Voya Retire 4+

Pro’s:
Easy set up
Biometric login
Intuitive User Interface
Allows for input to give retirement health overview
Simple display
Reminder of goals
Accurate rate of return calculation

Con’s:
Inaccurate plan contribution limit- allow users to adjust
Does not display split of contributions and deposits
Display of rate of return is hard to understand

Overall an excellent app. Easy to use, interface uses standard menus & icons for apps. It is not a replacement for a professional retirement planner or professional level planning seminar, but is a nice tool for you to input other pension and savings figures to provide a snapshot of where you are in relation to your retirement goals. It updates each day the market is open between 10 PM and 11 PM eastern time.

So many people don’t understand risk, and the projected rate of return for the planning section is really nice, it gives a simple display of risk that changes as you slide from a low return to a higher return. Of course I want 8% a year, but it gives an easy to understand display of the risk.

I am mildly frustrated with the incorrect contribution limit in the planning or set up section. It only allows for a 15% maximum which it states is “your plan maximum contribution limit.” This is about 10 years out of date or more. It would be a simple change to allow the user to enter contributions. I am using the catchup provisions and contributing $26,000. It would be nice to include that.

The app is fine and that’s the only things going for it. Voya as an investment company is awful. Here’s why, per a rep If I took a loan on my 457 (max being 50k) I have to setup a repayment plan. That’s fine, however I can’t pay back anything else unless I do a full payment, with a cashiers check. So if I had like 500$ I could use to pay my loan, nope, sorry we’re still making money off the interest.
So let’s talk about investment options. Do you get a wide variety of choices? Kinda, if you’re happy with them playing around with your money, taking a cut off the top and giving you a few dollars for your troubles. Can you invest in some individual stocks? Nope. Make your own portfolio? Nope. How about a self directed account? Sure they offer that but there’s a catch. You can only do a percentage of YOUR money to open a TD ameritrade account. Sure you can do whatever in it but you can’t take money out of it and you have to liquidate it so the money goes back to voya and you can use it for retirement.
There exists right now a wide range of other brokerages and their apps that are light years better than Voya. Go educate yourself about your money and investing. It’s a new age and Voya is in the past. Canceling my business with them as soon as I can.

Whatever changes you guys made on this app in the last day or so really made the performance just dive right off a cliff. It’s slow, buggy, and the app really isn’t an app anymore, it’s links to the web site. If I wanted to use the web version I would just log into it using the web and save myself the aggravation of waiting for several web sites to load. Keep trying guys. I appreciate the update, because it shows your working on it, but I think I’ll avoid the new app for awhile and hope it gets better. Thanks