U.S. Pension Funds Fell Short in 2019
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What quick money and market stories introduce the episode?
Here's your Money Briefing. I'm J.R. Whalen at The Wall Street Journal in New York. We have an update on the plight of public pensions coming up. Some good news and some bad news. First, some money and market stories you should know. A new study from TD Ameritrade indicates that Generation Z, or people born after 1998, are considering not going to college or taking a different path. More than 3,000 U.S. teens and adults were surveyed, including about 1,000 from Generation Z, about 1,000 young millennials, those are ages 22 to 28, and 1,000 parents, ages 30 to 60. About 20% of the Generation Z and young millennials say not going to college is a serious option for them, and more than 30% of Generation Z and 18% of young millennials say
say they plan to go to college but have given thought to taking a gap year between high school and college. One reason for the shift away from a traditional college education is student debt. The average borrower now leaves college with about $37,000 of loan debt That's up more than $10,000 from a decade ago. And outstanding student debt owed by all borrowers reached $1.5 trillion in 2018. That's about triple the $600 billion owed by all borrowers just 10 years ago. A U.S.
Why are Generation Z and young millennials reconsidering college?
News & World Report gives Alaska Airlines the top spot in its survey of airline rewards programs. The site notes Alaska's broad range of award availability and its long list of routes to popular destinations. Delta SkyMiles ranked number two thanks to its high volume of daily flights and numerous rewards program member benefits. For Delta and JetBlue, which took the number three spot, U.S. News notes their programs don't have an expiration policy for accumulated points and miles. United and American rounded out the top five. And Southwest, by the way, at number six, was cited specifically for its perk of two free checked bags as part of its rapid rewards program.
We've told you on a few occasions about the plight and challenges facing public pensions in the U.S. here on Your Money Briefing. And now word comes that public pensions worth more than a billion dollars fell short of their projected returns this year. Wall Street Journal reporter Heather Gillers covers the pensions market in this year with more details. So, Heather, the median return among pensions is the lowest since 2016?
The past decade has actually been pretty good for public pensions. It's the 10 years that ended June 30th is the first 10 year period in a while where we haven't had a huge drag from the 2009 where we hadn't haven't had a huge drag from the 2009. downturn. So the annualized returns for the past 10 years are actually a little above 9%. There have been five years of double digit returns in the past 10 years. But this year, yes, pensions had a median expectation of 7.25%. They made about 6.7, 6.8%. And it's a reminder that most pension plans, many pension plans around the U.S. have much less in assets than they need to meet their future promises to retired police, firefighters, teachers, workers.
Yeah, the bull market has been very good to pensions, but it just can't seem to outweigh the future obligations.
That's been a recurring theme, and there are a couple of reasons. One is the big chunk that was taken out of pensions assets in 2009. Their holdings fell almost 20 percent. So there is a lot of catching up to do from that. But there are also more systemic reasons. Throughout the 80s and 90s, returns were very good, and those led governments to predict returns. continuing rosy returns in the future and to put away only enough money as would be needed to fund pensions if those optimistic returns arrived. And they didn't arrive. And that's the cause of a lot of shortfalls in pension plans.
We mentioned the public pensions fell short of their projected returns. That projection is a very significant number.
Because that projection determines how much governments have to pay in every year to fund their pension plans. And the less money a plan can make in the market, the more money has to come from the government itself.
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