Mark Your Calendars!

Social media routinely reminds me that I’m teetering on the brink of overlooking key remembrances—days in the year to honor sons, daughters, puppies, dogs, kittens, and…well, you name it. And we have whole months set aside to acknowledge the contributions of women, black history, and Hispanic heritage—but there’s another you might have missed…

As it turns out, October is National Retirement Security Month—a “national effort to raise public awareness about the importance of saving for retirement.” More specifically, to provide an opportunity for employees to reflect on their personal retirement goals and determine if they're on target to reach those goals—and for those who work with those employees to help them do so.

Now, while the need isn’t new, the calendar acknowledgement is, at least relatively so. The notion was raised in 2006 by then-Sens. Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Kent Conrad (D-ND)—though at that time it was “just” a week. However, in 2020, the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators took it even further and updated its legislative priority to advocate to change it to National Retirement Security Month, instead of only the week.   

That said—and despite the hard work, talented designs, and sponsorship of a number of large and reputable financial services organizations, I suspect many of you haven’t even heard of it. More’s the pity.

Key Objectives

Traditionally, the week is focused on three key objectives:

• making employees more aware of how critical it is to save now for their financial future;
• promoting the benefits of getting started saving for retirement today; and
• encouraging employees to take full advantage of their employer-sponsored plans by increasing their contributions.

Now, if you’re reading this (and you are, aren’t you?), odds are that you’re all too aware of the challenges that confront our nation’s retirement savings system. I’d go so far as to wager that just about everybody taking the time to read this post thinks about those items every working day, and doubtless spends a good part of their week trying to advance those causes—so, what’s the point of a month devoted to that emphasis?

What If?

The point, of course, is not for us—but for those who don’t have these issues on their mind every day. Because, even if we should be thinking about this every day of the year, special “events” like National Retirement Security Month give those of us who do a chance to, as a collective group of professionals, remind those who don’t of the importance of thoughtful preparations for retirement.

Better still, with the plan design improvements available today, you might only need one week—or one hour—of getting an individual—or group of individuals—to think about those messages.

Consider, for example, what if that period of focus got an individual (or, better still, a group of individuals) to enroll in their workplace retirement plan? What if it led an employer to embrace automatic enrollment, or, for those who are already enrolled, to increase the default contribution rate, or to reenroll those who have opted out of participation in the past? What if that focus prompted those who are already participating to increase their deferral rate (on their own), or to boost that rate so that they got the full benefit of the employer match? And what if that period of focus—or the actions above—led workers to stop and actually figure out how much they might need to save to sustain their retirement?

What if, indeed? 

- Nevin E. Adams, JD

Just "Because"

As you may have heard (but may not), we recently celebrated National Save for Retirement Week. Of course, there’s no “magic” to a week dedicated to a focus on saving for retirement — even one that Congress has seen fit to acknowledge with a resolution.

That said, saving for retirement — which seems far away for some (though likely not as far away as some think) — is something that many find easy to defer for another day, a more convenient time, a more settled financial situation. We all know we should do it — but some figure that it will take more time and energy than we can afford just now, some assume the process will provide a depressing, perhaps even insurmountable target, while others don’t even know how to get started.

You deal with these objections all the time. However, in recognition of National Save for Retirement Week, here are five simple reasons why you, or those you care about, should save — and specifically save for retirement — now:

Because you don’t want to work forever.

If you want to stop working one day, you are going to have to think about how much income you will need to live after you are no longer working for a paycheck.

Because living in retirement isn’t free.

Many people assume that expenses will go down in retirement, and they may for some. On the other hand, retirement often brings with it changes in how we spend, and on what — and that’s not necessarily less.

For example, research by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) has found that health-related expenses are the second-largest component in the budget of older Americans, and a component that steadily increases with age (see “How Does Household Expenditure Change With Age for Older Americans?”).

Because you may not be able to work as long as you think.

In 1991, just 11% of workers expected to retire after age 65, according to the Retirement Confidence Survey. Twenty-three years later (2014), that same survey found that a third of workers report that they expect to retire after age 65, and 10% don’t plan to retire at all.

Expectations are one thing, but realities seem to be different. The RCS has consistently found that a large percentage of retirees leave the workforce earlier than planned (49% in 2014), and many who retire earlier than they had planned often do so for negative reasons, such as a health problem or disability (61%) — things that are not within their control.

Because you don’t know how long you will live.

People are living longer and the longer your life, the longer your potential retirement, particularly if it begins sooner than you think. Retiring at age 65 today? A man would have a 50% chance of still being alive at age 81 (and a woman at age 85); a 25% chance of living to nearly 90; a 10% chance of getting close to 100. How big a chance do you want to take of outliving your money?

Because the sooner you start, the easier it will be.


- Nevin E. Adams, JD