Fifty-five percent of retirement plan participants favour automatic annual increases to their contributions.
That’s according to a survey by American United Life Insurance Company, a OneAmerica company.
“Automatic features can help plan participants easily increase their retirement contributions and not get distracted by other financial matters,” says Marsha Whitehead, vice-president of marketing for retirement services with OneAmerica.
Survey respondents ranked several financial priorities that compete with their retirement account contributions, including paying off debt (29%), day-to-day expenses (23%), taking care of family (11%) and saving for post-secondary education (4%), among others.
“Automatically increasing the contribution amount each year helps address inflation and cost of living increases,” she explains. “When coupled with educational tools and materials, a feature like this can really help participants stay focused and disciplined in planning and saving for retirement.”
The companies of OneAmerica surveyed visitors to its retirement plan participant website to better understand behaviours and resources that might help them prepare for retirement. There were 7,545 participants who responded to the survey.
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