(Bloomberg Business) — Is 3 percent some magical retirement savings number?

When companies with 401(k) retirement savings plans enroll new hires automatically, many set a default contribution rate of 3 percent of salary. Why not 4, or 5.5, or 6? Are companies saying you can afford to retire if you save just 3 percent of your salary a year?

Hardly. Less than 22 percent of large companies surveyed by Towers Watson even provided 401(k) participants with a suggestion about how much to save. Of the companies that did, 39 percent recommended 10 percent or more. Increasingly, retirement experts say 15 percent is more like it. 

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