Colorado's SecureSavings program continues to meet urgent need for retirement savings: "The earlier you can start, the better"

Colorado's SecureSavings Program has been fully implemented for nearly a year now. It's designed to help those who don't otherwise have retirement savings.

Here in Colorado, more than 40% of our private-sector workforce does not have access to a retirement savings plan at work — nearly 940,000 workers. SecureSavings was created to meet this urgent need. 

"It's an auto opt-out IRA program, so employees are automatically enrolled. 23,000 employers who already have a retirement savings program are excluded," State Treasurer Dave Young told CBS News Colorado's anchor Mekialaya White.

Currently, Young says more than 13,000 employers have enrolled in SecureSavings since its launch in January of 2023, which equates to 125,000 people. 

"There's just slightly over 100,000 people in Greeley, the town that I live in. So, that's like having an entire town. I think people can put that into perspective and say, wow – that's a really big achievement. A lot of times, businesses may offer retirement savings, but they don't have a way to pull that off. It's too expensive, involves a lot of lawyers. But... the Colorado secure savings board takes on that duty," he said. 

That's where SecureSavings comes in to assist Coloradans. 

"They're putting their money into what's called a Roth IRA – that's post-taxes. You don't have to worry about penalties. And we hope they leave it in there all the way to retirement. It's going to grow amazingly and continue to accumulate into their account if they leave it in there. If we're talking simple interest, let's say you put $100 in and you're making 5% simple interest then you'll earn $5… but this program offers compound interest," said Young.

He added, "so, you also get interest on the $5 that you have in there. It may not seem like a lot but it's going to balloon into an amazing amount. And it's portable. It's not tied to the business."

Businesses with five or more employees and non-seasonal employees are all eligible.

Others can opt in online for the Roth IRA account. 

Young says this is actually targeted toward younger workers. 

"The earlier you can start saving and the more consistently you can start saving the better the outcomes are going to be for you. Retirement seems so far away but when you get to five years out it's really hard to make an impact on that because so many years have gone by where you weren't saving," he said.