How much more cash will I have to put away?
To build a $500,000 cache in 20 years, here's how much you'd need to put away each month:

At 10 percent return: $690
At 8 percent return: $875
At 6 percent return: $1,100

Having more time, though, really cuts those numbers.  If you have 30 years:

At 10 percent return: $240
At 8 percent return: $355
At 6 percent return: $510

INTERACTIVE State by state See where the seniors are across the country and in each state

How long do I need my money to last?
Thirty years or more.  For better or worse, that's how much time you could spend in retirement — almost as much as you spent in the workforce.  The problem most of us have is that we underestimate how long we'll live.  That's because the concept of life expectancy is a little tricky.  A 65-year-old man in decent health has a life expectancy of another 20 years.  That doesn't mean the same thing as having 20 years to live.  What that means is that 20 years from now, half of those 65-year-olds will likely still be alive — some for many more years.   That means it's prudent to plan to live to 95 if not longer.

Can you count on Social Security to kick in something?
Yes.  There's no one reading the newspaper who doesn't know that Social Security has problems, the biggest being that we'll have fewer workers supporting each retiree as the baby boomers leave the workforce.  But the notion that the system is in such bad shape that future retirees will receive little or nothing is totally overblown.  Even if the trust fund runs dry — as it's predicted to do in 2042 — there would be enough money coming in from payroll benefits to fund 73 percent of current scheduled benefits.  As a practical matter, if you're within a couple of decades of leaving your job it's safe to assume you'll get your currently scheduled benefits (you can find them at the calculator at ssa.gov) and that if you're further off you'll get less, but not nothing.

Stay tuned to Today, NBC Nightly News, MSNBC and CNBC all this week for more on “Retirement: Start thinking now.”

Jean Chatzky is the financial editor for “Today,” editor-at-large at Money magazine and the author of “Talking Money: Everything You Need to Know About Your Finances and Your Future.” Her latest book, "Pay It Down: From Debt to Wealth on $10 a Day," is now in bookstores. Copyright ©2005. For more information, go to her Web site, www.JeanChatzky.com.

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