How Do Older Households React to Inflation? – Heart for Retirement Analysis

Introduction 

U.S. inflation peaked at 8.9 p.c in June 2022, and, whereas the speed has declined considerably since then, inflation nonetheless stays an vital concern.  That concern is justified in that the primary temporary on this two-part sequence – in addition to quite a few different research – have proven that inflation harms older households by each lowering their consumption and diminishing their wealth.  Most researchers, nonetheless, don’t think about how households react to inflation and the way these reactions might have an effect on their outcomes.  

This temporary builds on the situation evaluation within the first temporary by together with behavioral responses when trying on the impact of inflation on consumption and wealth of close to retirees and retirees.  The behavioral responses come from a brand new survey that explores how older households reacted to current inflation – when it comes to labor provide, saving, and asset allocation.  These responses are integrated into the situation evaluation to offer a extra full image of the impression of inflation on the consumption and wealth of older households.    

The dialogue proceeds as follows.  The primary part briefly recaps the primary findings from the situation evaluation within the first temporary.  The second part describes the survey, which reveals that a good portion of each close to retirees and retirees scale back new saving and improve withdrawals from current accounts, however only some close to retirees delay their deliberate retirement.  Curiously, older households don’t alter their asset allocation in response to inflation to any significant extent.  The third part incorporates diminished saving and elevated withdrawals into the situation evaluation, exhibiting that these behaviors offset the drop in consumption attributable to inflation.  This enchancment in consumption just isn’t costless, nonetheless, since households find yourself with considerably much less wealth on the finish of the interval.  The ultimate part concludes that households should be capable to make amends for saving – however will they accomplish that?

Recap of State of affairs Evaluation (w/out Behavioral Responses) 

The primary temporary estimated the impression of inflation on the funds of close to retirees (head ages 55-62) and retirees (head ages 62 and older) from 2021 to 2025.  We centered on two metrics: 1) the actual change in consumption from the start of the evaluation interval to the tip; and a couple of) the inventory of family wealth (monetary and housing) on the finish of the interval.   

Since inflation can have totally different results relying on the Fed’s coverage response, we thought-about 4 hypothetical situations: 1) No inflation, which serves because the baseline, 2) Everlasting shock, the place inflation spikes at 4 p.c and stays there; 3) Gentle touchdown, the place inflation regularly returns to 2 p.c in 2025 with no recession; and 4) Recession, the place inflation begins to rise once more in 2024 and the Fed responds aggressively by elevating charges.  All outcomes had been reported relative to the “no-inflation” situation. 

Because the outcomes confirmed that inflation had little or no impression on housing wealth, this temporary solely presents the findings for the change in consumption and monetary wealth.  By way of the distinction within the progress price of consumption relative to the “no-inflation situation,” the important thing discovering is that close to retirees expertise a smaller decline than retirees, even having fun with actual consumption positive factors within the “comfortable touchdown” situation (see Desk 1).  This consequence is because of the actual decline in mortgage funds relative to earnings.  In distinction, retirees have much less erosion of actual debt, and sometimes additionally lose actual earnings as employer pension advantages are solely partially listed to inflation.

By way of monetary (non-housing) wealth in 2025, we see that inflation has an unambiguous adverse impression (see Desk 2).  High-wealth households, nonetheless, all the time lose lower than their lower-wealth counterparts, as a result of they spend money on equities, companies, and different belongings that develop with inflation.

Briefly, most older households lose actual consumption and wealth after an inflation shock.  The magnitude of the loss relies on the character of the shock, the actual progress of earnings and belongings, and the family’s publicity to fixed-rate debt.  The questions addressed on this evaluation are how households react to inflation and the results of their reactions for his or her consumption and wealth.

How Have Households Reacted to Latest Inflation? 

Since financial principle is ambiguous about how older households ought to react to inflation, we undertook a brand new survey to discover how inflation impacted their habits between 2021 and 2023.  The survey was fielded by Greenwald Analysis in November 2023 and contains 1,501 respondents ages 55-85.  To align with the situation evaluation, famous above, we deal with two teams: close to retirees, who had been below age 62 and dealing full time in 2021; and retirees, who had been 62 or older and retired from their major profession in 2021, with a partner additionally retired. In the end, 322 respondents within the survey meet our definition of close to retirees and 630 meet our definition of retirees.  

To supply context for the primary evaluation, the survey requested a sequence of questions on respondents’ value of residing, the expansion of their earnings and belongings (relative to the change in costs), and their financial outlook.  Determine 1 reveals the share of respondents reporting a change of their value of residing between 2021 and 2023.  Fifty-four p.c of close to retirees and 40 p.c of retirees price the rise as “very substantial,” and one other 30-31 p.c price it “substantial.”

In the meantime, Determine 2 reveals the share of close to retirees who report that their family’s work earnings stored tempo with inflation over this era.  Over half report that their earnings have gone up lower than inflation, 35 p.c report that earnings stored tempo with inflation, and solely 11 p.c skilled actual wage progress.  This sample aligns with the Federal Reserve Financial institution of Atlanta’s Wage Progress Tracker, which experiences that staff ages 55+ noticed a decline in actual wages from the start of 2021 by way of Might of 2023.

Equally, Determine 3 reveals the reported efficiency of family investments between 2021 and 2023, relative to cost ranges.  Seventy-two p.c of close to retirees and 64 p.c of retirees state that their investments grew lower than inflation, 11 p.c report that investments tracked inflation, and solely 6 p.c noticed actual progress.

To quantify the impression on family budgets, the survey additionally requested respondents to estimate the greenback improve of their month-to-month value of residing between 2021 and 2023 as a proportion of 2023 family earnings.  This query measures the extent to which costs rose quicker than earnings for every family.  Though these greenback values are topic to recall error (and are top-coded at 8 p.c of earnings) we are able to decide whether or not bills rose 5 p.c quicker than earnings or extra, and the way that extra worth progress correlates with respondents’ notion of inflation.  As anticipated, 34 p.c of respondents experiencing “very substantial” inflation report that their month-to-month bills rose at the very least 5 p.c quicker than earnings, in comparison with 11 p.c of respondents within the “substantial” group, and solely 2 p.c of respondents within the “not a lot” group.

Unsurprisingly given these experiences, many older households are pessimistic in regards to the trajectory of the financial system.  Fifty-three p.c of close to retirees and 43 p.c of retirees have a adverse outlook for 2024 (see Desk 3).  Moreover, 60 p.c of close to retirees and 52 p.c of retirees consider that final yr’s inflation will contribute to a weaker financial system over the yr.

The subsequent step is to have a look at how respondents’ expertise with, and perceptions of, inflation affected their habits.  The survey requested respondents whether or not they had made adjustments since 2021 alongside 4 dimensions: 1) labor provide (retirement age and hours labored); 2) saving price; 3) withdrawals from financial savings; and 4) asset allocation.  For respondents reporting a change in habits, the survey had them rank their motivations so as of significance.  We attribute a change in habits to inflation if the respondent cited rising costs as their major motivator.  

Labor Provide 

Desk 4 experiences the impression of inflation on labor provide.  The primary row reveals that whereas 34 p.c of all close to retirees modified their retirement age, solely 4 p.c did so due to inflation.  Amongst these reacting to inflation, the following row reveals a median anticipated delay of 4 years.  For context, this size of delay is just like outcomes from earlier survey analysis, however we discover many fewer people select to delay in any respect.  One clarification is that earlier analysis interviewed respondents on the top of inflation in 2022, whereas we fielded our survey in November 2023.

Saving and Withdrawals

Turning to monetary wealth, 39 p.c of close to retirees declare to have modified their saving due to inflation (see Desk 5).  Amongst these primarily motivated by inflation, annual saving declined by $4,065, on common, or 4 p.c of annual family earnings in 2023.

Moreover, rising costs brought about each close to retirees and retirees to dip into their financial savings.  Desk 6, which mixes the outcomes for each teams as a result of they’re fairly comparable, experiences that 23 p.c of respondents modified their withdrawals from 2021 to 2023 due to rising costs.  Amongst these making adjustments, the typical improve was $3,620 (5 p.c of 2023 family earnings).

Asset Allocation  

In distinction to the substantial shares of households altering saving and withdrawals, a a lot smaller proportion modified their asset allocation.  Desk 7, which once more combines outcomes for close to retirees and retirees, signifies that, whereas 35 p.c of all households modified their allocation between 2021 and 2023, the magnitude of the shift could be very small.  To the extent that shifts occurred, households moved away from equities and towards fastened earnings.

Implications for Retirement Safety

The subsequent step is to include households’ behavioral responses into the situation modeling.  For this train, we deal with the adjustments in saving and withdrawals, since only a few close to retirees modified their retirement age or asset allocation.  For every near-retiree family, we calculate the full discount in saving (the decline in saving plus the rise in withdrawals between 2021 and 2023).  On common, this discount equaled 4 p.c of 2023 earnings, which we annualize to 2 p.c per yr.  Equally, retirees improve their annual withdrawals by 2.5 p.c of earnings (annualizing the 5-percent change reported within the survey for 2021-2023).  For simplicity, we assume that households throughout the wealth distribution reply equally and that the annualized charges of change begin in Might 2021 and persist by way of December 2025.   

Desk 8 reveals the distinction within the progress price of actual consumption, from 2021 to 2025, relative to the “no inflation” situation as soon as we incorporate behavioral responses reported within the survey.  Unsurprisingly, households are capable of shut a lot of the inflation-consumption hole by tapping into their financial savings.  The important thing distinction in outcomes right here is between close to retirees – who all present positive factors in consumption – and retirees – who primarily see small declines.

This short-term achieve, nonetheless, comes on the expense of future consumption.  Desk 9 compares actual monetary wealth in 2025, with behavioral responses, to the “no inflation” situation.  As anticipated, diminished saving and elevated withdrawals compound the direct impression of inflation on wealth.

To obviously illustrate this trade-off between present and future consumption, Determine 4 compares the outcomes incorporating the behavioral responses to the unique baseline evaluation for one sort of family: close to retirees within the middle-wealth tercile below the “comfortable touchdown” situation.  Recall that, within the unique mannequin, the expansion price of actual consumption was 0.5 proportion factors greater than within the “no inflation” situation (because of the actual decline in mortgage debt).  After households scale back their saving, actual consumption grows 6.4 proportion factors greater than in “no inflation.”  Nonetheless, whereas the preliminary mannequin discovered a 6.6-percent discount in monetary wealth in comparison with “no inflation,” the outcomes incorporating behavioral responses create an 11.9-percent drop.  This identical trade-off holds throughout all age teams, wealth terciles, and macroeconomic situations.

Conclusion

Excessive inflation in later life is usually dangerous to retirement safety.  Compounding the direct impacts on actual earnings and wealth, many households reduce their saving and improve withdrawals when inflation spikes.  So, what can older households do to mitigate the danger of a future inflation shock?

Households which might be nonetheless working when inflation hits have essentially the most flexibility to enhance their state of affairs.  Since wages are inclined to lag costs, households that keep within the workforce are more likely to expertise actual wage positive factors ultimately, permitting them to make amends for their saving.  Working longer additionally reduces the interval over which financial savings should unfold.  

Retired households have much less alternative to earn inflation-adjusted earnings.  Nonetheless, they’ll nonetheless take protecting steps when inflation hits, similar to – to the extent attainable – re-investing their fixed-income holdings to make the most of rising rates of interest, moderately than making withdrawals that lock in giant preliminary losses.  

The inflation shock that prompted our examine is beginning to recede, and the Federal Reserve now appears more likely to obtain a comfortable touchdown.  Will households reverse course as inflation moderates, saving extra and withdrawing much less?  We go away these and different questions for future work.

References

Aubry, Jean-Pierre and Laura D. Quinby. 2024a. “How Does Inflation Impression Close to Retirees and Retirees?” Subject in Transient 24-12. Chestnut Hill, MA: Heart for Retirement Analysis at Boston Faculty. 

Aubry, Jean-Pierre and Laura D. Quinby. 2024b. “How Do Households React to Inflation? New Survey Proof.” Working Paper 2024-3. Chestnut Hill, MA: Heart for Retirement Analysis at Boston Faculty.

Aubry, Jean-Pierre and Laura D. Quinby. 2024c. “What Dangers Do Close to Retirees and Retirees Face from Inflation?” Working Paper 2024-4. Chestnut Hill, MA: Heart for Retirement Analysis at Boston Faculty.

Federal Reserve Financial institution of Atlanta. 2000-2023. “Wage Progress Tracker.” Atlanta, GA.

Franklin, Glen. 2023. “The Impression of Inflation’s Return on Retirement Planning.” Highlands Ranch, CO: 401k Specialist. 

MFS Funding Administration. 2023. “Inflation is Already Reshaping Retirement Methods and Expectations, 2023 MFS World Retirement Survey Finds.” Boston, MA.

Nationwide. 2022. “Nationwide in Plan Sponsor: Survey Report.” Columbus, OH.

U.S. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Survey of Client Funds, 2019. Washington, DC.