b'Langdale College of BusinessThe Burden of the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) in GeorgiaCandelario Calderon and Daniela Reyes EscalaonaSponsors: Dr. Attila Cseh and Dr. Sanjay Gupta,Department of Accounting and Department of Economics and FinanceTeacher pensions play a vital role in Georgias economy. However, the steadily increasing amount of unfunded liabilities in the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) over the last decade is looming as an impending threat to Georgias state budget. This has been caused by more members drawing from the program in retirement than working members contributing to the program and the increasing life span of members after retirement. In this research, we provide some recommendations that need to be considered in order to control the increasing unfunded liabilities. These recommendations, in no particular order, are to (1) reduce the % in the funding formula used to calculate TRS retirement withdrawals from 2%, (2) reduce the maximum number of years used to calculate retirement withdrawals from 40 years, (3) increase mandatory employee contribution from 6%, (4) reexamine investments made to generate a higher Return On Investment (ROI), (5) reexamine current Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) and (6) consider a combination of some of the above adjustments.The Impacts of Stock Market Changes on an Individuals HappinessMicaela D. WoodSponsor: Dr. Luis Gonzalez and Dr. Attila Cseh, Department of Economics and FinanceDuring the Great Recession, many peoples wealth declined. Those who invested heavily in the stock market lost the most. We want to understand how the amount of money one has invested in the stock market, and in particular the amount they lose due to downturns in the market, impacts their happiness. We use data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) from the University of Michigan from 1998 to 2016. This range allows us to observe the recession of 2001 and the Great Recession. We use a breakdown of individuals assets to compare their exposure to the stock market to their level of reported happiness.55'