Saving for Retirement: The Importance of Planning

In this article, I examine saving and planning behavior
of households whose head is only a few years away
from retirement using data from the Health and
Retirement Study (HRS), a survey of a sample of U.S.
households in which the head was born between 1931
and 1941. This survey reports detailed information on
wealth and the retirement process, with a focus on
health, participation in labor markets, and economic and
psychosocial factors. These data provide the researcher
with an unusually rich set of information to analyze
household behavior. I also use data from the Survey of
Consumer Finances (SCF), a triennial survey of U.S. families
sponsored by the Board of Governors of the Federal
Reserve System. This survey is designed to provide
detailed information on families' balance sheets and
their use of financial services. Finally, in a few instances,
data from the 1997 Retirement Confidence Survey are
mentioned; this survey collected information on
American workers' retirement planning and saving
behavior (Yakoboski and Dickemper, 1997).