"If private company executives are looking for ways to reduce crime, employee background checks are a good place to start," says McGee. "But background checks should be coupled with an exhaustive program of internal controls to help reduce employee theft and fraud."
Misconceptions Surround Retiree Spending
Think retirees pinch pennies and clip coupons? Think again.
Contrary to what some people think, retirees don‚t spend that much less on personal expenditures than they did while they were working. In fact, retirees as a whole have been spending more in their Golden Years than they did in the past–in some cases exceeding what they spent when they were earning a salary–according to a recent study sponsored by Aon Consulting, an arm of Aon Corp.
It is an important trend to consider for anyone who is planning or saving for retirement. Indeed, at least two-thirds of workers expect to maintain or exceed their current standard of living when they retire, according to the 2004 Retirement Confidence survey provided by Washington-based researcher Employee Benefits Research Institute. About 45% of people surveyed by EBRI said they expect to maintain their standard of living when they retire, while 19% said they plan to lead a more comfortable life in retirement than they did when they were earning a salary.
Unfortunately, not everyone understands what it might take to get there. In the same EBRI study, roughly 10% of people said they need less than 50% of their preretirement income to survive their post-working years, while another 28% think they will need between 50% and 70%.
Workers who plan to maintain their lifestyles in retirement should plan on spending no less than 75% of their current salary a year, according to the Aon study, which was conducted by Bruce Palmer, a finance professor at Georgia State University‚s Robinson College of Business.
The study, which looks at what it calls "retirement replacement ratios," analyzed thousands of retirees‚ and workers‚ spending habits from 1999 to 2001, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics‚ Consumer Expenditure Survey, the database that is used to construct the Consumer Price Index.
To derive its retirement replacement ratios, the study compared what people of different income levels might spend preretirement (minus taxes and savings) with what people of the same income brackets might need to spend in retirement on personal expenses and taxes.
Over the years, the ratios have been steadily climbing. A look back at the prior Aon Consulting studies on replacement ratios (Aon has been conducting the same study periodically since 1988) shows that, because people are spending more and saving less, the amount people need to maintain the same lifestyle in retirement has been steadily rising over the years.
Raises Expected To Remain Modest
Workers who aren‚t star performers shouldn‚t count on a hefty raise in pay anytime soon.