The Boulevard to Financial Independence

Of all the different kinds of gifts, the one that Boulevard R aspires to give to everyone who uses our application is the gift of financial knowledge.

We live in a society where most Americans have received very little in the way of education on personal finances. Research by Annamaria Lusardi and Olivia S. Mitchell (Financial Literacy and Planning: Implications for Retirement Wellbeing. University of Michigan Retirement Research Center, 2005) discovered the following about American’s financial literacy:

1. One out of three Americans could not answer this question correctly: Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2% per year. After 5 years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow: more than $102, exactly $102, less than $102?
2. One out of two could not answer this question correctly: “Buying a single company stock usually provides a safer return than a stock mutual fund.”

Regardless of one’s financial literacy, the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute found that just doing a retirement needs calculation is enough to motivate more than half of those who do one to start saving more. Realizing that there is a considerable anxiety among consumers when it comes to retirement and that many people (particularly parents) are concerned about how those who are close to them are saving for retirement, we created a new feature to help give the gift of financial education.

http://www.boulevardr.com/br/gift/landing.jsf

Boulevard R wants to help facilitate a discussion around one of the most sensitive issues there is: saving for retirement. To help get retirement planing on the radar for those close to you, we help you kickstart someone else’s plan (just fill in basic information like age, gender, marital status and profession) and then offer a gift (optional) if they complete a retirement calculation. You can give money towards an IRA, iTunes songs or create your own gift.

In the long run, a little reward now can pay huge dividends later for those close to you if they start to save a bit more for a secure retirement. And it also makes us feel like we’re doing our job.

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