For many American workers, the road to retirement may be paved with good intentions -- but not enough savings.

		Graphic: Retirement preparation

While the share of workers who say they have money set aside for retirement ticked up slightly this year to 69 percent, most have saved very little, the Employee Benefits Research Institute reported yesterday.

The nonprofit research institute's annual gathering of data on pensions and other worker benefits noted that while the number of workers with retirement savings rose from 68 percent last year, more than half -- 52 percent -- of workers surveyed estimated their total savings and investments, excluding the value of their homes, at less than $25,000. Another 13 percent said the total was between $25,000 and $49,000.

Curiously, a majority of workers -- 65 percent -- who responded to the 15th annual survey said they were very or somewhat confident that they would have enough money to live comfortably in retirement.

"Many workers do not appear to have stepped up to the challenge of ensuring their own financial security in retirement," said Matthew Greenwald, whose consulting firm, Greenwald & Associates, performed the survey for EBRI.

The findings didn't surprise Carrie Coghill, a financial planner at D.B. Root & Co., Downtown.

Particularly with baby boomers, "it's been more about upgrading the house than saving for retirement, though there are other factors," she said.

Coghill said she's also seen many baby boomers put much if not all of their savings toward college tuition for their children at the expense of retirement.

The low amounts are worrisome because today's workers will need to fund more of their own retirements from savings than current retirees. Far fewer of today's workers have traditional pensions at the same time that the Bush administration is advocating a plan for workers to direct up to a third of their Social Security payroll taxes to private accounts.

EBRI's survey showed that 55 percent of workers believed they were at least a little behind where they should be in saving for retirement, with half of those citing high expenses, including everyday bills, child-rearing and medical costs.

And despite the relatively high number who expressed confidence that their savings were adequate for retirement, only 42 percent had actually attempted to calculate their future needs. Nearly half were relying either on their own estimates or guesses.

A majority of those surveyed also said they expected to need less than 70 percent of their pre-retirement income to achieve a lifestyle that was at least adequate. That was in contrast to an EBRI survey of retired workers that found 50 percent of them spending at least 70 percent of their pre-retirement income to maintain an adequate living standard.

Coghill, at D.B. Root, said people who haven't saved enough tell her they plan "to just keep working" past normal retirement age.

But data EBRI collected from people who already are retired cast some doubt on that prescription. Among them, it found four out of 10 retired earlier than expected, usually driven by negative factors such as ill health or changes at their companies. It warned that many current workers "are likely to find themselves subject to similar health and workplace stresses when they reach retirement age."