Tag Archives: saving

I just finished watching a new documentary on 401(k) plans. It was intended to be an exposé of sorts. The program combined criticisms of the U.S. retirement system and financial services industry with sinister music for added drama. After I …

In sixth grade, I’d take my allowance to Phil’s Pizza, exchange the bills for quarters, and feed a week’s worth of funds into the Pac-Man machine. Within 15 minutes, I was broke. To behavioral economists, I was a case study …

One of the most intriguing retirement studies issued in 2012 was by economists James Poterba of MIT, Steven Venti of Dartmouth, and David Wise of Harvard.* Their study looked at wealth holdings among Americans in their late 60s. And one …

If you first learned how to think about saving and investing as I did, from a passbook savings account, bond funds can seem like a world turned upside down. I was reminded of this a few days ago when an …

Here at Vanguard, we’re in our busy season. As clients set New Year’s resolutions to save more and prep for submitting their taxes, we receive more phone calls and emails. There’s a tradition at Vanguard where employees from around the …

It’s early in 2013. Stocks had a terrific year in 2012, the fiscal cliff has been avoided—and so now’s the perfect time to reconsider your retirement plan, right?

Well, yes and no. Yes, tax time is a good time to …

Anybody can give good advice. But taking the advice we give to others? That’s sometimes easier said than done.

For example, I could probably write the definitive guide to diet and exercise. It would be informative and inspiring, full of …

A colleague sent me a link to “The Juggle,” a Wall Street Journal blog that explores “the choices and trade-offs people make as they juggle work and family.”

The topic was financial planning for “people too busy to plan,” and …

In several of my previous posts, I’ve touched on the importance of starting to save early. It’s a pretty easy case to make—having the benefit of a long time horizon can make a substantial difference in what you can amass …

Retirement systems are dynamic and can be expected to change over time. But one hindrance to thinking about change is the common practice of promoting excessively gloomy views of retirement outcomes in the United States. For example, a recent New …