An accessible and practical guide to personal finance that busts myths, clarifies jargons and clarifies the best options for building your wealth More and more people are reassessing their lives as a result of the pandemic. Many have left their jobs or reduced their hours. Others have resolved to work only as long as they must, retiring early to focus on families and friends, hobbies or travel. Meanwhile, employers all over the world are experimenting with a four-day week. Making the most of these choices requires having and growing enough money to enjoy your future life, without needing to worry about it running out. But when it comes to investing in a pension, there is a dizzying number of complex options available. This book is designed to provide clear, objective guidance that cuts through the jargon, giving you control over your financial future. The authors strip away the marketing-speak, and through simple graphs, charts and diagrams, provide an evidence-based money manual that you can use again and again. They also alert you to myths and get-rich-quick schemes everyone should avoid. It's a highly practical and refreshingly honest book, written by two independent experts who have seen how the investment industry works from the inside, and how it profits from complexity, ignorance and fear. They show, in practical language, how UK savers and investors can beat this system and, crucially, make more money for themselves than they do for financial services firms.

In the 1990s, numerous Latin American nations privatized their public pension systems. These reforms dramatically transformed the way these countries provide retirement income, and they provoked widespread protests from workers and pensioners alike. Retiring the State represents the first book-length study of the origins of this surprising trend. Drawing on original field research, including interviews with key policymakers, Madrid argues that the recent reforms were driven not by social policy, but by macroeconomic concerns. Countries facing growing financial pressures chose to privatize their pension systems largely to boost their domestic savings rates and reduce public pension spending in the long run. The author explores his arguments through detailed case studies of pension reform in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, a survey of social security privatization efforts in East Europe and Latin America as a whole, and a quantitative analysis of pension privatization worldwide.

We are all approaching retirement but what should we expect? For some, it is a happy prospect. Others approach retirement knowing they face hardship and social exclusion. Amid alarming predictions of a 'demographic time bomb', governments and the private pensions industry urge everyone to plan and save now, but admit that there are risks. But will the pension funds deliver on their promises? Will the rich increasingly retire early but the poor work for longer? How reliable are state pension schemes? Do the USA, Sweden, or Australia have a 'better' approach to retirement pensions than the UK? Approaching retirement tackles these and many other questions from a number of sociological perspectives. Using the idea of the social division of welfare as a template, different approaches to retirement pensions policy are assessed and their strengths and weaknesses clearly presented. This book will be an invaluable resource for social science students at all levels and for those who teach them. Economists and pension practitioners will also find food for thought here.

This volume develops an original critique of the belief that the present era of finance, where finance markets dominate contemporary capitalist economies, represents the best possible way of organising economic affairs. In fact, it is argued, the ensuing economic instability and inefficiency create the preconditions for the end of the dominance of finance. The End of Finance develops a theory of capital market inflation rooted in the work of Veblen, Kalecki, Keynes and Minsky, demonstrating how it disinclines productive activity on the part of firms, provides only short-term conditions that are propitious for privatisation and distorts monetary policy in the long-term. The author examines the role of pension fund schemes and financial derivatives in transmitting capital market inflation and provides a nuanced analysis of the contradictory role they play in the financial system. Capital market inflation is also examined in its historical context and compared with past inflations, in particular the South Sea and Mississippi Bubbles, which spawned the first financial derivatives, and the first privatisations. This broad historical vision allows us to see these forms of inflation as temporary and provisional in character.

This book focuses on relatively unexplored areas in pension and health care arrangements, including financing, in East Asia. The book aims to fill the literature gap on social protection in East Asia by covering issues such as pension and health care arrangements in the depopulating high income countries of Japan and Korea; the challenges of the pay-out phase in Defined Contribution (DC) arrangements in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore; and the extension of coverage of social protection schemes in China, India, and Indonesia. It also reviews social protection from a much wider perspective and extends coverage of social protection in terms of both the proportion of the population with access to the social protection scheme and the types of risks faced by the households and by society as a whole. The book also gives attention to reforms of civil service pensions.

First published in 1992, this book explains how pension funds work in order to highlight their impact on the economy as a whole. David Blake explores the different systems in operation at the time of writing, both state run and private sector, and describes policy initiatives such as personal pension schemes. Longer life-expectancy, overseas investment, equal opportunities and short-termism in capital markets are among the issues discussed as David Blake assesses how pension funds typically behave. This is a title of continued relevance, which addresses the questions repeatedly raised within government and wider society.

First published in 1992, this title conducts an in-depth examination of the investment behaviour of pension funds, presenting the first econometric model in this area. Using the well-established framework of modern portfolio theory, David Blake derives a model of optimal portfolio behaviour that explains pension fund asset holdings in terms of the most important macroeconomic and cyclical indicators. He shows how factors such as industry profitability, the balance of payments and the monetary and fiscal policies of the government influence pension fund investments. Broad in scope, this reissue will be of particular value to students and academics with an interest in econometrics, investment analysis and the pension fund industry.

"Global Portfolio Diversification" synthesizes principal debates between analysts and academics. Covering subjects such as risk management, diversification and hedging strategies, deviations from market efficiency, and exchange rates, the book includes case studies, research, and commentary by the editors. Essayists include two past presidents of the American Finance Association and the current editors of the Journal of Finance and Economic Inquiry, as well as senior market regulators, financial managers, and representatives of international securities exchanges. It includes features that: deal with increased interest in the globalization of financial markets; cover managing and hedging risks; analyze microstructures and analyses; and show how to implement portfolio diversification. It is prepared by an international team of leading financial academics and portfolio managers.

This book traces and analyzes the legislation and implementation of pension reforms in four Central, Eastern and Southeastern European countries: Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. By comparing the political economy of their policymaking processes, it seeks to pinpoint regularities between institutional settings, actor constellations, decision-making strategies and reform. Guardiancich employs a historical institutionalist framework to analyze the policies, actors and institutions that characterized the period between the collapse of socialism and the global financial crisis of 2008-2011. He argues that viable pension reforms should not be seen simply as an event, but rather as a continuing process that must be fiscally, socially and politically sustainable. In particular, the primary goal of a pension scheme is to reduce poverty, provide adequate retirement income and insure against the risks of old age within given fiscal constraints, and this will happen only if the scheme enjoys continuing political support at all levels. To this end the author individuates those institutional characteristics of countries that increase the consistency of reforms and lower the likelihood of policy reversals in time. Pension Reforms in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, political economy, social policy and economics.

First published in 1992, this title conducts an in-depth examination of the investment behaviour of pension funds, presenting the first econometric model in this area. Using the well-established framework of modern portfolio theory, David Blake derives a model of optimal portfolio behaviour that explains pension fund asset holdings in terms of the most important macroeconomic and cyclical indicators. He shows how factors such as industry profitability, the balance of payments and the monetary and fiscal policies of the government influence pension fund investments. Broad in scope, this reissue will be of particular value to students and academics with an interest in econometrics, investment analysis and the pension fund industry.

First published in 1992, this book explains how pension funds work in order to highlight their impact on the economy as a whole. David Blake explores the different systems in operation at the time of writing, both state run and private sector, and describes policy initiatives such as personal pension schemes. Longer life-expectancy, overseas investment, equal opportunities and short-termism in capital markets are among the issues discussed as David Blake assesses how pension funds typically behave. This is a title of continued relevance, which addresses the questions repeatedly raised within government and wider society.

The author presents a new approach to the study of private pensions in the united States and Canada. Whereas traditional approaches focus on the firm as the key to analyzing pension obligations and the impact of pensions on economic processes, Sahin takes the individual worker as the unit of analysis. The evolution of costs and benefits are then determined over the work life, which may include several jobs and membership in different pension plans. "The Worklife Report"

Sahin presents a new approach to the study of private pensions in the United States and Canada. While traditional approaches focus on the firm as the key to analyzing pension obligations and the impact of pensions on economic processes, Sahin takes the individual worker as the unit of analysis. The evolution of costs and benefits are then determined over the work life, which may include several jobs and membership in different pension plans. Because the conventional approaches generally assume no job mobility and a single employer, Sahin demonstrates, they fail to adequately reflect the actual status of individual pension benefits, the effects of job mobility, and the unequal distribution of pension benefits to individuals with comparable working lives and wage profiles.

To gain a clear view of private pensions and their impact on workers, employers, and public policy, Sahin shows that an analytical model that takes into account the interaction of job mobility, inflation, vesting rules, pension coverage, and portability must be employed. By taking the worker as the unit of analysis and emphasizing the dynamics of pension accumulation, Sahin is able to properly assess pension benefits from the perspective of the individual worker who needs to make rational job decisions, from the point of view of the employer concerned with the efficient and economical use of human resources, and from the public policy standpoint where the issue is the overall effectiveness of the private pension system. A pioneering contribution to the study of pension benefits, this volume will be of significant value to employee benefit specialists, policymakers, actuaries, and financial advisors.

Praise for PENSION FINANCE

"Pension Finance is a comprehensive, integrated, and self-contained offering on the structure, management, and oversight of defined benefit pension plans, carefully composed by a prime observer and practitioner in the defined benefit pension world. . . an important and most needed contribution to defined benefit pension knowledge. Whether a prime academic researcher, experienced public policymaker, seasoned private-sector practitioner, or novice student of retirement finance, the reader is in for a treat: bon appetit "--Robert C. Merton, MIT

"This book is a major advance in the literature of pension finance, breaking much new ground in the market value approach to pension finance. Thorough and hard-hitting, Waring warns that many will consider his blunt views to be 'controversial' or even 'heretical.' But his approach sheds a much-needed bright light on the fundamental nature of pension liability. There are also many valuable suggestions about how to structure an asset portfolio that addresses these now more clearly defined liabilities, given a specific fund's risk tolerance, contingent reserves, back-up resources, and payment schedule."--Martin Leibowitz, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley

"The value of Pension Finance is not in propounding any new or novel finance ideas, but in systematically explaining the guts of the actuarial process, and then restating the process in sound terms. After reading this book, those involved in the pension arena will understand the causes of the pension crisis and appreciate how easy the 'right answers' are once those causes are understood."--Frank Fabozzi, Professor of Finance, EDHEC Business School and Editor, The Journal of Portfolio Management

"Pension Finance is now the seminal work on the subject and should be required reading for policymakers, practitioners, and plan fiduciaries. Waring makes a compelling and persuasive case that the only way to ensure the long-term viability of defined benefit plans is to accurately measure the true costs and risks of providing the benefits and provisioning accordingly."--Bradley D. Belt, former Director, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and Senior Managing Director, Milken Institute

"Pension Finance draws cross-disciplinary lessons learned the hard way to set in motion a much-needed overhaul of the U.S. defined benefit pension system. Waring's risk management approach will help guide corporate and public plan sponsors to better measure, pay for, and manage their pension assets and liabilities using modern financial principles. Chock-full of examples and sometimes sad lessons from the pension trenches, this book will set the terms of debate for corporate boards and public plan trustees, consultants and actuaries, unions and financial advisors, and most of all, policymakers seeking to return the U.S. retirement system to health." --Olivia S. Mitchell, Professor of Insurance & Risk Management/Business & Public Policy The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

This book traces and analyzes the legislation and implementation of pension reforms in four Central, Eastern and Southeastern European countries: Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. By comparing the political economy of their policymaking processes, it seeks to pinpoint regularities between institutional settings, actor constellations, decision-making strategies and reform. Guardiancich employs a historical institutionalist framework to analyze the policies, actors and institutions that characterized the period between the collapse of socialism and the global financial crisis of 2008-2011. He argues that viable pension reforms should not be seen simply as an event, but rather as a continuing process that must be fiscally, socially and politically sustainable. In particular, the primary goal of a pension scheme is to reduce poverty, provide adequate retirement income and insure against the risks of old age within given fiscal constraints, and this will happen only if the scheme enjoys continuing political support at all levels. To this end the author individuates those institutional characteristics of countries that increase the consistency of reforms and lower the likelihood of policy reversals in time. Pension Reforms in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, political economy, social policy and economics.

Dr. Nektarios examines the principles and criteria under lying public pension programs and assesses the effect of these programs on general economic growth. He begins by discussing the economic rationale of public pensions, then analyzes the influence of economic and demographic variables on the cost of a pension program and the effects of public pension systems on aggregate levels of income and capital stock. Suggesting that Feldstein's social security wealth(SSW) variable overestimates the amount of wealth generated by public pensions, Dr. Nektarios constructs a new SSW variable and uses it to estimate the impact of the u.s. Old Age and Survivors Insurance(OASI) program on capital formation and economic growth in the U.S. economy. The results of his econometric analysis suggest that operation of the OASI program has reduced capital formation by 10to 14 percent.

Written for first-time buyers who have never owned a property or had a mortgage, rather than buy-to-let investors. Provides a holistic view of the property purchase process, and examines several key aspects: property, mortgages, and legal considerations. Written by academics who have extensive practical experience in property and mortgages.

Praise For "The Retirement Plan Solution"

"Short, clear, complete, and always interesting. Best book on DC plans and what we should do-now."
--Charles D. Ellis, author, "Winning the Loser's Game"

"At a time when the world is in turmoil, along with retirement expectations, the authors have hit a home run. After reading this book, I have a plan. Read it for your path to retirement security."
--Dallas Salisbury, President and CEO, Employee Benefit Research Institute

""The Retirement Plan Solution" offers a refreshing and provocative perspective on how to assess retirement needs, save to meet these needs, and manage the retirement payout process. In this time of financial turmoil, employees, plan sponsors, and financial advisors will find this highly practical resource volume both useful and humorous."
--Olivia S. Mitchell, Director, Pension Research Council, Wharton School

""The Retirement Plan Solution" is a map to the future of 401(k) retirement plans. But it is not just a theoretical view of what could be. Instead, the authors describe the needs and trends that are already here, and then describe the changes that are developing to meet those needs. It is about the tomorrow that is happening today."
--Fred Reish, Managing Director, Reish Luftman Reicher & Cohen

"The respected authors have created a readable, timely, and very helpful book on all aspects of retirement planning. The suggestions are practical, the information is concise, and the book is highly recommended for anyone that is interested in sound financial planning."
--Moshe A. Milevsky, PhD, Finance Professor, York University, Toronto, Canada

"This is a must-read for people working in the retirement industry, as well as those who simply care about how to improve their chance of reaching a financially secure retirement. In a clear and simple fashion, the authors deliver one of the best books to date on inefficiencies in the current DC plan and potential improvements."
--Peng Chen, President, Ibbotson Associates

Superannuation was once a privilege granted only to company head office staff and career public servants. Now in Australia nearly all workers have access to employer-contributed superannuation, and it is a fundamental pillar of Australia's retirement income system. Workers' Capital tells the story of the Australian superannuation revolution led by trade unions in the 1980s. After a series of hard-fought industrial campaigns, an enormous financial industry was created, involving hundreds of thousands of employers and covering millions of fund members. From having one of the worst retirement savings systems in the developed world, in three decades Australia had one of the best. Now the funds held in Australian superannuation accounts exceed the entire market capitalisation of all the companies on the Australian Stock Exchange. Drawing on interviews with the key players and extensive archival research, Workers' Capital is the first systematic history of the unique Australian system of industry superannuation. 'Startling and informative-I thought I knew a lot about the industry superannuation phenomenon, but this one took me by surprise. For a topic so important, a real page-turner.'Gerard Noonan, Chair of Media Super, former editor of Australian Financial Review

As pension fund systems decrease and dependency ratios increase, risk management is becoming more complex in public and private pension plans. Pension Fund Risk Management: Financial and Actuarial Modeling sheds new light on the current state of pension fund risk management and provides new technical tools for addressing pension risk from an integrated point of view.

Divided into four parts, the book first presents the correct measurement of risk in pension funds, fund dynamics under a performance-oriented arrangement, an attribution model for monitoring the performance and risk of a defined benefit (DB) pension fund, and an optimal investment problem of a defined contribution (DC) pension fund under inflationary risk. It also describes a pension plan from a dynamic optimization viewpoint, the optimal asset allocation of U.S. pension funds, the identification of stakeholders risks, value-at-risk (VaR) methodology, and various effects on the asset allocation of DB pension schemes.

The second section focuses on the effects of uncertainty on employer-provided DB private pension plan liabilities; wage-based lump sum payments by death, retirement, or dismissal by the employer; fundamental retirement changes; occupational pension insurance in Germany; and longevity risk securitization in pension schemes.

In the third part, the book examines employers risks, accountability rules and regulations, useful actuarial analysis instruments, risk-based solvency regime in the Netherlands, and the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis on pension participants.

The final part covers DB pension freezes and terminations of plans, the two-pillar social security system of Italy, the Greek social security system, the effect of a company s unfunded pension liabilities on its stock market valuation, and the returns of Spanish balanced pension plans and portfolio performance.

With contributions from well-known, international academics and professionals, this book will assist pension fund executives, risk managers, consultants, and academic researchers in attaining a clear picture of the integration of risks in the pension world. It offers a comprehensive, contemporary account of how to handle the risks involved with pension funds.

Existing literature has looked at many factors which have shaped Chinese pension reforms. As China's pension reform proceeds in an expanding and localising fashion, this book argues that there is a pressing need to examine it in the context of China's political institutions and economic transformations. The book takes a unique approach by looking at political institutions of the Chinese state and the changing conditions of the Chinese economy, which rarely receive proper treatment in the current analysis of China's pension reforms.

The Oxford Handbook of Pensions and Retirement Income is the only comprehensive review available of the latest research, policy-related tools, analytical methods and techniques, and major theoretical frameworks and principles of pension and retirement income. Featuring over forty contributions from leading academic and professional experts, the handbook draws on research from a range of academic disciplines to reflect on the implications for current and future provision of pension and retirement income of demographic ageing, the changing financial circumstances of nation states, and globalization. An indispensable desk reference for researchers and practitioners in the area, it is also essential for policymakers and those with broad interests which include this very important area. Contributors: William C. Apgar, Camila Arza, Anthony Asher, Vickie L. Bajtelsmit, Armando Barrientos, Rob Bauer, Gary Burtless, John Y. Campbell, Gordon L. Clark, Adam Creighton, E Philip Davis, Johan J. De Deken, Zhu Xiao Di, Richard Disney, Bernhard Ebbinghaus, Robin Ellison, Ewald Engelen, Gosta Esping-Andersen, Teresa Ghilarducci, Tryggvi Thor Herbertsson, Roy P.M.M. Hoevenaars, Tony Hope, Yu-Wei Hu, Paul Johnson, Andre Laboul, Florence Legros, David McCarthy, Warren McGillivray, Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Marilyn Moon, Alicia H. Munnell, John Myles, David Neumark, Naohiro Ogawa, J. Michael Orszag, Hanam S. Phang, John Piggott, Eduard Ponds, James Poterba, Neha Sand, Steven Sass, Julian Savulescu, Tom B.M. Steenkamp, Annika Sunden, Noriyuki Takayama, Patricia Thane, Ian Tonks, Bart van Riel, Steven F. Venti, Luis M. Viceira, Noel Whiteside, Geoffrey Whittington, David A. Wise, and Juan Yermo.

The economic demands of an ageing population, coupled with the crisis of public spending pose one of the greatest challenges to social policy in both the East and West. This book focuses on the political economy of pensions, particularly on the interaction between private and state provision. Enterprise and the Welfare State argues that there is more to welfare than simply provision by the state and so the focus of this book is on the welfare society rather than the welfare state. This requires a new system of statistical accounting and a different focus for case studies. A multidisciplinary approach is used to examine the design of the pensions system in nine countries with different institutional welfare mixes. Using a common conceptual framework, it compares and contrasts the goals and realities of the welfare systems in France, Germany, The Netherlands and Sweden, where strong occupational pensions are in operation, with the more modest welfare states in Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Each country case study provides a grounded analysis of the evolution of pension design and traces the impact of the policies on the economic well-being of the aged and the performance of the economy. It offers new data on the level of spending of enterprise based occupational pensions and examines the implications for redistribution resulting from changes in the design of state and occupational pensions. This book will be essential reading for academics, students and public policymakers interested in the economics of welfare, social policy and the future of pension provision.

How to deliver adequate pension benefits at reasonable costs is a huge challenge confronting our ageing societies. This book delivers a comprehensive overview of the latest insights into pension finance, pension system design, pension governance and risk based supervision. It combines state-of-the-art analyses with innovative policy proposals to increase the efficiency and resilience of pension systems and to advance these systems' contribution to global financial stability. Renowned pension experts offer cutting-edge guidance for future decision making and the development of best practices. This exciting exploration of the frontiers in pension finance highlights key aspects of securing long term retirement provisions. Frontiers in Pension Finance will be of interest to a wide-ranging audience, especially academic researchers, pension practitioners, supervisors and public sector policymakers.

While not attempting to train readers as professional economists, this book aims to provide a secure grounding in the theory and practice of economics insofar as it deals with pension matters. From reading this book, the user will understand:
* The key types of pension scheme
* The role of pensions in maximizing individual lifetime welfare
* The role of pensions in individual savings and retirement decisions
* The role and consequences of the pension plan from the company's viewpoint
* The role of pensions in promoting aggregate savings
* The role of pensions and retirement in overlapping generations models
* The economics of ageing and intergenerational accounting
* The social welfare implications of pensions
* The lessons of behavioural economics for pensions