This Nobel Prize Winner's Simple Idea Gave Retirement Savers a $7.6 Billion Boost
Nobel Prize winners include some of the best and brightest in their professions, and many of the ideas that winners of the coveted prize have are fairly esoteric. This year, though, the Nobel Prize winner for economics, Richard Thaler, earned the award through work in studying how people make financial decisions. Some of the findings of Thaler's research have already made a massive difference in the way that Americans save and invest. One idea in particular has had a multi-billion-dollar annual impact and will continue to be important in the years to come.
Americans tend not to save enough of their earnings to cover their expenses in retirement. Despite the availability of Social Security as a supplement to help cover some living expenses after one retires, the intent of the program was never to replace work income fully. Yet the disappearance of other support systems, most notably the private pension system, has made it more important than ever for individuals to take matters into their own hands by finding ways to save.
Illustration: Niklas Elmehed. Copyright © Nobel Media AB 2017.
Source: Fool.com
