Brushing your teeth and your retirement plan.

I had a fun time participating in a client's nearly two-week long open enrollment meetings. One of the benefits I enjoyed learning about was the dental plan benefit. Your teeth brushing habits are tracked and rewards by combination of a smart toothbrush, your phone, and the dental plan's app. The point rewards can be redeemed for nifty products, gift cards, and discounts.

Gamification is not new but what I particularly liked was the app's daily reminder to brush for at least two minutes twice a day. In addition, the prizes were meaningful as opposed to just dental stuff or swag with the company's logo on it. The reasoning behind this is not hard to see. Good dental habits will save the dental insurance company a good deal of money in the long run while promoting employee dental health.

I couldn't help but ponder how gamification could work in the 401k space. Folks seem to forget about saving for retirement as it is not an immediate need. You cannot realistically forget to brush your teeth/ take care of your mouth though. Co-workers may comment on your breath and the general yuck feeling of an unbrushed mouth is not fun.

From a cost point of view, what would more successful retirements look like? Perhaps less dependency on or need for government assistance programs? But that is the cost side of things. What would the fun side look like?

The fun side of a successful retirement would be getting to do what you want! Travel, see the grandkids, and cooking classes are a few ideas my employees have told me during group and one on one meetings. And while many have said they will likely never truly retire (sitting on the couch and watching TV is not as exciting as some may think), having saved enough would let some folks retire from their day job earlier than they might otherwise have.

Still, how to make gamification work? One large 401k provider tried to remind folks to save by texted them their balance every day. All this did was overwhelm their call center with calls from freaked out employees wondering if now was a good time to buy or sell. But there is truth in the idea that the average employee spends more time planning vacation each year than planning retirement. This is likely because retirement is so far off until suddenly it isn't.

And yes, there are industry regulations that would need to change. The $100 gifting rule has been around as long as I have been in the industry (34 years and counting) and as such, the swag and gifts that are given tend to be "ho-hum".

Finally, all this talk about saving needs to be paired with a living wage discussion and that is not one that this country has shown much appetite for. Still, it is fun to think about a what-if scenario and envision an America where people do retire with dignity.

It is late here in California. Time for me to go brush my teeth for two minutes with proper quality.