Quote

Retirement savings is probably behavioral economists' greatest success story. It is a prototypical behavioral-economics problem because saving for retirement is cognitively hard - figuring out how much to save - and requires self-control.

Richard Thaler

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Richard Thaler
Age: 79
Born: 1945
Born: December 9
Economist
East Orange
New Jersey
Richard H. Thaler
Richard H Thaler
Stories
Economics
Cognitively
Requires
Behavioral
Problem
Save
Economists
Self
Control
Figuring
Hard
Greatest
Savings
Much
Probably
Economist
Story
Retirement
Success
Saving

More quotes by Richard Thaler

Image
One simple step firms can take is make sure that people that are getting paid a lot of money, say more than a million or two, that a big chunk of that money is deferred. That's going to change the whole ballgame.
Richard Thaler
Image
A company invites their employees to sign up for a plan where every time they get a raise, some part of that raise goes to increasing their contribution rate to the 401k plan. In the first company we convinced to adopt this plan, saving rates tripled.
Richard Thaler
Image
There are cases when I can make myself better off by restricting my future choices and commit myself to a specific course of action.
Richard Thaler
Image
The same with the mortgage brokers that were selling people mortgages they couldn't afford. We shouldn't pay them on each mortgage they write. They should have what they call skin in the game, where they've got to reimburse us if the guy who sold the mortgage defaults.
Richard Thaler
Image
If people just put away what's left at the end of the month, that's a recipe for failure.
Richard Thaler
Image
I don't go by the ratings. I buy wine that tastes good. Statistically, anybody's ability to predict what will be a good wine a decade from now is limited.
Richard Thaler
Image
he card companies will often, as a courtesy, honor that credit card, but hit you with a penalty. And you keep swiping your card for $3 at Starbucks for your latté, and you're getting hit with a $25 penalty because it's over your credit limit.
Richard Thaler
Image
Save more tomorrow is a nudge to help people do what they know they want to do, which is save more, but they can't bring themselves to save more now. Just like many of us are planning to go on diets next month, or maybe in two months, certainly not tonight.
Richard Thaler
Image
I think the people who've been the most overconfident in our business in the last decade have been the people that called themselves risk managers.
Richard Thaler
Image
Credit cards have been extremely profitable to banks. They're profitable not from the fees they collect from the retailers that use the credit cards, that pays the bills, but the real profits come from the interest payments and the charges to users that are unexpected.
Richard Thaler
Image
Why tie to gold? Why not 1982 Bordeaux?
Richard Thaler
Image
Most people start claiming benefits within a year of when they become eligible, although benefits increase substantially if they wait.
Richard Thaler
Image
I'm all for empowerment and education, but the empirical evidence is that it doesn't work. That's why I say make it easy.
Richard Thaler
Image
It would be much more consumer friendly for them to beep you when you swipe your card that says, uh-oh you're over your limit, are you sure you want to use that?
Richard Thaler
Image
When should we nudge and when should we shove, I think, it's a political judgment. Obviously in some situations we need shoves, we need laws. Fraud is against the law, murder is against the law, drunk-driving is against the law. We don't need just nudges.
Richard Thaler
Image
The lesson from behavioral economics is that people only save if it's automatic.
Richard Thaler
Image
People exaggerate their own skills. they are optimistic about their prospects and overconfident about their guesses, including which managers to pick.
Richard Thaler
Image
If rather than setting the minimum balance as the lowest possible amount, so we keep people in debt for as long as possible, we raise the minimum payment and encourage people to pay off their credit cards, we're going to make less money, but we're going to have costumers that are more solvent.
Richard Thaler
Image
Most economists, including me, agree that longevity insurance would make sense for a lot of people.
Richard Thaler