ETD Collection

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Author: search.filters.author.Butler, MeganSubject: search.filters.subject.Social security

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    Estimation of retirement adequacy targets for one- and two-adult households from official South African data
    (2012-02-23) Butler, Megan
    Retirement adequacy targets provide an indication as to how much wealth is needed at retirement to provide for an adequate retirement income. These targets have design and strategy implications for social security systems and retirement funds and can be used by individuals to assess their preparedness for retirement. The primary aim of this research was to estimate retirement adequacy targets for one- and two-adult households from Statistics South Africa’s Income and Expenditure Survey 2005/2006. Retirement adequacy targets were expressed as wealth-earnings ratios, defined as the multiple of salary at retirement required for a comfortably adequate retirement. The targets would be sufficient to provide for the higher of the preretirement lifestyle or subsistence living. An important subsidiary aim was to examine consumption behaviour at and in retirement. Non-healthcare consumption was not found to change at retirement if income levels remained at pre-retirement levels. For certain households, healthcare expenditure may increase on retirement and may be funded from the contributions to retirement savings that are no longer required in retirement. The retirement adequacy targets decreased with retirement age but there was not a clear relationship between retirement savings rates and the targets. Retirement adequacy targets decreased with income but were complex functions of household composition, sex of the head of the household, type of settlement, age, home ownership and the retirement savings rate. Where household members retired at different times, the earnings of the younger person during the semi-retirement phase reduced the targets substantially. The retirement adequacy targets estimated implied that the replacement ratio targets used by retirement funds and those suggested in the literature would not provide an adequate retirement income for most households. The results may thus have a significant impact on retirement planning in the future.