Across My Desk: Baby Boomers & Retirement

Sticking with this month's earlier topic of debt, many baby boomers haven't saved much for retirement.

Here's what some in a recent Plan Sponsor report see coming because savings coffers are low:

"- David Foot, a professor of economics at the University of Toronto says that only a third of Boomers have saved enough to retire comfortably; another one-third will work longer; and the rest will see a substantial drop in their standard of living.

- Dallas Salisbury, Washington-based president and CEO of the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). "[If you compare it to the norm,] you have to say that we have always had a retirement crisis," he says. "The vast majority of retirees have had very low income, and the vast majority have had no health insurance beyond Medicare."

- The idea that all American workers should retire in their 60s with full financial security may be unrealistic.

- Many Boomers also will enter their golden years with larger credit card and mortgage debt than those who went before.

Bottom line: Unless you're a high-income earner, or likely to have a whopping inheritance coming your way, let your kids and grandchildren pay for their own college educations and weddings and save like a bandit for those long retiring years you'll be facing sooner than you think."

I couldn't have put it better myself.