Raising the Savings Rate

“The Potential effects of Retirement Proposals on Private and National Saving: Exploratory Calculations,” a paper released by The Retirement Security Project estimates that savings incentives for middle- and low-income workers, such as automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans, automatic IRAs, expanding and improving the Saver’s Credit, and allowing taxpayers to split direct deposit of tax refunds into several accounts, could increase net national savings by $78 billion per year–which would be 6% of GDP. According to the paper, the national savings rate currently stands at about 2.5% of GDP. Statistics show also that 75% of workers prefer to have someone else manage their money, which means they’re in favor of these auto enrollments.