Reasons to Add Retirement Planning to Your To-Do List

Is planning for retirement on your list of New Year's resolutions. If not, perhaps it should be, according to Financial Planningmagazine.

Survey after survey finds Americans, especially baby boomers, concerned about, or resigned to the fact they will either have to delay their retirement or keep working in their senior years.

Among the red flags that Financial Planning raises:

·Eight-eight percent of Americans are worried about "maintaining a comfortable standard of living in retirement," according to a survey by Americans for Secure Retirement. This is up from 73 percent in 2010.

·Nearly half (46 percent) of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement and 28 percent have less than $1,000 saved, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

· Over the next two decades, more than 10,000 boomers will be retiring daily, while the number of senior citizens is expected to more than double by 2050. And with Americans living longer, that's a lot of demand for services, systems, and resources.

Jobs, too. Seventy-four American workers expect to have to work even though they are "retired."

·The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College figures that American workers are $6.6 trillion short of what they need to live comfortably in retirement. Attitude surveys find Millennials, with more time ahead of them, the most optimistic about their financial futures, but how will the rest make up the shortfall?

·One out of every six elderly Americans is living below the federal poverty line, according to the Census Bureau.

·Between 1991 and 2007, the number of seniors ages 65 and 74 that filed for bankruptcy increased 178 percent.

·Less than a quarter (23 percent) of American workers plan to retire before they reach 65. Two decades ago, half of Americans planned to stop working before reaching retirement age. A recent American Association of Retired Persons survey found that 40 percent of boomers plan to work "until they drop."

Even the more affluent investors are worried about running out of money in retirement, according to a survey conducted this past spring by Millionaire Corner. Forty-six percent of households with $1 million to $5 million are concerned they do not have enough money set aside for their retirement years.

They are saving accordingly. Nearly all Millionaires have IRA accounts, according to a fourth financial quarter study by Millionaire Corner. The average value of these accounts is $548,000, up 10 percent from 2010. Ownership of employer sponsored retirement plans is up seven percent over last year.