Talk:Retirement risk

General Comments
--ThePrune 21:21, 7 September 2011 (EDT) LadyGeek: Thanks for creating this wiki article framework. It'll give us all a place to drop references and facts as we encounter them elsewhere.

--LadyGeek 21:42, 7 September 2011 (EDT) ThePrune: The SOA software report is also useful for an on-going forum thread: Redefining risk (investment risk), as there were a number of comments on the deficiencies of retirement planning tools. The 2009 reports discuss impacts from the 2007-2009 financial crisis (a surprisingly minimal influence). An interesting find, maybe as an example.

I moved the material from this Talk page back into the main article and did a significant reorganization (I was the only contributor in this section). I don't think it makes sense to split risks into pre- and post-retirement. The SOA survey used the same questions for both and then compared responses between pre- and post- retirees. From that, it seems that the concerns are identical, with the only difference being the magnitude of the response (how much was done relative to before / after retirement).

I started with identifying that the selection of the retirement age is the most important risk factor. I think it's similar to picking an investment stock/bond allocation (investment risk level). If you get it right, not much else matters. One option is to delay the start of retirement, so I thought it was important to mention up front. It's not a popular option, as shown later.

Then, I walk through the report at a summary level. There's a lot of added benefit to list the survey details, since it lists the actual risk mitigation technique (pay off the mortgage, pay off your consumer debt, etc.). Maybe that could be the next section in the article.

Is this the right approach?

--LadyGeek 22:20, 11 September 2011 (EDT)


 * I have made a few wordsmithing edits that I hope add clarity to the summaries. --Blbarnitz 17:11, 12 September 2011 (EDT)

I was paraphrasing from the study, which may have introduced some ambiguity.

I added the next (and final?) section which discusses incorporation of risk by first identifying a risk event, then implementing a risk management strategy. In engineering, the reduction or elimination of risk is called risk mitigation. I'm not sure we are reducing risk so much as just living with it (grammar...), which is why I kept the risk management wording. If the phrase risk event is confusing (meaning that the risk is realized), then please correct.

If the article organization is good, then this section is where we can compile a list of risk events and strategies. Other than thinking of more items for the tables, I've gone as far as I can.--LadyGeek 22:33, 12 September 2011 (EDT)


 * I removed the "Under Construction" template and updated the categories, as it's status was set to "complete" in Retirement spending. If anyone feels this was done prematurely, please revert back. --LadyGeek 16:51, 13 September 2011 (EDT)