Archive: Alicia H. Munnell

Female Giraffe being gently nudged from male

New experiment finds progress more elusive than expected. Our recent study about debt holdings of older Americans focused our attention on how credit card debt could get people in trouble.  We, like other observers, bemoaned people’s tendency to pay the minimum required amount, and, like other observers, blamed these minimum payments on the prominence of…

Bunch of Piggy bank in lifebuoy on blue sea

The release of the Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) offers an opportunity to reassess Americans’ retirement preparedness as measured by the National Retirement Risk Index (NRRI).  The NRRI estimates the share of American households that are at risk of being unable to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living in retirement.  Constructing t…