[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″ el_class=”section section1″][vc_column_text]It’s yet another year, and everyone is worried about their retirement security and how to keep it high. Did you know that policymakers can either help or prevent retirement security in 2019? A lot of people are concerned about retirement stems regarding uncertainty about working at older ages since most of them would love to work longer if given a chance. This is either to help them to stay active and productive or so that they can boost their savings. The rest of their concerns revolve around Social Security, savings, debts and the profoundly increasing costs of health care.
Policymakers have the power to shape five economic trends this year which are debt, health care, savings, jobs and Social Security, which can profoundly help or hinder retirement security improvements.
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Some seniors face challenges trying to secure jobs than others. The level of unemployment keeps rising, and it is even worse for the Latinos, and the African-Americans compared to the whites.
Secondly; the policymakers should work on policies that provide workers with more access to retirement savings. You will realize that most employees do not have access to savings plans such as IRAs and 401(k). This mostly applies to the people of color, those with a low level of education and those working under small employers. They should look up to states like California and Orgon which have already started to implement state-sponsored savings plans for individuals who have no access saving plans at their work.
The third case is where the policymakers can put more efforts on expanding Social Security, which is an excellent way of eliminating cases of insufficient retirement savings. Over the past few years, such cases have gotten no attention as the Congress focused more on tax cuts proposals for corporations and high earners. This has resulted to the woes of the ordinary citizens being taken for granted, but there is hope that with the new majority in the House of Representatives and the presidential elections coming up soon, momentum could shift towards such woes.
Fourth, the policymakers should observe the interest rates as high rates will directly increase costs for the retirees. According to calculations made as per the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, the results showed that many retirees, up to 60.3% in 2016 had some form of debts some which included a credit card balance of $2,000. Increased interest rates only make the income inequality even worse, and the retirees will suffer a lot.
The fifth scenario involves the health care costs which can profoundly affect inflation. For the last few years, the Affordable Care Act has put some efforts to ensure that healthcare inflation is balanced with price increases. In 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had anticipated the health care inflation to increase at a higher rate than price increases. This may also be witnessed in 2019. Increased health care costs could lead workers to spend their retirement income, and even worse, they could end up in out of pocket spending.
Medicaid expansion in many states could help in balancing healthcare inflation as prices increases in most services tend to rise at a slower rate in Medicaid than private insurance.
Most households are still struggling with preparations for retirement. They all aim at having enough to cater for them in their retirement age, but circumstances won’t let them get there. The bottom line is that a strong labor market, Social Security protection, accessibility to retirement savings and low-interest rates and health care inflation can significantly help in boosting retirement income security. Policymakers should have these aspects looked into.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”35964″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
