Company supplied pension plans are a thing of the past, and Social Security will not be able to supply enough for retirement assuming it even survives the next several decades. Increasingly, individuals need to realize that saving for retirement falls squarely on their shoulders. When combined with an increasing lifespan, there may be almost as many years spent in retirement as working so adequate savings become even more important.

Start Early

Younger generations of workers need to realize these facts and start saving for retirement from the first day in the work force. Compounding interest over forty and fifty years will be necessary to assure adequate funding of retirement. Getting in the habit of investing for the long term will be a valuable habit to have.

Save Enough

Young workers should start out saving at least 10 percent of income for retirement. Ideally, 15% would be a better target, but that may be difficult at a time when students carry a lot of debt from education. There are plenty of retirement savings calculators on the internet that can be used from time to time to evaluate progress and refine savings targets during a career.

Make Saving Automatic

One of the best ways to invest is to make those investments automatically. Have the money directly deposited into an investment account before getting an opportunity to spend it. Humans have an amazing ability to adapt, and people will adjust to the decreased level of discretionary income. This will allow those all important retirement savings to grow and compound over the course of a career and provide the necessary retirement income in the later years.

It is important for all workers to realize that the burden of providing for one's retirement is shifting from companies and governments to individuals. There will be some difficulty during this transition but if younger workers start saving early, save a reasonable portion of their wages, and make those savings automatic the process will be easier.