Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Credibly Connecting Financially

The Guardian Life
Insurance Co. of America recently released a study
called Beyond Behavior: Why Boomers Underfund
Retirement.

What it concluded is disturbing
...
- 80% of all baby boomers worry about having
adequate income for retirement
- 23% say they can't
save a dime for retirement
- Only 24% of all baby
boomers have saved enough to retire comfortably
- And
13% said they would be happy to see a $10,000 investment
grow into $15,000 over the next 20 years.

Several
of my clients have taken this opportunity to credibly
connect" with their employees by providing financial
education to their employees -- everything from savings
to retirement, debt to credit cards. They have hired
financial experts to do the training -- those who have
nothing to sell except their observations. No one gets
"personal" advice but all get knowledge and forms to
complete basic essentials like a household budget,
credit card repayment plan, and what it will take to
enjoy their retirement.

Universally, employees
have valued and appreciated these employers' efforts.
Consider that it may not be enough to just provide a
paycheck and a basket of benefits and relinquish
responsbility for training our employees on how to best
use them.