Personal discount rates and financial resilience among older Americans

This paper examines how older people’s levels of impatience, measured by their discount rate, shaped their financial resilience in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using survey data on older Americans, we find notable differences in discount rates by race and sex in 2025. Black and White women were less patient than men, while Hispanic women were more patient than Hispanic men. Whites generally had lower discount rates than Blacks. Discount rates, on average, did not change much between 2020 and 2025, although individual responses varied. Multivariate analysis indicates that financial literacy is strongly correlated with increased patience across all groups, with larger estimated associations for Black respondents. The results also show that individuals who were more patient at the start of the pandemic, namely those with lower discount rates, were more financially resilient after the pandemic was over.