Are you saving enough for retirement?

Many financial experts say you’ll need around 80% of your preretirement income during each year of your retirement. Based on today’s average life expectancy, you may need retirement income for 25 years or more. Even with Social Security and other benefits, the majority of your retirement income likely will come from your own savings and investments. Because of that, it’s critical that you do as much as you can now to save for your future.

One of the smartest ways to save for the future is to contribute to your retirement savings plan. All active Asante employees are eligible to make contributions to the retirement plan. Asante’s retirement plan offers three key advantages:

• Automatic savings. Your contributions are deducted directly from your paycheck.
• Pre-tax contributions. If you choose, your contributions can be deducted from your pay before your taxes, which reduces your current taxable income.
• Tax-deferred growth. The money in your account grows tax-free until you withdraw it. This means that you don’t have to pay taxes each year on the contributions or the earnings, and so there’s more money in your account to continue compounding.

One of the most important features of Asante’s retirement savings plan is the fact that Asante makes contributions as well. This is available when an active employee has one year of service and 1,000 hours of service in a 12-month period. Employees who meet this requirement are eligible for Asante’s contributions, and they keep that eligibility as long as they remain employed. Once an employee is eligible, Asante makes contributions in two ways:

• Basic contribution. Asante will contribute 3% of eligible wages, regardless of what the employee contributes.
• Matching contribution. Asante will match 50% of the employee’s contribution, up to an additional 3% of the employee’s salary. For example, if the employee is contributing 6%, Asante will match 3%.

Make sure you’re contributing at least enough to receive the maximum matching contribution.

Financial experts also recommend saving 10% to 15% of your salary for retirement. You can begin by contributing enough to receive Asante’s matching contribution, and then gradually raise your contribution amount to 10% or higher. It is easy to designate an automatic increase in your contributions — just let Fidelity, the company that administers Asante’s retirement plan, know you want to sign up for auto-increase.

Enroll in the Asante retirement plan or increase the contributions that you are already making. Just go to netbenefits.com or call Fidelity at (800) 343-0860.

If you have any questions, email Asante Benefits or call (541) 789-4551. You can also submit a case in the Ask HR section of myHR.