现在开始存养老钱晚不晚?

Is it too late to save your retirement?

For many, the answer is surely yes. News out this week shows that 29% of those who have already retired have saved nothing at all to support themselves, while only a third have saved at least $50,000.

To put this in context: A retirement account of $50,000 will provide a 65-year-old man with an annuity of just $4,000 a year.

Yet according to the latest annual retirement survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a noNPRofit think tank in Washington, two-thirds of those in retirement don't even have that much set aside.

It's true that many will still be okay. That's because they will have a good benefit pension, or a lot of equity in their home, or both. Neither is counted in the survey, and both can be very important.

But neither pensions nor home values are what they once were. And many won't even have them.

Overall, this is a pitiful state of affairs at the tail end of the biggest financial boom in history. Today's retirees lived through the incredible bull market that began in 1982. Bonds as well as shares skyrocketed. Most of them should be rolling in money.

Instead they were relying on ... what? Santa Claus?

The picture is no better for those still working, either-including millions of baby boomers nearing retirement. According to EBRI, just a third of workers have saved $50,000 or more, and nearly a third haven't saved a dime. The numbers got worse, not better, in the last year. Forty percent of workers aren't saving at the moment.

But at least if you are still working, you can do something to save yourself.

If this is you, what can you do?

Delay your retirement. That works for four separate reasons. First, it gives you extra years of earnings from which to save. Second, it gives your savings extra time to grow. Even if you are only earning a couple of percentage points over inflation, that's valuable. Third, it reduces the amount of time your savings will need to last you in retirement. (The biggest danger to many retirees, financially speaking, is longevity-living to 100 on savings that were only meant to last till you were 80.) And fourth, if you also delay taking Social Security payments, it means you will collect more each year.

The good news from the EBRI survey-it's not much, but I'm clutching at straws here-is that a few more Americans get it about working longer. A third of workers expect to work after age 65, according to the latest report. As recently as 2005, it was just 24%, and in 1995 it was 14%.

Scale back your retirement costs. Simple, but effective. Fred Brock, author of 'Retire on Less Than You Think,' argues it's possible to enjoy a great retirement without spending a fortune. Among his tips: Move to where living costs are low. He has a point. Even around the big, high-cost cities, once you move outside the commuter belt, real estate prices plummet. And if you are prepared to move further afield-particularly to the middle of the country-you can save even more. The Accra Cost of Living Index (you can find a calculator here) shows how much cheaper it is to live in places like Austin, Texas, or Cincinnati than near the most expensive big cities on the coasts.

File 'Chapter Heaven.' In other words, get more retirement income from your assets by leaving nothing behind. That can mean converting your retirement assets into an immediate annuity that generates a monthly income until you die, a strategy that leaves nothing for your survivors. (There are also options that can leave something, but they will pay you less each month.) It may also mean considering a reverse mortgage, which turns the equity in your home into a type of annuity, or running down your assets till you turn 85 and buying longevity insurance to take care of you if you last longer than that.

These options, naturally, all come with issues you should understand before taking a commitment. Reverse mortgages typically have pretty high fees. Immediate annuities will sacrifice liquidity. But they are ways of trying to sweat more retirement out of less money.

Save, save, save. The only way to save more is to spend less. Obvious, yes? You'd be amazed at the number of Americans who still just don't get it. I see this every time I urge people to spend less in order to save more, and I am greeted by howls of horror from those still living in la-la land. (It brings out the Calvinist in me-and I'm Episcopalian.) The good news is that it's never too late to save and get compound interest working for you. If you are 50, each dollar you save now could easily grow to about $3 (in today's purchasing power) by the time you are 80. And every $1 you cut from your monthly bills could easily give you an extra $700.

The tax code will help you. Those over 50 get extra 'catch up' allowances from Uncle Sam. You can contribute $22,000 a year to your 401(k), not just $16,500, and $6,000 to your Individual Retirement Account instead of $5,000. And regardless of your age, you can save even more, tax-deferred, through vehicles such as a SEP-IRA if you have self-employed or freelance income on the side.