The average American can expect to live 17 or more years in retirement. Yet only 39% of Americans have tried to calculate the amount of money they need to save to fund these years. Planning for retirement is complex and many experts suggest that retirement planning should include topics such as investing and managing assets, tax planning, estate planning, and planning for long-term care.
Sharon A. DeVaney and Janet C. Bechman, Purdue University, developed a distance education web-based course "Planning for a Secure Retirement" to help fill this need. This course can be found at www.ces.purdue.edu/retirement.
Justification for this program included a report from the think tank on retirement planning for the 21st century. This report addressed the need for individuals and families to assume financial responsibility for their retirement. In order to do this individuals and families need education as well as discipline to set goals, assess their financial position, evaluate that position and make decisions about their retirement plan. Yet most people have received no formal education on these topics.
This web-based program includes 10 modules. They are:
- Are you ready to retire?
- How much will your expenses be in retirement?
- When can you collect Social Security?
- Would you like a quick estimate of income needed for retirement?
- Are you eligible for Medicare and other health benefits?
- Do you have a retirement plan that your employer funds?
- Are you self-employed and responsible for your own retirement?
- Do you have an Individual Retirement Account (IRA)?
- What is a lump sum distribution? What should you do with it? and
- Do you have other concerns?
The authors link to variety of sites for expert information, such as IRS and Social Security. They have included several work sheets to make the course interactive. In addition a certificate is offered for persons completing 5 or more of the modules.
Implications for Extension Programming
The authors are to be commended for their creativity in using this technology to deliver Extension programming. The audience most likely to benefit from this type of delivery system is professionals and/or baby boomers. In the first year of operation over 7,000 individuals registered for the program.
I see this course as a good in-service for Florida Extension Educators as well as a good reference site for retirement information.
Source: DeVaney, Sharon A. and Bechman, Janet C. (2001). "Planning for a Secure Retirement with Distance Learning" in The Journal of the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education.
Written by: Dr. Jo Turner , CFP, Professor, Family and Consumer Economics
