Retirement

Writing for MarketWatch, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, discusses the importance of ensuring that retirees have access to quality healthcare. “Given demographic shifts in the medical profession as well as healthcare-industry restructuring, understanding where, and from whom, you will be accessing quality personal care that fits your unique health conditions, just when you most need it most, must now be part of an overall longevity plan that extends well beyond money,” writes Coughlin.

MIT AgeLab director Joseph Coughlin writes for Forbes that Tom Brady’s second retirement from the NFL demonstrates how those planning for retirement “need to plan for longevity, not the one-and-done retirement we think of today.” Coughlin adds: “Planning for your retirement years means identifying the many different retirements you may have in what has been incorrectly defined as a single life stage and experience. Maybe it will be a traditional retirement, but maybe it won’t.”

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have found that senior citizens in the U.S. are more likely to live independently if there are more immigrants in an area, reports Stuart Anderson for Forbes. “The study found a 10-percentage point increase in the less-educated immigrant population in an area reduces by 29% the probability someone 65 years or older would live in a nursing home or other institutional setting,” writes Anderson.

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have found that U.S. senior citizens are more likely to live independently if there are more immigrants in an area, reports Stuart Anderson for Forbes. This study suggests that the supply of immigrant labor "affects caregiving arrangements, and allows more older Americans to age in the community,” write the researchers.

Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, writes for Forbes about the three major risk factors to consider when planning where to live in retirement. “Retirement planning can’t control the weather,” writes Coughlin. “However, critically and realistically assessing our personal resilience and how to best prepare for the possible risks of where I live, is a critical element to thinking about how I will live in older age.”

MIT AgeLab director Joseph Coughlin writes for Forbes about why many former retirees are returning to the workforce. “These older adults are inventing something that is neither our current idea of retirement or of work,” writes Coughlin. “They are quietly creating something else — a new life stage altogether that sees the retirement age of today as a mile marker, not an exit.”

Writing for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, emphasizes the importance of friendships in retirement. “Comprehensive longevity planning is about living well in later life, not just financial planning,” writes Coughlin. “Without rich social connections, health, even coupled with ample wealth, might still result in unhappiness in older age. It appears that men, in particular, must work harder than most women to invest and build their social portfolio.”

Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, writes for Forbes about the impact Baby Boomer and Gen X retirement can have on the increasing labor shortage in the United States. “While some millennials can’t wait for the Boomers and older Gen X’ers to step aside in the job market, there are critical labor shortfalls in many key industries that will be sharply felt by Millennials as consumers and as the next generation of leadership in business and government,” writes Coughlin.

In an article for the Financial Times, Prof. Robert Merton underscores the importance of providing workers with financial security in retirement and explains Selfies (Standard-of-living indexed, forward-starting, income-only securities), a pension-like bond innovation he helped create. “More such innovative instruments from academics, politicians and others are needed if we are to ensure more people can retire with resources that can withstand inflation and provide the security they need,” Merton writes. 

Wall Street Journal reporter Mark Hulbert writes that a new study by MIT researchers finds that most investors “can do much better than the one-size-fits-all approach to equity allocations that target-date funds offer for your retirement portfolio.”

In an article for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, explores what Betty White’s long life and career can teach us about longevity, work and retirement. “We will all miss Betty White,” writes Coughlin. “However, if we only remember her lifetime of work for the smiles that she brought to our faces, we may have missed her finest role – how to live a long life, well.”

U.S. News & World Report reporter Coryanne Hicks spotlights MIT AgeLab director Joe Coughlin’s paper which explores how Americans reevaluated their retirement plans as a result of the pandemic.

Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, writes for Forbes about the importance of comprehensive longevity planning. “As younger adults in their 30s, 40s, and 50s today, Millennials and Gen X’ers are catching a glimpse of their possible future selves in their parents aging,” writes Coughlin. “Now is the time to ask how are today’s choices and behaviors defining their older self tomorrow?” 

Writing for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, emphasizes the importance of including climate change as part of retirement planning. “Preparing for possible conditions and costs of climate change should now be part of our retirement plan,” writes Coughlin.

Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, writes for Forbes about the importance of including story-based planning when anticipating retirement. “Crafting a retirement story explains why we do certain things, helps us share and discuss with others what is important to us and why, and enables us to anticipate possible futures – both desired and undesired,” writes Coughlin.