WASHINGTON — Whether retirement is rapidly approaching or an unimaginable distance down the career path, higher education professionals should act quickly and aggressively to understand and plan for their post-career financial needs.
What message reverberated throughout a recent teleconference sponsored by the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) and broadcast to more than 400 sites nationwide via the Community College Satellite Network. Experts representing private financial services firms and public and non-profit organizations joined TIAA-CREF’s President and Chief Operating Officer Thomas W. Jones and Assistant Secretary of the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration for the U.S. Department of Labor Olena Berg in offering basic savings principles and strategies to more than 21,000 viewers.
“Many people feel they don’t have adequate income to contribute to a retirement plan,” Jones said. “They don’t understand how little they need to put aside. The potential is quite dramatic if one can save with discipline and start early.”
Since most retirement goals cannot be achieved through Social Security benefits alone, planning for retirement requires that individuals contribute to employer-sponsored savings plans or individual retirement accounts, according to Dallas L. Salisbury, president and CEO of the Employee Benefit Research Institute and chair of the American Savings Education Council (ASEC).
