To improve your retirement situation always try and meet or exceed the full employer match. It’s free money. Also, run through a few scenarios online to see how much money, at your current pace, you’ll have saved by age 65 (I like this one from Vanguard). Participants in Vanguard administered 401(k)s can use the “boost your savings” dial discussed in the Wall Street Journal, here.
Meanwhile, Vanguard Group, the asset manager based in Malvern, Pa., added a speedometer-like “boost your savings” dial to its website for 401(k) account holders in 2012. The dial shows an investor’s current savings rate and suggests possible increases aimed at boosting the odds of replacing preretirement income.
Account holders can turn the dial to the savings rate they want and submit a request to lock in the change. Of the 480,221 participants who saw the tool from December 2012 through May 2013, 9% used it to increase their contributions, according to a study from the Michigan Retirement Research Center.
“It’s clear that it’s having an impact,” says Cyndy Pagliaro, a research analyst at the Vanguard Center for Retirement Research.
