498 - Poor

I expected that, since I'm unemployed (but I counted my fiancee's income), save nothing (due to paying off debt), and have about $40,000 in student loans to pay off.

Seems a little balanced to people who can't save much...such as the lowest option for what % of pay you spend -- 80%! That seems high, but I scored Excellent and am ready to quit the rat race now.

506. I guess that's considered poor. I was expecting a negative number seeing as how I have no viable income, don't save any money and never see myself being able to retire.

678 - Good. I spend about 90% of my take-home and save the rest, plus contribute 15% pre-tax. The tips at the end were no good though. It tells me to pay down debt, but that had nothing to do with the test. I contribute 15% to retirement pretax, but it tells me to start saving more and reach at least 10%. I don't have a child, but it tells me to start saving for his education. A couple other generic things. Meh.

Let's remember to take with a grain of salt an "Are you saving enough for retirement" quiz sponsored by a company that has everything to gain by giving you the answer "no".

This calculator seems to be more geared toward older folks that are a lot closer to retirement. (people who have built strong home equity, and still save a good bit, while being 5-20 years from retirement...)

I'm gonna doubt that this applies to many Consumerist readers...

No check box for the self-employed I see. And apparently, there's not other way to save for retirement other than a 401k.

Agree w/ VX001 - the advice is lame. I am debt free, max out my Roth IRA every year, and save ~15% besides. I was told to pay off my debts and start saving for retirement. Duh, not doing a great job of driving my business to AG Edwards, guys!

@ceejeemcbeegee: Well at least self-employed persons can contribute up to 20% of their businesses net profits, and that 20% is not subject to FICA (SE Tax).

So, let's say you make $100k net profits, your could contribute up to $20k to your self employed 401k + $15.5k (max 401k salary deferral) + $4k (roth IRA).

Anyway, I'm a self employed software developer and have things setup similar to this way. I recommend talking to your accountant for more information.

The good thing about a self-employed 401k (keogh) is that you can contribute to it through the april of the following year for profit-sharing contributions.

this is a commonly used tool in the financial services industry... client education. the point is to create a tool (or white paper for the non-interactive variety) which targets a certain demographic who 1) appreciates learning about saving money (read as penny pincher; lots of investable assets) and 2) feel like they need more advice (read how the answers are "not good enough"). if you notice the link on how to directly find an adviser is right next to the "score".

692 Woo hoo! And I have Clark Howard to thank for all of it. Five years ago I would've had a negative number if there was such a thing. I had no money, no credit -except bad, and no assets. Now I have $0 credit card debt, a great credit score, a healthy retirement account, and own my own home.

All you slackers out there, let this be your wakeup call. The people who really have money aren't the ones you see zooming around in the new Lexus. They had money.Overwhelmingly the ones coasting along in the old Plymouth wagon have real financial security.

Kinda shocked I got a 668 since I've been laid off for almost the past three months and "planning for retirement" is on the far back burner.

It DOES make me feel I've been taking the right steps though.

642 - Fair. Been out of school and in the real world for a year, $22k in student loans and I end up with about $200-300 left over at the end of the month on average. I put 10% of my salary into a 401k, which is matched by my company. Since I've been eligible for my 401k at work (less than a year) I've built up about $10.5k in it - showing about 10% growth on the value of my investments in that over the year.

686 - rockin!