How well are people doing at saving for retirement?

A retirement wellness planner from Principal Financial Group is aimed at helping workers figure that out.

Of course, there is considerable disagreement among experts about how much people should be saving. The conventional wisdom says they should plan on replacing 70–80 percent of their current income with savings, while some say that could be way too little and others that it’s actually too much.

As a result, many workers are understandably concerned about their ability to hit what appears to be a moving target—particularly when medical expenses can upset even the most meticulous of planning.

And of course women need to be particularly careful about their savings rates, since they live longer than men and are more likely to have heavier medical expenses—but they tend to save less for retirement, out of salaries that lag behind men’s incomes.

The Principal tool is part of the firm’s “Move to the Green Challenge,” which is intended to present in color how well individuals are doing.

Users of the tool are given a personalized score, within a range of red, yellow or green, that indicates how well they’re doing at retirement saving. Green means a saver is set to replace 70–85 percent of their income in retirement.

The online planner uses interactive sliders, prompts, and a real-time savings graph to show how changes made now can affect financial security at retirement.

Principal launched a similar initiative last year, and reported that it brought positive results. Of those who participated, nearly a third increased their deferral amount to 10 percent of their pay, an increase of 3.75 percentage points.

In addition, since the retirement wellness planner was launched, the number of participants increasing their deferrals has risen by 30 percent—and three times more participants have used the new planner compared to the earlier iteration of the retirement planning tool.

Instant Insights /

How well are we saving for retirement? Tool tells users

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