What Are the Most Important Financial Goals to Save For?
We took a consumer poll to better understand what financial goals people believe are important. The results spark some questions.
By Alan Norton
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Published: March 31, 2011
Recently, Betterment’s researchers offered a random sampling poll of consumers to better understand what financial goals people believe are important. We received 3,059 responses to the following question:
- A comfortable retirement
- A new home
- An emergency (rainy day fund)
- A perfect wedding
- A college fund for my child
- A major purchase not listed here
Take a quick look at the results.
Out of 6 possible options, the only goal that received less than 10% of responses was saving for the perfect wedding.
The survey has a clear message: it tells us that, while traditionally the investment industry has been heavily geared towards helping people save for retirement, people clearly have many goals along the way before reaching retirement.
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