Social Security Decisions: Should Recipients Opt for Early Payments?

Two Excel-based templates are developed to help determine when it is optimal for starting to receive monthly social security benefits. The decision information accounts for uncertain life expectancy by implementing a rate of return that should be set, at a minimum, to the individual’s expected return on investments or based on a metric provided in the article that considers potential life expectancy. Key Takeaways: Excel templates allow for a comparison of receiving lower monthly social security benefits at an earlier age versus waiting for higher monthly benefits at a later age. A “reserve rule of 72” metric allows for adjustments on comparing the different social security payment structures based on life expectancy. Other adjustments for comparing the different social security structures can made for those who work while receiving benefits

Security Risk Assessment of Decentralized, Mobile Applications: An Analysis of Location Aware Systems

Technological improvements, declining costs and mandates to suppliers from large entities such as Wal-Mart and the Department of Defense are driving investments in RFID and other location aware systems (LAS). Expected benefits from LAS investments include improvements in supply chain integration and streamlined operations. However, LAS may introduce a number of new information security vulnerabilities into organizations that must be carefully considered. LAS are highly decentralized and mobile, yet must connect to existing transactional systems to function. Decentralized, mobile applications are especially difficult to secure, and connections between LAS and internal applications can put those systems at risk too. The additional complexity of overall systems architectures also makes identifying security risks more challenging. We assert that current guidelines for information security are increasingly insufficient for organizations with highly decentralized systems and that more attention to how systems are employed is needed. We demonstrate this point with logical process models that illustrate how two different uses of one LAS technology result in different information security risks

Does specialization in security analysis and portfolio management explain deviations from the CAPM?

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 44-45).The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), which relates the risk of an individual security to its expected return, is frequently cited in investments textbooks and the academic literature as a centerpiece of modem finance theory. The main prediction of the CAPM is that investors are compensated in the form of expected return only for bearing systematic or market risk, which is the portion of a security's risk that cannot be diversified away. That investors demand reparation for and only for systematic risk is a consequence from the pivotal assumption that all investors have identical information for the entire universe of publicly traded securities. In actuality, professional active money managers rarely invest in a portfolio broad enough to be considered the market portfolio. Instead, the asset management industry has self-organized over time according to a top-down investment process, where asset allocators provide capital to security selectors who specialize in high-yield bonds, large-cap value stocks, and the like. Any losses in diversification benefits resulting from this theoretically suboptimal two-phase investment strategy are deemed an unavoidable cost of obtaining accurate forecasts through specialization in security analysis and portfolio management.(cont.) This research paper extends the ideas of the CAPM to formulate an equilibrium security pricing model that attempts to account for the top-down approach followed by investors in the real-world.by Leonid Keyser.M.B.A

Railroad Retirement Board: Trust Fund Investment Practices

[Excerpt] The Railroad Retirement Act authorizes retirement, survivor, and disability benefits for railroad workers and their families. The Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), an independent federal agency, administers these benefits. Workers covered by the RRB include those employed by railroads engaged in interstate commerce and related subsidiaries, railroad associations, and railroad labor organizations. These benefits are earned by railroad workers and their families in lieu of Social Security. Railroad retirement benefits are divided into two tiers. Tier I benefits are generally computed using the Social Security benefit formula, on the basis of earnings covered by either the Railroad Retirement or Social Security programs. In some cases, RRB Tier I benefits can be higher than comparable Social Security benefits. For example, RRB beneficiaries may receive unreduced Tier I retirement benefits as early as aged 60 if they have at least 30 years of railroad service; Social Security beneficiaries may receive unreduced retirement benefits only when they reach their full retirement ages, currently rising from aged 65 to 67. RRB Tier II benefits are similar to private pension benefits and are based only on railroad work. The Tier I railroad retirement benefit that is equivalent to Social Security benefits is mainly finance by Tier I payroll taxes (typically the same rate as the 12.4% Social Security payroll tax) and Social Security’s financial interchange transfers.3 Tier II benefits, Tier I benefits in excess of Social Security benefits, and supplemental annuities4 are mainly financed by Tier II payroll taxes (currently 13.1% on employers and 4.9% on employees) and transfers from the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust (NRRIT; hereinafter, the Trust)

Social Security: The Chilean Approach to Retirement

[Excerpt] This CRS report focuses on the Chilean individual retirement accounts system. It begins with a description of the U.S. Social Security policy debate, along with a brief comparison of Chile and the United States. Next, the report explains what Chile’s individual retirement accounts system is and how it works. The pension reform bill sent to the Chilean Congress for debate in 2007 is also discussed. The report does not address other components of Chile’s social security system, such as maternity, work injury, and unemployment

How to Have a Successful Retirement

What is retirement? Retirement is the years that an individual is able to enjoy after spending a majority of their life devoted to their career. A successful retirement is not a birthright; it is something that an individual must earn through hard work and proper planning. This paper identifies ten important commandments that are both necessary and helpful in achieving a successful retirement

The value of climate-resilient seeds for smallholder adaptation in sub-Saharan Africa

Climate change is threatening food security in many tropical countries, where a large proportion of food is produced by vulnerable smallholder farmers. Interventions are available to offset many of the negative impacts of climate change on agriculture, and they can be tailored to local conditions often through relative modest investments. However, little quantitative information is available to guide investment or policy choices at a time when countries and development agencies are under pressure to implement policies that can help achieve Sustainable Development Goals while coping with climate change. Among smallholder adaptation options, developing seeds resilient to current and future climate shocks expected locally is one of the most important actions available now. In this paper, we used national and local data to estimate the costs of climate change to smallholder farmers in Malawi and Tanzania. We found that the benefits from adopting resilient seeds ranged between 984 million and 2.1 billion USD during 2020–2050. Our analysis demonstrates the benefits of establishing and maintaining a flexible national seed sector with participation by communities in the breeding, delivery, and adoption cycle. © 2020, The Author(s)

An Overview of Economic Approaches to Information Security Management

The increasing concerns of clients, particularly in online commerce, plus the impact of legislations on information security have compelled companies to put more resources in information security. As a result, senior managers in many organizations are now expressing a much greater interest in information security. However, the largest body of research related to preventing breaches is technical, focusing on such issues as encryption and access control. In contrast, research related to the economic aspects of information security is small but rapidly growing. The goal of this technical note is twofold: i) to provide the reader with an structured overview of the economic approaches to information security and ii) to identify potential research directions