Unfortunately, many years of concentrated attention on this issue by policymakers and economists have failed to uncover a silver bullet for increasing household saving. One promising area that deserves more attention is financial education. The Federal Reserve has actively supported such efforts, which may be useful in helping people understand the importance of saving and to learn about alternative saving vehicles.
Psychologists have also studied how the framing of alternatives affects people’s saving decisions. For example, studies suggest that employees are much more likely to participate in 401(k) retirement plans at work if they are enrolled automatically - with a choice to opt out - rather than being required to actively choose to join.