Savings

This report shines a light on the central role that short-term financial stability plays in a person’s ability to reach broader financial security and upward economic mobility.

Workers are leaving behind small pools of retirement savings as they bounce from one short-lived job to the next.

This brief explores the possibility of linking a short-term savings, or “sidecar,” account to a traditional retirement account to better meet consumers’ short- and long-term financial needs.

What if you were given the task of designing a retirement system from scratch?

The Financial Security Program spoke with economist Monique Morrissey of the Economic Policy Institute about the state of American retirement and the role of tax incentives.

Numerous studies find that millions of Americans are under-saving for retirement, and psychology and behavioral economics have taught us that there are well-understood problems in decision-making that can cause people to not put enough away for retirement and other needs. The question is how to correct these failures and avoid the considerable hardship that can come with not having enough savings.

It’s hard to imagine that there’s a tax credit that can lower a taxpayer’s bill if he or she saves for retirement in a tax-favored retirement account. This may sound to be too good to be true. But it is true. The IRS has a tax credit that pays people to save for retirement.

Research shows a connection between the financial instability of families and the economic health of communities.

With the steady paycheck disappearing for more workers, income volatility is rising sharply.