Tag: Retirement with Dignity

How do parents get their kids to do something they don’t want to do? Sometimes, they offer a reward: Ice cream, 30 minutes of extra screen time, or perhaps cold, hard cash. As adults, when it comes to saving for retirement, self-discipline isn’t enough; we need rewards. In the United States, such rewards come as tax breaks for people who make contributions to employer-sponsored retirement plans or Individual Retirement Accounts. The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 includes a Saver’s Match provision designed to make things fairer for lower income tax filers. This post considers the act’s supports and whether employers have a role to play in helping workers save for retirement.

Recently overheard at an auto repair shop: “$600! How will I pay for that?” Some version of this conversation happens everyday in the United States. Unexpected expenses catch us by surprise. The question is, how prepared are we to respond?

What will life be like in retirement? How hard will it be to pay the bills if we no longer have a paycheck? Will we have to go back to work? Financial security during retirement is not a given for most workers because Social Security Retirement benefits are typically not enough for retirees to maintain their standard of living without additional sources of support. That’s a big hole in retirement income, which is why the Center for Social Development (CSD) launched the Retirement with Dignity project with support from the Prudential Foundation. Through this project, CSD seeks to understand how lower wage workers might benefit from provisions of the SECURE 2.0 Act, which passed in 2022 to give employers new tools to help workers save for retirement.