Building Emergency Savings Through Employer-Sponsored Rainy-day Savings Accounts / John Beshears, James J. Choi, Mark Iwry, David John, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Beshears, John.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Choi, James J.

Iwry, Mark.

John, David.

Laibson, David.

Madrian, Brigitte C.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w26498.

NBER working paper series no. w26498

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2019.

Summary:

Many Americans live paycheck to paycheck, carry revolving credit balances, and have little liquidity to absorb financial shocks. One consequence of this financial vulnerability is that many individuals use a portion of their retirement savings during their working years. For every $1 that flows into 401(k)s and similar accounts, between 30¢ and 40¢ leaks out before retirement (Argento, Bryant, and Sabelhaus 2015). We explore the practical considerations and challenges associated with helping households accumulate liquid savings that can be deployed when urgent pre-retirement needs arise. Automatically enrolling workers into an employer-sponsored "rainy-day" or "emergency" savings account--terms that we use interchangeably in this paper--funded by payroll deduction could be a cost-effective way to achieve this goal. We explore three specific implementation options: (a) after-tax employee 401(k) accounts; (b) deemed Roth IRAs under a 401(k) plan; and (c) depository institution accounts. We evaluate the pros and cons of each approach and conclude that all three approaches merit exploration and field testing.

Notes:

Print version record

November 2019.