I am so tired of seeing that commercial, the one where people are carrying around “their number”, the amount of money they have saved for retirement. All it does is make me feel depressed about my number, which is about 1/20th of what it should be. I know that chefs make good money, but how in the world did he manage to save/invest over 2 million? And that young couple with the baby, how could their number possibly be over 1 million? Where is all this money coming from? I thought I had good investments, all of them blue chip stocks with a few bonds, but apparently I am doomed to live on the street with my belongings
in a shopping cart.
This is either the worst commercial ever or I am super-sensitive when it comes to the subject of retirement…maybe both? Any one else turn the channel when this commercial comes on?
I only vaguely remember that commercial, but isn’t the ‘number’ how much you should save, not how much you have already saved.
And, as usual, the number is inflated so you will save more of your money with them.
Well, at least you don’t have to worry about deadly below-freezing winters under an overpass, but, for goodness sakes, stock up on breathable fabrics for those oh-so-balmy Palm Springs summers.
I haven’t seen that commercial, yet, but I suspect I’m going to be a bag lady as well. My plan is dumpster diving for recyclables. 
My son (a chef) and his wife (a corporate vice president) have every intention of retiring in their early fifties with millions in liquid assets. I figure, at the rate things are going, they’ll be able to afford a much nicer shopping cart than I will, and probably a bigger cardboard box to live in.
No doubt the ad is designed to make you think like that, to encourage you to save more money for retirement with ING.
Not seen the advert, but it may very well be total asset value rather than actual money/investments. If you have managed to pay off a mortgage that would get you a substantial chunk of the way towards a million.
Do these numbers spin frantically round as everyone’s net worth plummets, or are they chubby, happy, contentedly static little numbers? The former would indicate residential property being included in the calculation.