You'll Never Retire!

Ahh, retirement. Louning on the beach...Shirley Temple in hand.

Abandon those dreams. The only way you're going to spend a luxurious retirement during your golden years with sand between your toes is if you work as a lifeguard (mind your dentures when giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation).

At least that's what a 2002 Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS) seems to indicate. According to the RCS -- which was released by the Employee Benefits Research Center, the American Savings Education Council, and Matthew Greenwald & Associates -- 70 percent of Americans are very or somewhat confident that they'll live a comfortable retirement. Yet only a third of those surveyed have ever attempted to calculate how much they should be saving. Additionally, 47 percent of working Americans have saved less than $50,000, and 15 percent haven't saved anything.

Though $50,000 may sound like a lot, especially if you found it in the birthday card your grandmother sent you, it won't last long in retirement. That's because personal savings will have to provide the bulk of your retirement income. We all know we can't rely solely on Social Security; as it is now, the average benefit is around $10,000 a year. And that will most likely be reduced as the baby boomers retire. As for the traditional pension (more properly known as a defined-benefit plan), it's going the way of the dodo as employers shift the burden and risk of retirement savings onto their employees.

So, if you want a comfortable retirement, you'll have to rely on the yolk from your nest egg. How do you make sure it's big enough for an RV with a Jacuzzi, or whatever dreams you have for retirement? Follow these steps:

1. Use our retirement calculators to find out what your expenses will be and if you are saving enough.

2. Make sure you're contributing to the right accounts by using the calculator. If your employer matches contributions, put your money there first. If your employer doesn't provide a match -- or you're already contributing enough to get full benefit of the match -- then open an IRA.

3. Consider taking an online seminar like The Motley Fool's The Motley Fool to walk through turning your dreams into reality.

4. Take life-guarding lessons, just in case.

Robert Brokamp is from The Motley Fool and the above information was taken from The Motley Fool's "Rule Your Retirement Online Seminar," which walks you through these tasks step-by-step and provides further information about asset allocation as you near and enter retirement, leaving something for the kids and creating a contingency plan to weather any storm.