I have been watching a lot of television lately.  Yeah, it is counter-productive and turns me into a vegetable, but it helps me relieve stress.  I noticed that ING is advertising a site called ING Your Number like crazy. So, being the consumer that I am, I clicked on over.  A lady shows up on the site explaining that your number is the amount of money you will need to have saved to retire the way you want.

I continue on and a man shows up asking my age.  I type in 25. They tell me it is never too early to start. They ask if I am married or single, I check the single box.  They then ask for my gross annual household income, which isn’t as high as I want it to be. I then tell ING that I want to retire at the age of 55.  That would be 34 years at my job, which provides a pension by the way, and I want to retire while I can still do the things I really enjoy doing.  They then ask for my desired annual income during retirement.

They recommend 75-85% of your income.  However, since I will have a pension (it is sturdy, they won’t get rid of it), I type in 60% of my income. I then say I need money through the age of 80 (really just a guess).  Hey, now they tell me my number!

ING then spends some time saying you should have a financial professional handle your money and recommend looking around the website to see what they offer.

ING Your Number is a solid advertising campaign designed primarily to get you to the website and use the ING family of products.  I really like the simplicity of the site though.  It was easy to use and the ING orange color was easy on the eyes.  However, it did not take inflation into account.  My number also seems very low, unless it is in today’s dollars.  But they did not say that it is.  Basically, the site is a good starting off point to know about how much money you will need to retire.  Just keep in mind that they are trying to get you to sign up for services.

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