Monday, March 05, 2012

The Psychology of Saving More

How do you get workers to save more in their 401(k) plans? It's not that hard if you use the power of suggestion. That's the finding of a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

As an experiment, NBER researchers embedded different savings cues or highlighted different savings goals in emails sent to employees about their 401(k) plans. When a higher savings goal was suggested or highlighted in the emails, contribution rates increased. "A high savings goal example raises contribution rates by up to 2.2% of income," conclude the researchers.

Source: National Bureau of Economic Research, Small Cues Change Savings Choices, NBER Working Paper #17843 ($5)

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