How much should you be saving? goto
http://finance.yahoo.com/calculator/retirement/ret02
Link is a simple retirement calculator. Calculator tells you how much you will need to save every year for retirement. 10 inputs takes 2 minutes.
semi educated assumptions or guesses:
inflation 3%
gov Cd's plan on 4% (current rates lower, not sure this is a good historic number)
stocks pay 10% (historic average going back 1900's)
spent 100% of your current income.
Very eye opening. Biggest effect on savings rate required is rate of return (compound interest is a magical magmatic beast) I found it very hard to retire at a reasonable age using Cd's rate of return (5%) but it is certainly possible to do. Second biggest effect is age of retirement.
At 1% savings rate the Average American is going to be working long past 60.
Love,
the Maven