Archive: Brief

House model on coins stack for saving to buy a house

The brief’s key findings are: Workers in high-cost areas of the U.S. earn more than those with similar skills in low-cost areas. Earnings levels affect Social Security benefits, which replace a smaller share of wages for higher earners and do not account for local prices. In response, households in high-cost areas might save more, work longer, or…

An investor's analyzing the alternatives etf fund on a screen

Fiscal year 2022 was a difficult one for state and local pension plans, with the decline in the stock market erasing much of the gains from 2021. And, recent media reports by Pensions and Investments, the Wall Street Journal, and others have suggested that alternative investments are one reason why reported returns don’t look worse.S…