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“It really scared me and got me thinking about retirement,” says Lindsay Feinberg, a 32-year-old finance worker who lives in Chelsea.
What could be so dramatic that it would lead a young person more than half a lifetime away from traditional retirement age (and living amid all the diversions of the world’s most exciting city) to mull her golden years’ security?
Feinberg was talking about her experience with a new Bank of America/Merrill Edge app aimed at young people, called Face Retirement, which shows how the user will look many years from now. Like some update of Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” the app ages for you.
The idea is to get people thinking about — and saving for — their retirement before it’s too late. And it seems to be working.
“People who saw age-enhanced images of themselves were more likely to save more for retirement, compared to those who weren’t exposed to their future selves,” says Alok Prasad, head of Merrill Edge.
It certainly made an impression on Feinberg. “The sight of me in old age with wrinkles is something [I] just can’t forget,” she said.
The need is there. A 2012 Merrill survey found that about half of pre-retirees have saved less than $250,000 and now will be unable to retire as originally planned.
And young people, advisers say, typically put off saving for retirement. That’s even though the earlier one starts saving, the easier it is to accumulate large amounts because of compounding.
Feinberg, however, now says she has made the commitment to save more each month.
“We’re explaining the basic things that you should be doing to save for retirement,” Prasad says. These include understanding and controlling spending, a feature of the app that Feinberg likes. “I can link with my checking and savings account and see how much I’m spending each week,” she says.
Prasad says some 500,000 people have used Face Retirement since it was introduced late last year.
However, Anthony Ogorek, an adviser in Williamsville, NY, says the app doesn’t address the young generation’s biggest problem: “Many in their 20s and 30s have tremendous debt loads and need help getting out from under them.”
Still, Face Retirement seems to have succeeded in turning Feinberg into the retiring type.