Many Wonder How to Start Saving

Although the majority of people think about what they will need to have saved for retirement, there is confused about how to determine what their lifestyle in retirement will cost.

According to an ING survey, Americans have questions about retirement savings:

  • Two thirds (67%) say they think at least sometimes about how much they need to save and invest for retirement.
  • 49% say calculating that number is not easy and they wouldn’t know where to start.
  • More than half agree they’ve calculated the money needed for retirement, but more than a third (36%) say all they could do is guess.
  • 42% say they do not like thinking about their retirement nest egg and nearly as many 39% say it’s boring.

When asked what they should consider to calculate the amount they’ll need for retirement, over a third (37%) mentioned living expenses, ING reported. However, no other factor was cited by more than 7% of participants including:

  • Life expectancy (7%),
  • Assets/owning one’s own home (6%),
  • Health (5%),
  • Health care costs (5%), and
  • Age of retirement (5%).

Commissioned by ING and conducted by Ipsos in January 2008, the ING Retirement Number Study included a representative randomly selected sample of 1,008 adult Americans.

More information is available here.

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