Financial Wellness Includes Retirement Planning & Preparation (Part of a Series)

PSCA recently joined the National Retirement Planning Coalition.  The website is titled:  “Retire On Your Terms.”     

Like other Coalition members, PSCA believes in the need for comprehensive retirement planning.   

However, perhaps retirement planning itself needs to change. Consider a discussion I had this week with a retirement savings industry expert who wondered why his firm had experienced a significant decline in the number of participants using his “best of breed” retirement planning calculator.     

I don’t know why, but one possibility is the continuing change in America’s workforce. In the past, the largest generation has been the Baby Boomers - born between 1945 and 1964. However, today, every Boomer is at least 54 years old, a decade or so away from normal retirement age.  For this cohort, a calculator may be less valuable when retirement isn’t too far into the future.      

Census data shows that the median tenure of America’s workers is 5 years. However, for most Millennial workers, those ages 25 – 34, median tenure is only 2.8 years. For Generation X, census data also show that workers currently age 50 have had an average of 12 different employers so far!  A calculator may be less valuable if it projects based on current circumstances (current employment, plan provisions).  

As a plan sponsor, we know you may be reluctant to devote extensive resources where many, perhaps most, workers won’t actually retire from your organization. But most will retire, someday! So, we encourage plan sponsors to take action to broaden out their retirement savings plan objectives to include financial wellness at all stages of life (See: Financial Wellness Via Your 401(k)). Workers CAN successfully prepare – even when retirement is not a current priority and their only activity is saving in employer-sponsored plans and/or Individual Retirement Accounts.

National Retirement Planning Coalition

The Coalition is sponsored by an impressive Who’s Who of financial industry and retirement advocacy organizations. It is led by the Insured Retirement Institute. The website consists of materials contributed by participating organizations - articles, calculators and tools participants can use in their retirement preparation:

Planning topics:

• Budgeting basics
• Asset Management 
• Social Security 
• Fraud Prevention 
• Healthcare

Retirement Calculators & Tools:

• Retirement Planner Calculator
• Fixed Annuity Calculator
• Variable Annuity Calculator
• Budgeting for the Home Calculators
• Retirement Shortfall Calculator
• Life Expectancy Calculator
• Retirement Income Calculator
• Wells Fargo Releases My Retirement Plan Online Savings Tool

Tools

• Saver Checklist Tool
• Assess your Saving Plan Tool
• Checklist: Selecting a Financial Advisor
• Life Insurance Policy Locator

We recently offered two blog posts – one of which is now on the NRPC website:

• Life is Full of Surprises, Life is Unpredictable*, 04/06/2018,  https://www.psca.org/blog_jack_2018_21
• The “Other” Retirement Planning Model (First of a Series), 03/30/2018,  https://www.psca.org/blog_jack_2018_18