Prof Post: Making Retirement Planning Accessible, by Professor Rauh

Welcome to the first blog post in a series we call “Prof Posts.”  These are blog posts directly from course instructors at our partner institutions.  Curious about a professor’s hobbies and passions?  Wondering what led to the creation of the latest course?  Interested to learn about his or her research beyond the class?  Check back frequently for the latest posts directly from our instructors.  Use the “Categories” widget to the right to filter for Prof Posts.

Our first Prof Post comes from Joshua Rauh, Professor of Finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.  Professor Rauh is teaching an upcoming course called “The Finance of Retirement and Pensions,” which starts on Monday, October 14.

Making Retirement Planning Accessible
Joshua Rauh

Early in my career, I was drawn to the subject of finance because I could see how it had a practical application in our everyday lives. We all worry about whether we’ll have enough money to retire, and if the money we save will see us through. Because the subject of retirement planning is so relevant to so many people, I decided to teach this class online to make it as accessible as possible.

In this course, I’ll be sharing the building blocks of retirement finance: from how much you really need to save to understanding the various asset classes within a well-balanced portfolio. We’ll start out with a video lecture about saving for retirement and then move on to spending down retirement assets. We’ll use this knowledge to move into the realm of public finance and policyand the ways in which they affect us all.

This is an area I’ve studied a great deal. It concerns me that cities like Detroit are driven into bankruptcy because of poor financial planning, jeopardizing the retirement of city workers and impacting critical public services for regular taxpayers like you and me. We’ll look at these issues in the class, and students will get a chance to weigh in about what they think could be effective solutions.

I’m looking forward to the start of the course on October 14. I hope you’ll join us and encourage your friends and colleagues to join too. Sign-ups are open until November 7 at http://online.stanford.edu/course/rauh-finance.