The Need To Save More: Your Retirement Fund

BOSTON (CBS) - Recently I was speaking about retirement planning to a group and during the Q&A period saving for retirement came up. When should you start? How much should you save?

I asked them by a show of hands how many had started saving for retirement. I was very disappointed when only about half my audience raised their hands, which turned out to be above the norm.

A Bankrate.com survey on retirement savings found that 36% of those surveyed had not begun to save for retirement. A Federal Reserve survey came up with a similar number of 31%.

The key years for saving for retirement are between the ages of 20 and 35. Because even small amounts saved have 30 to 40 years to grow into a hefty nest egg.

My audience gave me the usual excuses about not saving. Retirement for some was 20 or 30 years away and they had lots of time. Some folks were still paying off school loans and credit card debt! A few of the single folks planned to marry up and leave the savings part to their new spouse.

Some older folks thought they would inherit money from their parents. And some thought that Social Security would provide enough for them.

There were some there that told me they could not afford to save. If they wanted to balance their budget, there was no extra money to go into savings each month.

Yet these same folks told me they had high speed internet service at home for their tablets and computers, smart phones for all members of the family over 12, cable TV with all of the sports channels and HBO and many were leasing a new car every three years.

I then asked more about their spending habits. They needed all of these things now they told me to have a good life and some were not willing to give up anything to save for their future when I suggested it.

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You can hear Dee Lee's expert financial advice on WBZ NewsRadio 1030 each weekday at 1:55 p.m., 3:55 p.m., and 7:55 p.m.

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