What's in a retirement number?

ING in the US has launched a campaign to help simplify the process of retirement planning for Americans by encouraging them to identify and calculate the total amount of money they need to have saved by the time they retire. This retirement dollar amount ‘number’ is unique to each individual or couple, and depends upon their individual retirement goals.

The ING Retirement Number Study was undertaken in conjunction with ING’s new ‘Your Number’ marketing campaign. The study, conducted with Ipsos Public Affairs in January 2008, polled more than 1,000 U.S. adults to learn what numbers are most important in their life. Participants also responded to a series of questions to see how - if at all - they consider their retirement number.

Results from the study show that most people don’t consider their retirement number to be “important”.

Why this apparent lack of interest? Americans today are shouldering a greater part of the retirement planning burden than ever before. The average investor often doesn’t know how much they should be saving, or even how to go about achieving this number. The effect can be overwhelming, and lead many people to take little or no action at all.

ING’s ‘Your Number’ campaign is intended to make the process less intimidating. We believe one of the easiest ways to do this is to start by knowing your retirement number and see this as a first step to reducing the complexities of retirement planning.

Print, web and TV ads show different people busy with their daily routines, such as shopping or waiting for an elevator at the office, and carrying a large orange six- or seven-figure number in dollars. US viewers or readers are directed to www.INGyournumber.com where they can calculate their “number” via an interactive, user-friendly tool.