Nevin's Data "Points"

My decision as to whether or not to save in my workplace savings plan wasn’t long or complicated.  Yes, I had to actually fill out a form, and yes, I actually had to figure out how to invest those savings (though in fairness, there were only four funds from which to choose, one of which was company stock). Yes, there was also a generous match, but when you’re young there are more enticing ways to spend your income than—well, not spending it. That said—and at age 22 I’d not always fully embraced my parents’ counsel—my mother didn’t hesitate to insist that I did so.   My mother, now a retired school teacher, then (and still) reminds me with some regularity (and deserved pride) that she began having $50 taken out of her paycheck at work—though my father protested at the time they couldn’t afford to do so. Or at least he did until he saw that first quarterly statement—at which point he began looking into how he could s...

Over the course of my career, I’ve had the opportunity to participate in any number of “projects,” and to manage more than a few. Some were explicitly tagged as such at the start, while others simply expanded to fit that name. Most of those projects turned out well; others faded into the woodwork after a time; some drew to a close after “redefining success;” and a couple actually “crashed and burned.” A lot of variables determine whether a project will be a success or failure, but in my experience, projects that lack either a limited budget and/or a specific timeframe are doomed from the outset. I was therefore interested in some of the findings from the 8th annual America Saves Week survey this week. The survey, sponsored by the Consumer Federation of America, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and the American Savings Education Council (ASEC), found that more than half (57%) of those with a savings plan with specific goals said they were making good or excellent pr...

April is Financial Literacy Month, and National Retirement Planning Week, sponsored by the National Retirement Planning Coalition (of which EBRI’s America Savings Education Council (ASEC) is a member) is April 9–13. Both events serve to remind us all of the importance not only of saving, but of establishing specific goals for saving. I was pleased, therefore, this past month to help one daughter set up her first SEP-IRA—and even more pleased to about the same time learn that my other daughter was, of her own volition, making a conscious effort to set aside what seemed to her father to be a fairly substantial portion of her modest income in savings. These are things I knew to do when I was their age, of course, but things I must admit took me a few years to act on. It’s easy, in the normal press of life, to put off thinking about retirement, much less thinking about saving for a period of life many can hardly imagine. We all know we should do it—but some figure that it will take...

The bad news is that times are still tough for many Americans—and surveys suggest that even those with jobs are nervous about their prospects for the future. The good news is that the current level of economic uncertainty seems to have brought about—at least for some—a heightened awareness of the need to set money aside for a rainy day, perhaps even those rainy days in retirement. That said, the weak economy has certainly constrained the ability of many to save. In fact, a recent national survey found that an increasing number of Americans are having difficulty saving to meet goals ranging from meeting emergencies to affording retirement. The survey—released as part of America Saves Week(1)—noted that over the past three years, there has been a decline in the number of people who spend less than their income and save the difference, are building home equity, have adequate emergency savings, and think they are saving enough for retirement. However, the survey also revealed that havi...