Decisions, decisions

Throughout the history of this blog, I have posted about the tremendous shortfall that people have in their retirement funding. Around 90% of the baby boomers do not have enough saved for their retirement; most are woefully short. Can you imagine trying to live for 30 years with $25,000 in savings, no pension and a slim Social Security check that isn’t entirely safe? (Yes, the Social Security check is a promise from the government that can be lowered if the solvency of the system is in question). Oh, it’s even worse in many cases because although they may have $25,000 in savings, they are also carrying huge debt loads for their plasma TV’s, boats, cars, vacations, etc.
I like the direction BofA is taking with their research detailed in this article. More and more financial institutions will be looking to help people save more because doing so aligns with the bank’s interest of having more money to manage. The latte example is chump change; how about computing the savings of delaying buying that new car for 2 years? Or that sofa? Now you start to talk about real money.
Decisions, decisions
Just how do we spend money? How might technology alter banking? With Bank of America’s help, MIT is trying to find out
By Ross Kerber, Globe Staff | April 14, 2008

Which would you rather have: a $2 cup of coffee today, or $8.64 more in retirement savings 30 years from now?

It’s the sort of question Dan Ariely can ponder for hours. (more…)