Woman's hand holding a pen looking a spreadsheet

Households ‘At Risk’: A Closer Look at the Bottom Third

Issue Brief by Alicia H. Munnell, Anthony Webb, Francesca N. Golub-Sass, and Pamela Perun

January 1, 2007

Introduction The Center’s National Retirement Risk Index (NRRI) provides a measure of the percentage of households that will be unable to maintain their standard of living in retirement. Issued in June 2006 with numbers based on the 2004 Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, the Index shows that 43 percent of the population will b…

Yikes! How to Think About Risk?

Issue Brief by Alicia H. Munnell, Mauricio Soto, and Steven A. Sass

January 1, 2005

Introduction The same issue keeps reappearing. How to deal with the risk associated with equity investments when evaluating the financial health of retirement systems? Some experts argue that retirement plans holding equities can make smaller funding contributions than those invested primarily in bonds. After all, stocks yield 7 percent, after inflation, and bonds only 3…