As reported in a recent Financial
Planning article, executives of Bank of America's Merrill Edge program have
altered the face of retirement planning, literally. A new online tool, Face Retirement, ages a
consumer's photo so investors can see what they'll look like several years down
the road.
The new tool is supposed to motivate Americans to save more for their retirement and to engage in conversations about their financial future. The tool was prompted, in part, by a Stanford University experiment finding that those who exposed "themselves" to their "older selves" were more likely to begin thinking about retirement and planning for it than those who were not exposed to the images.
The
tool performs other functions as well. It can show a potential investor what prices
will look like with inflation in the future. And most importantly, the tool can
predict the amount of savings a person will need at the age of retirement.
References: Financial Planning (December 6, 2012) "New Tool Helps Investors Face Retirement, Literally"
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