THE NATIONAL RETIREMENT RISK INDEX: AFTER THE CRASH

The National Retirement Risk Index measures the share of American households who are ‘at risk’ of being unable to maintain their pre-retirement stan­dard of living in retirement. The Index results from comparing households’ projected replacement rates – retirement income as a percent of pre-retirement income – with target rates that would allow them to maintain their living standard. The results showed that even if households work to age 65 and annui­tize all their financial assets, including the receipts from reverse mortgages on their homes, in 2004 43 percent would have been ‘at risk’ of being unable to maintain their standard of living in retirement.