Principal Issues Retirement Planning Challenge

To help people make progress toward having enough retirement savings, Principal has launched the Move to the Green Challenge.   

As part of the challenge, individuals can walk through a Retirement Wellness Planner. It uses interactive sliders, intuitive prompts and a real-time savings graph to show how making simple changes now may help financial security at retirement.

The planner gives users a personalized score—within a range of green, yellow or red—to let them know if they’re on track. Green means a saver is set to replace the recommended 70% to 85% of their income in retirement.

Principal says a similar initiative last year brought positive results. Of those who participated, nearly one-third raised their retirement plan deferral amount to 10% of pay, an increase of 3.75 percentage points. In addition, there’s been a 30% increase in the number of retirement plan participants increasing their deferrals since the launch of the Retirement Wellness Planner.

“It’s clear that a more personalized, interactive online experience helps savers see where they can make better choices and they’re following through,” Jerry Patterson, senior vice president of retirement and income solutions at Principal, says. “We know that saving more and saving earlier is the best thing you can do to prepare for retirement.”

Those who take part in the Move to the Green Challenge are eligible to win a pair of Plantronics BackBeat FIT wireless stereo headphones. They do not have to have a retirement account with Principal in order to participate.