Suzanne Shu’s research often focuses on decumulation, and the work discussed here is specifically interested in the strategies and thinking behind the spending of retirement resources. For example, the age at which a person begins claiming Social Security benefits can have a profound effect on their lifetime income (the younger you are when you claim, the less you receive). In this video, Shu discusses her paper, “What Motivates Social Security Claiming Age Intentions?” which is featured in the latest edition of Research with Impact. “How do we get people to think about this decision and choose what’s best for them in their retirement? We found that the interventions that had the greatest impact on intended claiming age…were those that suggested that delaying claiming might be a good choice in terms of a norm that other people would recommend.”
Read more about SC Johnson College of Business faculty and research here.