Seniors depend on checks
        While 20 percent of seniors are relatively affluent, reports from the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities say most others are dependent on Social Security. The myth of the "greedy geezers," says the Center, is just that, a myth.
        In 1997, the average Social Security retirement benefit was $765 a month. Yet according to the Center's analysis, the program provided at least half of total income for more than 55 percent of seniors and at least 75 percent of the total income of more than a third.
        Based on Census Bureau data, the program lifted nearly half of the 65-and-older population out of poverty, cutting the elderly's poverty rate from 47.6 percent to 11.9.

Much wealth, little restraint
        Consumer spending is powering upward, fueled by job security, income growth and capital gains. The U.S. Federal Reserve estimates that households spend 3 to 5 percent of every dollar of new wealth. Those gains over the past two years have added significantly to consumer spending.
        During the past year, consumer buying grew 5.5 percent, the strongest yearly pace in 15 years. In the second quarter of 1999, retail stores posted sales gains of more than 7 percent over the previous year.
        At the same time, the savings rate is on the negative side for the first time since the Great Depression.

Remember these retirement costs
        For people in their middle years, retirement may seem to be half a lifetime away. But those years go by quickly.
        A survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) shows that only half of workers have bothered to analyze their retirement needs. People are saving, but they are saving blindly, according to EBRI. Even those who do work out a retirement budget tend to be overly optimistic.
        Don Bladin, president of the American Savings Education Council, says 88 percent of those who have worked out a realistic retirement budget are setting money aside. Only 61 percent of those who haven't done the math are saving enough.
        People in their 50s have to replace rough estimates with detailed figures.
The figures should account for inflation, taxes, and other savings drains. Those could include the cost of health insurance to cover early retirees before Medicare and age 65. Even after that, will you have expensive drugs which are not covered by Medicare? If you become disabled, what costs would not be covered by a long-term care policy (if you even have one)? Will your savings last to age 85+?
        If you have projected retirement expenses at 70 to 80 percent of current income, that figure might not be enough. Advisors writing in Fortune say you should plan to spend  the same amount you spend now, especially in the first ten years of retirement. That is when you will want to travel.