap. Parents are hands-down the most influential force in any child’s life, and studies show that this extends to money management. Yet the money talk still doesn’t happen in about half of all households. Meanwhile, we have a global movement to bring financial education into the classroom. This effort has been clumsy at times though sorely needed. Too many kids go to college or get their first job without a basic understanding of budgets, debt, and saving. We ask the schools to address this need before the kids turn into bankrupt adults whose financial assistance boomerangs back on society. (MORE: Communication Breakdown: If You Think You’re Talking About Money, Your Kids Don’t Hear It) If only more parents took control, the lessons learned at school would resonate with what they hear at home and sink in to a greater extent. Jonathan Clements is one of the few parents I know that has made a big effort at raising financially literate children. A former personal finance columnist at the Wall Street Journal, Clements is now the director of financial education at Citi Personal Wealth Management. He started family money lessons at age 5 with his children, who are now twentysomethings with, he tells me, enviable money management skills. Clements believes there are four simple guidelines to raising money-smart kids: Make them feel like the money they spend is theirs One way to do this is pay an allowance, explain what the money is for and never give in when they ask for more. “The first rule of parenting,” Clements jokes, “is to never negotiate with terrorists.” With young children, play the soda game. When you eat out offer $1 if they drink water instead of a soft drink. It’s shocking how often they take the $1. Pay allowance to a bank account<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79091&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Financial Education</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/planning/financial-education/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/86015372.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Piggy Bank Drawn on Blackboard</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>Kodak to Pay Retired Workers in Film (and Other Adventures in Creative Pension Funding)</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/30/kodak-to-pay-retired-workers-in-film-and-other-adventures-in-creative-pension-funding/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/30/kodak-to-pay-retired-workers-in-film-and-other-adventures-in-creative-pension-funding/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:45:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78894</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Eastman Kodak has reached a deal to hand over its film business to retirees in lieu of paying monthly benefits, making it the latest strapped corporation to resort to noncash pension contributions. Kodak, restructuring under bankruptcy protection, will turn over its personalized-imaging and document-imaging businesses to the U.K. Kodak Pension Plan, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. This will wipe out a $2.8 billion pension obligation. If all goes well, the pension will sell the businesses and use the proceeds to fund retirement benefits. But no one knows what the businesses will fetch. In the news game, we like to say three makes a trend. So the Kodak deal raises troubling questions about our collective retirement security. The British food company Dairy Crest recently transferred 44 million lb. of cheese to its pension fund to help plug a $128 million deficit. The spirits producer Diageo (Johnny Walker, Smirnoff) gave more than $760 million in “maturing whiskey” to its retirement fund to help quench a more than $1 billion pension thirst. (MORE: Plugging the Pension Gap … With Cheese?) What other assets might retirees be asked to accept? Can they be properly valued? How do you turn bricks and mortar, or whatever, into a reliable and long-lasting income stream? Such creative solutions are born of necessity. Two-thirds of the companies in the S&#38;P 500 have traditional pension plans and only 18 of them are fully funded. Unfunded liabilities total $355 billion. This massive shortfall, by the way, is echoed in public pension plans as well. We have a big mess on our hands. As a matter of fact, this trend stretches way beyond three examples. U.S. Steel transferred 170,000 acres of Alabama timberland to its workers’ pension fund several years ago. The state of Alabama’s pension system owns 11 golf courses and a string of hotels and spas. The New York Times reports that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which takes over failed pension plans, has a wide variety of alternative assets, including “water rights in the Mojave Desert, diamonds,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78894&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retirement</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/retirement-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/retirement.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/retirement.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Retirement</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>Safe Bet? Central Banks Suddenly Start Buying Stocks</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/26/why-are-central-banks-suddenly-buying-stocks/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/26/why-are-central-banks-suddenly-buying-stocks/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:06:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Decision Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Federal Reserve]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Economy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78589</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Fed up with low bond yields, the most conservative investors on the planet have begun to load up on stocks. Retirees? No, I’m talking about the world&#8217;s central bankers. Nearly 1 in 4 central bankers say their institution owns stocks or plans to own stocks in the near future, according to a Bloomberg report. The Bank of Japan plans to more than double its stock position, according the report, which cites a Central Banking Publications and Royal Bank of Scotland survey. The Bank of Israel bought stocks for the first time last year. And both the Swiss National Bank and Czech National Bank have boosted stock ownership to at least 10% of reserves. This move into stocks is highly unusual. Central bankers are famously risk-averse. Previous surveys in this series didn’t even ask about stocks. Central banks tend to hold reserves in government bonds, which are easy to buy and sell. (They use reserves to manage their national currencies.) But with yields having fallen below the rate of inflation, holding bonds devalues their reserves. So they have begun diversifying into other assets, chasing higher returns. This is not unlike the dilemma facing many retirees and other individual investors: holding ultra-safe interest-bearing investments is wise past a certain age; yet when yields are lower than the inflation rate, this strategy erodes buying power and undermines long-term financial security. For this reason, many retirees have been seeking higher yields with dividend-paying stocks and even moving into high-yield, high-risk corporate bonds. (MORE: A Nation of Renters: Should We Be Worried That Fewer Americans Own Homes?) Central banks, of course, have a much bigger margin for error than your typical retiree. Their time horizon is eternity and they can print more money if they must, though the consequences of doing so are best avoided. Still, central banks moving into stocks offers some comfort to retirees pushed in the same direction. Everyone must adjust to this new normal. The U.S. Federal Reserve does not appear to have joined in the stock-buying trend. The Fed is not permitted to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78589&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Economy &amp; Policy</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>How to Tame the Rising Cost of Prom Season</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/24/how-to-tame-the-rising-cost-of-prom-season/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/24/how-to-tame-the-rising-cost-of-prom-season/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Apr 2013 09:45:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Budgeting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology of Money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Economy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78232</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The cost of prom night rose 5% this year to an average $1,139 per attendee—a staggering sum that should spark frank spending discussions in every household with a teenager. Only three years ago, the recession was fresh and families were vowing to tighten their belts for good. In that environment, prom spending on everything from dresses and tuxedos to limos and flowers totaled an average $807. That’s a lot. But as the economy improved spending shot passed $1,000 last year before jumping again this spring, according to an annual Visa survey. Prom spending has been called the new social arms race, as both parents and their teens seek to stand out and choose to spend extravagantly for one evening. “Prom has devolved into a competition to crown the victor of high school society,” Nat Sillin Visa’s head of U.S. Financial Education, said in a release. The most troubling aspect of this spending free-for-all is the recurring finding that those who can least afford it are spending the most. In households with less than $50,000 of annual income, spending plans this year average $1,245; parents who make more than $50,000 will spend an average of $1,129. Two years ago, Visa found that the top prom spenders had household income under $30,000. (MORE: Communication Breakdown: If You Think You’re Talking About Money, Your Kids Don’t Hear It) Prom night is also an opportunity for single parents to spend lavishly on their teens—forking over an average $1,563, which is almost double the $770 that married parents will spend. What’s going on here? People have not forgotten the lessons of the Great Recession. In a recent Fidelity survey nearly half said that even now they are saving more, reducing debt and building an emergency fund, and 78% of those taking such steps said the measures were part of permanent personal financial strategy. Yet prom night appears untouchable. Okay, splurging has its place. But keeping up appearances and one-upping the cool kids probably isn’t the wisest choice. Sticking to a budget almost always makes more<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78232&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Budgeting</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/budgeting-saving-spending/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/892467-001.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Gold bag, corsage and plastic cups on table, Prom</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>Retirement Gamble: Frontline&#8217;s Powerful Case for Taking Control of Your Financial Future</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/23/retirement-gamble-how-fees-and-poor-results-destroyed-your-401k/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/23/retirement-gamble-how-fees-and-poor-results-destroyed-your-401k/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:32:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[401(k) Savings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Decision Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jobs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77979</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The retirement crisis in America is fairly well defined: Six in 10 people expect to delay retirement; just 14% are confident they’ll have enough to live comfortably and 17% say they will never be able to quit work altogether. If that doesn’t bring you down, make sure you tune in to the PBS Frontline special Retirement Gamble tonight. Serious depression is sure to follow. Hopefully, though, so will remedial action on the part of anyone who identifies with the handful of struggling working class Americans in this documentary. Retirement doesn’t break new ground. Anyone who’s been paying attention understands that corporate America has shifted the burden of retirement to individuals over the past 30 years. Traditional pensions have been supplanted by 401(k) plans, which have proved to be massively ineffective as a primary source of retirement security. Billions of dollars in savings have leaked out of these plans over the years and trillions were wiped away in the market collapses of 2000 and 2008. The program takes us through all this gory history and makes the case that our retirement programs are not a system but a “free for all.” It concludes that saving for retirement is a “bewildering and frightening challenge.” (MORE: How a Few Text Messages a Month Can Secure Your Retirement) For emphasis, Retirement even dredges up the $18 billion in bonuses paid to Wall Street the year of the mortgage crisis, when people were losing their jobs or their homes or both. The point is one that I’ve made over and over in this space: You are on your own out there; it’s time to start paying attention. You can’t help but identify with one subject in particular, a well-spoken man of retirement age who gleefully recalled the day in 1999 when his 401(k) portfolio crossed $1 million. “I just thought this was how it works,” he says. The market took back all his gains within a couple years. The special takes aim at the confusing and multi-layered fees that accompany many 401(k) plans and which are difficult<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77979&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retirement</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/retirement-2/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>How a Few Text Messages a Month Can Secure Your Retirement</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/22/how-a-few-text-messages-a-month-can-secure-your-retirement/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/22/how-a-few-text-messages-a-month-can-secure-your-retirement/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:55:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology of Money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=76507</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Reminders work. That’s why retailers sell $1 billion a year in post-it notes and virtually all alarm clocks come with a snooze button. Maybe it’s time to put the power of prompt to work in your savings strategy too. A growing body of research suggests that money reminders tweeted, texted, emailed or otherwise delivered through social media fall on receptive eyes. Researchers in the Philippines, Bolivia, and Peru found that banks reminding clients to save via text message and other means increased the likelihood of reaching a savings goal by 3.1% and the total amount saved by 6.3%. (MORE: The Hidden Cost of Text Refunds) A study led by Barbara O’Neill at the Rutgers Co-operative Extension found that Twitter and Facebook messages to adults raised awareness about money issues even if they didn’t always lead to behavioral change. In the study, banks tweeted clients up to nine times a day with messages like: Think yourself rich. Savings starts in ur brain, not ur bank account. Plug ur spending leaks &#38; save: snacks, soda, lottery etc. $5/ day = $1,825/ yr + interest. Small amts add up. Susan Beacham, a financial educator, regularly sends texts with money reminders to her teens. It’s a great idea. Young people send and receive an average of 3,339 texts a month. Remarkably, they actually read them. But texting money reminders can be for adults too, and now you can sign up for a helpful dose of savings prompts through the America Saves campaign from the Consumer Federation of America. The program is ongoing. But if you sign up by the end of April you will become eligible for a $500 reward. The texting service is simple. You register with a specific goal and will receive three texts a month through the end of the year reminding you to take steps toward reaching your goal. Standard texting charges apply. (MORE: Is the Global Economy Slowly Falling Apart) The most popular goals include: setting up an emergency fund, saving for education, repaying debt, saving for a home,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=76507&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Financial Planning</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/planning/financial-planning/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/141475352.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">141475352</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/d69b05e696e822e7e41ae630be72226a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>Mandatory Savings: How Australia Fixed a Retirement Crisis</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/22/mandatory-saving-how-australia-fixed-a-retirement-crisis/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/22/mandatory-saving-how-australia-fixed-a-retirement-crisis/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:00:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[401(k) Savings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78153</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We can learn a lot about staying on top of our long-term financial security by studying the land down under. Australia was among the earliest to get serious about financial education, establishing a financial-literacy foundation in 2005 — before the financial crisis. It also has a retirement system that is regarded as among the best in the world. The U.S. is struggling on both fronts. We were early to formally embrace financial education, having established a Financial Literacy and Education Commission in 2003. But Australia has steamed ahead, requiring a personal-finance class for graduation throughout its school system. In the U.S., just 14 states require that such a course even be offered as an elective. Increasingly, financial education is becoming a global initiative. The hope is that by raising the financial IQ of individuals around the world, the economy won’t fall victim to another financial crisis — at least not one caused by basic misunderstanding of things like mortgages and credit-card terms. It’s a long-term approach. The real Aussie edge, though, may be a retirement system that “has achieved high individual saving rates and broad coverage at reasonably low cost to the government,” according to new research from Julie Agnew for the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Australians do this through a three-pillar system that starts with private savings. The system also includes a safety net that resembles Social Security, though benefits are means-tested and disappear past a certain income threshold. In the U.S., means testing faces stiff opposition, though some argue that effectively it is already in place. The key difference is Australia’s employer-based savings accounts, which resemble a 401(k). Employers are required to fund every worker’s account with 9% of pay, rising to 12% of pay in 2020. Over 90% of working Australians have savings in such an account. In the U.S., fewer than half of workers have money in a 401(k) or similar plan. In her research, Agnew found that Australian plans are more likely to have automatic enrollment and contribution-escalation provisions, which are proven<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78153&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retirement</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/retirement-2/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>A New Idea to Fix the Retirement-Savings Crisis</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/17/a-new-idea-to-fix-the-retirement-savings-crisis/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/17/a-new-idea-to-fix-the-retirement-savings-crisis/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:20:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[401(k) Savings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77851</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The retirement-savings crisis in America is so acute that at least one prominent thinker on the subject is calling for a mandatory savings program above and beyond existing 401(k) and other pension plans. “The nation requires a new, mandatory tier of retirement accounts, initiated by the federal government but managed by the private sector, that will replace about 20% of preretirement earnings,” Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, told Bloomberg News. Munnell is a former Treasury official and former member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Her voice carries a lot of weight on pension matters, and her comments seem to open the door to a back-to-the-future kind of pension system. Along with a new, additional type of savings program, Munnell wants to delay Social Security payments “a few years longer” and encourage people to stay at work to age 68 or 69 or later. She’d like to see 401(k) plans reworked so that autoenrollment and autoescalation of default contribution rates are required in every plan. (MORE: Retirement Savings: Piecing Together a Perfect Portfolio) She also wants to further limit opportunities for plan participants to cash out early — stemming what’s known as leakage, which has emerged as a serious flaw in 401(k) plans as a primary source of retirement savings. These steps, she says, would return the 401(k) “to its original purpose of providing supplementary income” as opposed to being a primary vehicle. The eye-catcher in her proposed overhaul, though, is the new tier of mandated savings accounts. Numerous studies have shown that Americans are not saving enough for retirement. Even working longer isn’t a cure-all, Munnell suggests. What’s needed is a new kind of account where a large enough kitty would build to replace 20% of preretirement income. This extra tier of savings along with Social Security benefits and other sources should be enough to get most people to 70% of preretirement income; that’s a level that many financial planners say is a minimum for a comfortable retirement. How this new savings<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77851&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retirement</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/retirement-2/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>April 15: Why Some Folks Love Filing Day</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/15/april-15-why-some-folks-love-filing-day/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/15/april-15-why-some-folks-love-filing-day/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:00:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tax Policy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77699</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[People love a tax refund. And why not? About 75% of taxpayers get one. The typical amount is around $3,000. That’s a nice little E-transfer or check in your mailbox every spring. A third of taxpayers say they actually like or love doing their taxes, and they most often cite the refund as the reason, according to a new survey from Pew Research. Those who enjoy doing their taxes also say it gives them a sense of control and of fulfilling their duty to pay their fair share. Still, more than half of taxpayers say they hate or dislike doing their taxes, and they most often cite the complicated and time-consuming nature of the exercise. It’s the hassle they mind, not the tax itself. Fewer than one in 10 say they hate or dislike filing taxes because they owe money or feel over burdened. (MORE: The 6 Most Common Tax Time What-Ifs, Answered) The problem with refunds—and with liking them so much—is that the check isn’t really a bonus. It’s your money and always has been. You get the check because over the course of the year too much was withheld from your paycheck. The government has been holding this excess withholding, interest free, for up to a year—and now you get to have it back. So the annual boost is the result of a mistake, not a reward for dutifully going to work every day and filing your taxes on time. Sadly, it’s those that can least afford to lend the government money interest-free that do it the most. Pew found that households with the lowest incomes are most likely to look forward to doing their taxes, suggesting that they are most likely to get a refund—which further suggests that they are doing the poorest job of managing their withholding. Being over withheld may not seem like a big deal. Especially now, with interest rates so low, it’s not like having $3,000 in the bank will kick off much income. If you were collecting 1% in a savings account it<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77699&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Financial Planning</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/planning/financial-planning/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>Big Brother: How the Obama Budget Helps Ordinary Savers (at Some Risk)</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/12/big-brother-how-the-obama-budget-helps-ordinary-savers-at-some-risk/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/12/big-brother-how-the-obama-budget-helps-ordinary-savers-at-some-risk/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:00:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[401(k) Savings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Estate Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77583</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The newly released White House budget addresses the savings needs of ordinary Americans in a big-brother kind of way. But it does little to address our nation’s overall financial illiteracy. In 244 pages, the Obama budget makes not a single mention of “financial education” or “financial literacy.” The budget does offer measures to beef up math education and help students finish college, both of which are linked to smarter personal money management. Still, when it comes to things like mortgages and retirement saving, this president favors the hand of big brother over initiatives that would help people help themselves. To be fair, the president has embraced financial education at a certain level. We have a formal national strategy for financial literacy and a couple high-level commissions coordinating private and public sector financial education efforts. These groups have done a great job developing helpful consumer websites like moneyasyougrow.org and mymoney.gov. But this work is nowhere near as high profile as that of the watchdog Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has an education component but mainly regulates consumer financial institutions. (MORE: Obama&#8217;s Budget Would Cap Tax-Advantaged Savings) The Obama budget would help ordinary Americans save by making tax-favored retirement accounts more widely available and automatic. Roughly half of American workers have no workplace retirement plan; only one in 10 who are eligible to contribute to an Individual Retirement Account do so. To fill this gap, the budget would automatically enroll workers without employer-based plans in IRAs through payroll deductions. These workers would be free to opt out. But most in such plans do not. Some would be eligible for a saver’s tax credit, further boosting what they are able to put away. Small employers would be eligible for tax credits to defray any administrative costs. The budget helps clarify the extent to which the White House sees tax-favored accounts as a tool for middle and lower income groups. As reported here, the budget would cap the amount anyone can save in tax-advantaged accounts at around $3 million. “Under current rules, some wealthy<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77583&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Financial Planning</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/planning/financial-planning/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>Obama&#8217;s Budget Would Cap Tax-Advantaged Savings</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/10/obamas-budget-would-cap-tax-advantaged-savings/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/10/obamas-budget-would-cap-tax-advantaged-savings/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[401(k) Savings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Estate Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tax Policy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77347</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Some of us have worried for decades that when America’s tax-advantaged savings pot got large enough, our perpetually revenue-challenged federal government would raid the nest egg. All that untaxed growth would simply prove irresistible. That day may be at hand. President Obama’s budget, just sent to Congress, proposes to cap tax-advantaged savings across all accounts at $3 million in order to raise $9 billion over 10 years. The proposal is being spun as a way to prevent wealthy private-equity executives from amassing huge IRAs—like Mitt Romney’s, once estimated to be worth as much as $100 million. But it would also curb the savings ability of self-employed professionals like doctors and lawyers. As these business owners reach the cap, and there’s nothing left in it for them, they might shut down or reduce plans that benefit their employees. (MORE: Young Workers with a 401(k) Finally Get Diversified) The cap proposal is a clear play to unlock some of the $10 trillion sitting in IRA and 401(k) accounts, which have become the primary retirement savings vehicles in America. Congress pried this door open a few months ago by toying with a law forcing heirs to liquidate an IRA within five years—almost certainly triggering otherwise avoidable income-tax payments. We may see that yet. Now the president is wedging the door open further with a proposal that targets the wealthy. This is how it starts. What’s next? Taxing the growth in Roth IRAs? Social Security benefits were once sacred and unencumbered. That began to change about 30 years ago; today roughly 85% of Social Security recipients pay some kind of income tax. The attack has not let up. The president’s new budget seeks to cut future Social Security benefit increases by tweaking the inflation formula. Now lawmakers are moving on to the next bucket of cash. It’s not clear how the IRA cap would be enforced. Would savings beyond $3 million be disallowed? Or taxed right away? If you already have more than $3 million in IRA and 401(k) accounts, might you be forced<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77347&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Retirement</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/retirement-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/biz-obama-taxes-1116.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">image: President Barack Obama speaks during a press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Nov. 14, 2012.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>Retirement Saving: Piecing Together a Perfect Portfolio</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/04/retirement-saving-piecing-together-a-perfect-portfolio/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/04/retirement-saving-piecing-together-a-perfect-portfolio/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:00:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=75433</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Saving for retirement has a new look. No longer a concern that can wait until mid-life, putting away money for the long term starts with your first job and continues for at least four decades. Thankfully, the nest-egg building process has become simpler with innovations like target-date and exchange-traded mutual funds. Starting early and saving unwaveringly is the only way that most people will manage to lock up financial security by age 65—and afford the life they envision for the rest of their years. That’s because traditional pensions are all but gone and Social Security looks more like a meal plan than a retirement plan. The onus of retirement income has been shifted from employers and government to individuals, and the only dependable way to lighten this burden is to address it at every life turn. Americans are just beginning to understand this shift in responsibility—too late for many. Some 69% of workers say they won’t have a large enough nest egg to retire at age 65 and more than half plan to compensate by working longer than they’d like, according to the 2012 Transamerica Retirement Readiness survey. Young people have been especially slow to grasp the new look of retirement saving; they mistakenly view retirement security as an issue to tackle down the road. Wells Fargo found that just 13% of Millennials (largely the children of boomers) elect to participate in a 401(k) plan. Workers under age 35 have the lowest savings rate of any group, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. The reason for this, the center found, is “deeply rooted in psychology: when an event such as retirement is far in the future, people tend to distance themselves from it.” (MORE: How to Draw Down Your Nest Egg: 3 Alternatives to the 4% Rule) But many who put off saving do so in part because they are not sure how to go about it and don’t trust financial advisers to give them the best information. Saving smart throughout life isn’t as difficult as<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=75433&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retirement</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/retirement-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/retirement1.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">retirement</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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