Cohort Differences in Wealth and Pension Participation of Near-Retirees

Howard Iams, U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA)
Irena Dushi, U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA)

As the baby-boomers approach retirement it is important to know how they will fare in retirement relative to earlier cohorts. Many social and economic changes have occurred during the last half of the twentieth century, changes that are likely to affect the retirement well being of recent cohorts in many ways. In this paper we compare retirement economic resources of two cohorts of near retirees. Particularly we look at people born in 1933-1939 who were 55-61 years old in 1994, and the more recent cohort consisting of people of the same age (55-61) in 2004 who were born in 1943-1949. In this study, we take a narrower view, and focus on only two potential income resources for retirement: total net worth and pension participation (a proxy for pension wealth). We use data from Health and Retirement Study.